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Iron Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Mercury
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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 10309018
MRDS ID A012673
Record type Site
Current site name Iron Creek
Related records 10100979

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -164.68531, 64.93231 (WGS84)
Relative position Iron Creek is a major south tributary to the upper Pilgrim River. The mouth of Iron Creek is about 11 miles downstream from the origin of the Pilgrim River on Salmon Lake. The 5.5-mile-long Iron Creek starts at the confluence of Canyon (SO115) and Dome (SO113) Creeks; the coordinates are at about the center of the mined length of the creek. Iron Creek is included in locality 33 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-6(quadrangle 1:63,360 scale)

Solomon NW(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Solomon(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Imuruk Basin(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
Mercury Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Cinnabar Ore
Gold 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) -164.68531, 64.93231
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Iron Creek has been placer mined over about 90 percent of its 5.5 mile length. Most of this mining was by small-scale methods from discovery in 1899 or 1900 to 1914. A dredge operated in 1939 and 1940 but this was probably upstream on Dome Creek (Sainsbury and others, 1972, OFR 512). Much of the placer on Iron Creek was of low tenor. The gold was bright and in both the active drainage and benches, particularly along the east side near Eagle (Easy) Creek (SO126). Mining along the lower part of the creek tried unsuccessfully to use sluices in a tunnel driven between Iron Creek and the Pilgrim River (Henshaw, 1910). The coarse gold and cinnabar recovered from the Iron Creek area appears to be from deposits upstream in the Iron Creek drainage (Smith, 1909). Bedrock in the area is mostly part of a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (Till and others, 1986).
  • Age = Quaternary; presence of gold-bearing bench deposits indicates two or more cycles of erosion and deposition.

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Probably inactive

Mining district

District name Kougarok

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = The grade of the placer deposits was reported to be low but considerable mining and remining took place intermittantly from 1899 to 1940.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Iron Creek has been placer mined over about 90 percent of its 5.5 mile length. Most of this mining was by small-scale methods from discovery in 1899 or 1900 to 1914. A dredge operated in 1939 and 1940 but this was probably upstream on Dome Creek (Sainsbury and others, 1972, OFR 512). Mining along the lower part of the creek tried unsuccessfully to use sluices in a tunnel driven between Iron Creek and the Pilgrim River. Water was lost to subsurface flow in areas of carbonate bedrock.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Henshaw, F.F., 1910, Mining in Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 442, p. 353-371.

  • 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

    Sainsbury, C.L., Hudson, T.L., Ewing, R., and Richards, T., 1972, Reconnaissance geologic map of the Solomon D-6 quadrangle, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 512, 17 p.

  • 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.

  • Deposit

    Smith, P.S., 1909, Recent developments in southern Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 379-F, p. 267-301.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Smith, 1909

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.