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Boulder Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Bismuth, Antimony, Tungsten
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Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Commodities
  6. Materials information
  7. Alteration
  8. Mineral occurrence model information
  9. Nearby scientific data
  10. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  11. Mining district
  12. Links to other databases
  13. Bibliographic references
  14. General comments
  15. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10308942
MRDS ID AO12892
Record type Site
Current site name Boulder Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.51058, 64.64658 (WGS84)
Relative position Boulder Creek is a west tributary to Snake River; it flows east from headwaters in the eastern Nome C-2 quadrangle. An alluvial placer gold deposit was worked downstream from the Boulder Creek lode prospect (NM165) over a distance of about a mile. The location is the approximate mid-point of the placer mine and just below the junction of Boulder and Twin Mountain Creeks (Twin Mtn Ck on the map); it is accurate to within about 500 feet. Mining claims on this part of Boulder Creek are patented. This is locality 94 of Cobb (1972, MF-463; 1978, OFR 78-93).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Nome C-2(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Nome(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Nome(hydrologic unit)

Norton Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Sitnasuak Native Corporation(ANCSA Village)

ANCSA Village NTVPIC(Type of land area)

NTVPIC(Federal land areas administered by NTVPIC)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Bismuth Critical Secondary
Antimony Critical Secondary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Bismuth Ore
Gold Ore
Hematite Ore
Ilmenite Ore
Magnetite Ore
Scheelite Ore
Stibnite Ore

Alteration

  • Marble is altered to ankerite.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 119
USGS model code 39a
Deposit model name Placer Au-PGE
Mark3 model number 54

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.51058, 64.64658
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = An alluvial placer gold deposit was worked downstream from the Boulder Creek lode prospect (NM165) over a distance of about a mile. The locality was known shortly after the discovery of the Nome district (Collier and others, 1908, p. 196), and mining claims along the creek are patented. The paystreak varied from about 100 to 300 feet in width and was from 10 to 25 feet deep. Concentrates from Boulder Creek contained native bismuth, stibnite, hematite, ilmenite and magnetite. Scheelite occurred in the concentrates below Twin Mountain Creek (Coats, 1944). The apparent head of the paystreak is the Boulder Creek lode prospect (NM165). The Boulder Creek lode is apparently developed on subsidiary structures to the Rodine fault, a major north-northeast fault of the Nome district (Bundtzen and others, 1994). Some of the placer gold in Boulder Creek is almost certainly derived from the fault and associated mineralized structures. Lower Boulder Creek flows over mica-schist and marble bedrock; some of the marble is strongly altered to ankerite.
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Boulder Creek was worked from about 1900 until as late as 1924 (Smith, 1924). It probably had a moderate amount of production. Collier and others (1908) reported that the gold was coarse but that miners in 1903 were making little more than wages. Placer mine activity was also reported in 1913 (Chapin, 1914, [B 592-L, p. 389]), 1914 (Eakin, 1915 [B 622-I, p. 370), 1916 (Mertie, 1918 [ B 662-I, p. 455]), and 1918 (Cathcart, 1920, p. 188). The miners apparently used an elevated sluice fed by a hydraulic elevator.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Collier and others, 1908

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Alluvial placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 12-MAR-00 Hawley, C.C. and Hudson, Travis L. Hawley Resource Group

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

Maps centered on this site

Authoritative Alaska resources

These are landing pages for further research — the state agencies don't currently expose per-mine deep links.