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Big Hurrah Creek

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, 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. Mineral occurrence model information
  8. Nearby scientific data
  9. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  10. Mining district
  11. Links to other databases
  12. Bibliographic references
  13. General comments
  14. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10309011
MRDS ID A012597
Record type Site
Current site name Big Hurrah Creek
Related records 10100973

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -164.25027, 64.65231 (WGS84)
Relative position Big Hurrah Creek is an east tributary to the Solomon River. The mouth of Big Hurrah Creek is 3.4 miles upstream of Lees Camp and 2.8 miles downstream from East Fork. Big Hurrah Creek has been continuously placer mined for about 4 miles upstream from the mouth. This is locality 100 of Cobb (1972, MF 445; 1978, OF 78-181).

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Nome(Census area)

Alaska(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Solomon C-5(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Solomon(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Nome(hydrologic unit)

Norton Sound(hydrologic accounting unit)

Northwest(hydrologic subregion)

Alaska(hydrologic region)

Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Tungsten Critical Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Scheelite Ore
Garnet Gangue
Ilmenite Gangue
Magnetite Gangue

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) -164.25027, 64.65231
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Gold was discovered and placer mining started on Big Hurrah Creek in 1900 (Collier and others, 1908). This was apparently the richest creek in the lower Solomon River area (Smith, 1910). Lu and others (1968) compiled records that indicate at least $120,606 worth of gold or about 6,000 ounces (at $20 per oounce) were produced from Big Hurrah Creek. Dredging took place mostly in the 1920's and open-cut (probably dozer) operations took place in the 1930's (Cobb, 1978, OF 78-181). Stream gravels near mouth were 3 to 5 feet thick and the paystreak was 100 to 500 feet wide. At the upstream limit of mining (at the mouth of Lions Creek), the gravels were 2 to 3 feet thick and the paystreak 10 to 20 feet wide. The active drainage is incised 10 to 30 feet and bench gravels above the active creek were also auriferous. Much of the gold was fine but some nuggets were recovered, including many with attached quartz reflecting proximity to gold-quartz veins in bedrock (such as the Big Hurrah mine, SO022). Garnet was abundant in heavy mineral concentrates. Coats (1944) estimated that there was about 0.87 pounds of scheelite in a 1/4-cubic-yard sample of concentrate. This indicated that the scheelite content of the stream gravels was probably less than 0.1 pound per cubic yard. The bedrock in this drainage is part of a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage that includes a distinctive black, very fine-grained, graphitic schist (Sainsbury and others, 1972; Till and others, 1986).
  • Age = Quaternary; the location and elevation (75 to 250 feet) of this area indicate that it was affected by Quaternary sea level fluctuations; more than one cycle of erosion and deposition is indicated.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active?

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Lu and others (1968) compiled records that indicate at least $120,606 worth of gold or about 6,000 ounces (at $20 per oounce) were produced from Big Hurrah Creek.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Big Hurrah Creek has been continuously placer mined for about 4 miles upstream from the mouth. Small-scale operations took place in the 1900s, dredging occurred in the 1920s, and open-cut (probably dozer) operations were carried out in the 1930s.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Cobb, 1978 (OF 78-181)

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 19-AUG-1999 Travis L. Hudson Applied Geology

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.