Warm Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Tungsten
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 10309017
MRDS ID A012632
Record type Site
Current site name Warm Creek
Related records 10001821

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -163.8443, 64.95033 (WGS84)
Relative position Warm Creek is an east tributary to Goldbottom Creek (SO058); it is about 7 miles northwest of Council. The location of placer mining along this creek is approximate, possibly within 1 mile of the coordinates. Collier and others (1908) note that the mines were in the upper part of the creek valley and that supplies were hauled overland from Ophir Creek (SO053). This is locality 117 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 D-4(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NE(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Solomon C(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
Hematite 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) -163.8443, 64.95033

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Gold mining began on Warm Creek in 1900 and by 1907 perhaps $100,000 (5,000 ounces) had been produced (Collier and others, 1908). Most of the gold was rough and iron-stained, some was almost black, and a 2.8 ounce nugget was recovered. Heavy mineral concentrate contained hematite, ilmenite, garnet, rutile, scheelite, and magnetite. After panning to remove the free gold, this concentrate assayed 22.4 ounces of gold and 4.2 ounces of silver per ton (Collier and others, 1908). Schist, marble, and some greenstone bedrock in the area is cut by quartz veins and lenses. The gold is mostly on the foot of gravel above bedrock; gravels are up to 7 feet thick. The gravels are reported to be 6 to 9 feet thick near the mouth. Bedrock in the area is part of a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (Till and others, 1986).
  • 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 Council

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Placer mining started in Warm Creek in 1900 but much of the mining was by dredging between 1911 and 1922 (Cobb, 1978, OF 78-181). The specific location of the placer workings along the creek is not known but the dredging may have taken place on the lower part of the drainage. Early mining was on claims in the upper part of the creek.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Collier, A. J., Hess, F.L., Smith, P.S., and Brooks, A.H., 1908, The gold placers of parts of Seward Peninsula, Alaska, including the Nome, Council, Kougarok, Port Clarence, and Goodhope precincts: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 328, 343 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic resources map of the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-445, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1978, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-181, 185 p.

  • Deposit

    Till, A.B., Dumoulin, J.A., Gamble, B. ., Kaufman, D.S., and Carroll, P.I., 1986, Preliminary geologic map and fossil data, Soloman, Bendeleben, and southern Kotzebue quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 86-276, 10 p., 3 plates, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Collier and others, 1908

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.

Authoritative Alaska resources

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