Camp Six

The Camp Six is a molybdenum mine located in Alaska.

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Mine Info

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Site Name

Primary: Camp Six
Secondary: Huff's Prospect
Secondary: Nelson Glacier
Secondary: Whistlepig

Commodity

Primary: Molybdenum

Location

State: Alaska
District: Petersburg

Land Status

Not available

Holdings

Not available

Workings

Not available

Ownership

Not available

Production

Not available

Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Prospect
Operation Type: Unknown
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant:

Physiography

Not available

Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Climax Mo

Orebody

Not available

Structure

Not available

Alterations

Not available

Rocks

Not available

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Molybdenite
Gangue: Fluorite
Gangue: Quartz
Gangue: Topaz

Comments

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Climax Mo? (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 16)

Comment (Production): Production Notes = None

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Grybeck, Berg, and Karl, 1984

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = Almost no information has been published on the Mo exploration in this area and this description is largely pieced together from informal discussions with a number of involved parties. At least two major companies and a number of individual prospectors have explored the area. A mineral subsidiary of a large oil company established a large camp in the late 70's on the ridge about a mile southwest of Peak 4362 and drilled a number of holes in the vicinity, some through the ice of Nelson Glacier. AMAX Exploration had a camp for several years in the mid-80's near the mouth of Groundhog Basin creek and drilled a number of deep diamond drill holes stretching from the vicinity of that camp (in about the center of section 1, T. 62 S, R. 86 E.) to at least the prominent cirque at the head of Groundhog Basin Creek (in section 7); this included several holes on the east side of Groundhog Basin creek among the base-metal 'ore beds' of the Groundhog Basin deposit (see PE040). A block of 295 claims was staked in 1963 (U. S. Bureau of Mines, 1980). There has been little or no drilling in the area since the mid-80's. Some claims are probably still held in 1998 and there has been occasional prospecting by various companies and individual prospectors to the present (1998).

Comment (Geology): Age = 15-20 Ma (see geologic description).

Comment (Deposit): Other Comments = 'Camp Six' was the name used for the exploration camp that was active in the late 1970's on the ridge about a mile southwest of Peak 4362 ; in descriptions of the exploration drilling, the property was often referred to as the Nelson Glacier prospect. The name 'Whistlepig' is a name commonly given to this prospect in 1998. Huff's Prospect is the name of the prospect and adit high on the wall of the prominent cirque at the northeast end of Groundhog Basin creek. The prospect is at an elevation of about 3600 feet in about the center of the west half of sec. 7, T. 62 S., R. 85 E.; it was found by Bill Huff, a prospector, probably in the 1970's.

Comment (Exploration): Status = Active?

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = The country rocks in the area of the prospects include Tertiary to Cretaceous biotite schist, biotite-garnet-quartz schist, quartzofeldspathic gneiss, and minor marble and calcsilicate gneiss (Brew, 1997 [OF 97-156-H]). The schist and paragneiss are intruded by a swarm of variously oriented rhyolite sills and dikes up to several hundred feet thick. Unpublished K-Ar radiometric dates on samples collected by an exploration company in the 1980's indicate that the rhyolite is no older than 20 m.y. Locally, the rhyolite displays prominent igneous brecciation. A few quartz veins are also present, and a large Cretaceous tonalite pluton that intrudes the metamorphic section to the east. The deposits may also be genetically related to a 15-17 Ma zinnwaldite 'tin' granite plug at the north end of the site (Newberry and Brew, 1989). The area also is transected by the Coast Range megalineament, a prominent northwest-trending topographic depression that has been traced for the length of southeastern Alaska.? Almost no information has been published on the Mo exploration in this area and this description is largely pieced together from informal discussions with a number of involved parties. At least two major companies and a number of individual prospectors have explored the area. A mineral subsidiary of a large oil company established a large camp in the late 70's on the ridge about a mile southwest of Peak 4362 and drilled a number of holes in the vicinity, some through the ice of Nelson Glacier. AMAX Exploration had a camp for several years in the mid-80's near the mouth of Groundhog Basin creek and drilled a number of deep diamond drill holes stretching from the vicinity of that camp (in about the center of section 1, T. 62 S, R. 86 E.) to at least the prominent cirque at the head of Groundhog Basin Creek (in section 7); this included several holes on the east side of Groundhog Basin creek among the base-metal 'ore beds' of the Groundhog Basin deposit (see PE040). A block of 295 claims was staked in 1963 (U. S. Bureau of Mines, 1980) and much or all of the area was probably covered by claims well into the 1980's . There has been little or no drilling in the area since the mid-80's. Some claims are probably still active in 1998 and there has been occasional prospecting by various companies and individual prospectors to the present (1998). ? Despite extensive exploration for molybdenite, and the widespread felsic dikes and sills, apparently little molybdenite has been found at the surface in the prospect area. An exception is at 'Huff's Adit,' at an elevation of about 3,500 feet on the wall of the cirque at the head of Groundhog Basin creek, where molybdenite can be found on the dump. Fluorite and topaz are not uncommon throughout the area, but rarely are present in quantity. Apparently the model for the exploration programs was to test for a deep molybdenum orebody; many of the drill holes reportedly were very deep.

References

Reference (Deposit): Grybeck, D.J., Berg, H.C., and Karl, S.M., 1984, Map and description of the mineral deposits in the Petersburg and eastern Port Alexander quadrangles: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 84-837, 86 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Reference (Deposit): Brew, D.A., 1997, Reconnaissance geologic map of the Petersburg C-1 quadrangle, southeastern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 97-156-H, 23 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:63,360.

Reference (Deposit): Newberry, R.J., and Brew, D.A., 1989, Epigenetic hydrothermal origin of the Groundhog Basin-Glacier Basin silver-tin-lead-zinc deposits, southeastern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1903, p. 113-121.

Reference (Deposit): U.S. Bureau of Mines, 1980, Claim map, Petersburg quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Map 117, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Reference (Deposit): Brew, D. A., Ovenshine, A. T., Karl, S. M., and Hunt, S. J., 1984, Preliminary reconnaissance geologic map of the Petersburg and parts of the Port Alexander and Sumdum 1:250,000 quadrangles, southeastern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 84-405, 43 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:250,000.

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