Little Creek composite placer

Site Name

Primary: Little Creek composite placer
Secondary: Nome placer field

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Commodity

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Silver
Secondary: Tungsten

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Location

State: Alaska
District: Nome

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Land Status

Not available

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Not available

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

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

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Physiography

Not available

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Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Placer Au-PGE

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Orebody

Not available

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Structure

Not available

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Alterations

Not available

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Rocks

Not available

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Arsenopyrite
Ore: Gold
Ore: Hematite
Ore: Ilmenite
Ore: Magnetite
Ore: Pyrite
Ore: Scheelite
Gangue: Garnet

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Comments

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = This complex Nome placer field formed where the rich Anvil Creek (NM236) alluvial deposit was reworked by marine processes. An ancestral Anvil Creek channel flowed southeasterly, turned south near modern Center Creek (not named on the 1970 revision of the topographic map but probably the drainage near the northeast runway at the Nome airport), and eventually merged with Submarine Beach (NM285 and NM286). The field spreads out along the Third Beach (NM258). It is very wide southwest of Third Beach through the area of buried auriferous abrasion platforms seaward of Third Beach. The deposit includes a large part of the richest portion of Third Beach between Little Creek to the west and Dry Creek to the east (Moffit, 1906, p. 134; Moffit, 1907, p. 134-144; Collier and others, 1908, p. 34, 162-163). The general location of the deposit as it was recognized in 1906 can be inferred from patterns of gold distribution shown by (Collier and others, 1908, plate X).? the deposit is mainly developed on schist bedrock, but higher level gold concentrations occur in fan and delta-like deposits formed at those times when an ancient Anvil drainage flowed into the ocean. The rather complex relations were summarized by Metcalfe and Tuck, 1942, p. 37): 'At the foothill edge of the coastal plain is an indistinguishable zone of intermixed stream and marine deposits. . . In this area, gold is found throughout the overburden, in horizons, in small stream channels, and as disseminations. Marine and stream gravel is often intermixed. When the shoreline was close to the hills, Anvil, Cooper, and Dry Creeks emptied gold-bearing detritus directly into the sea. In part this material formed an alluvial fan deposit and, when deposited directly into the sea, a delta. . . . Under such conditions, gold distribution is very erratic. Further from the foothills the gold occurs in more regular horizons.'? the field was first worked by drifting by the Pioneer Mining Company, especially between 1904 and 1910. The average value of an almost continuous drift mine 3,000 feet in length was 4.51 dollars or 0.22 ounce of gold per bedrock foot. Some of the ground contained an ounce of gold to the bedrock foot (Metcalfe and Tuck, 1942, figure 1). The area was mined hydraulically by the Pioneer Company from 1910 to 1922 and then by Hammon and Fairbanks Exploration companies from 1923 until 1934. During the period from 1904 until 1934, about 8,000,000 dollars (387,000 ounces of gold) was recovered from the area. The field furnished a significant amount of production of the Nome district (Bundtzen and others, 1994). The deposit was subsequently dredged until 1965. It was last mined as an open pit in 1994.? Placer gold at Nome is very close to 900 fine; Anvil Creek averages 897 and ranges from 894 to 905 (Metcalfe and Tuck, 1942, p. 41). Garnet was relatively abundant near Third Beach; sulfides, principally pyrite and arsenopyrite, locally occured in concentrates seaward of Third Beach. In general, minerals in the concentrates are magnetite, ilmenite, scheelite, garnet, pyrite, and arsenopyrite. Based on testing done by Fairbanks Exploration Company in 1939, after stripping all available free gold with mercury, the sulfides appear to contain about 0.25 to 0.75 ounce of gold per ton. Metcalfe and Tuck (1942) strongly suggest that some of the gold, and therefore sulfides, could have come from marine erosion of the bedrock surface itself.

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Alluvial placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986, model 39a); deltaic deposits, buried strandline beach deposits, and off-shore abrasion placers seaward from ancient beaches.

Comment (Geology): Age = Pliocene and Quaternary; sea-level fluctuations are very important in the history of this deposit.

Comment (Production): Production Notes = Production of about 8,000,000 dollars (387,000 ounces of gold) from 1904 to 1934 and extensive production after WW II.

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Metcalfe and Tuck, 1942

Comment (Reserve-Resource): Reserves = the area has been extensively mined and has few remaining conventional reserves.

Comment (Exploration): Status = Probably inactive

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = A buried alluvial gold deposit was discovered in the canyon of Anvil Creek in 1898 by Lindblom, Brynteson, and Lindeberg, who later formed Pioneer Mining Company. The men also located placer claims on the coastal plain along an ancient buried channel of Anvil Creek that lies between Little and Dry Creeks. These claims covered important parts of the Nome placer field deposit. Extensive underground mining of this deposit occurred between 1904 and 1910. In late 1904, the Third Beach deposit (NM258) was discovered. In the Nome placer field area, the upland limit of the Third Beach deposit was sharp and against a bedrock escarpment. The beach deposits contributed to the richness of the ancient Anvil Creek channel, and related abrasion deposits were mined seaward from Third Beach. The deposit as finally mined includes the ancestral Anvil Creek channel, Third Beach, and abrasion and transient or remnant beaches on the abrasion platform offshore from Third Beach. After drifting, the deposit was mined by surface hydraulic methods, generally with hydraulic elevators, from 1910 to 1934; it was then dredged until 1965. Final production from the area, in the 1980's until 1994, was by open-pit operations that trucked ore to central washing plants. This long-mined field was probably the most important spatially continuous placer operation in the Nome mining district.

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References

Reference (Deposit): Bundtzen, T.K., Reger, R.D., Laird, G.M., Pinney, D.S., Clautice, K.H., Liss, S.A., and Cruse, G.R., 1994, Progress report on the geology and mineral resources of the Nome mining district: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, Public Data-File 94-39, 21 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:63,360.

Reference (Deposit): Moffit, F.H., 1907, The Nome region, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 314-G, p. 126-145.

Reference (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.

Reference (Deposit): Metcalfe, J.B., and Tuck, Ralph, 1942, Placer gold deposits of the Nome district, Alaska: Report for U.S. Smelting, Refining, and Mining Co., 175 p.

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Nome quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-463, 2 sheets, scale 1:250,000.

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