Lucky Shot

The Lucky Shot is a gold and copper mine located in Alaska.

About the MRDS Data:

All mine locations were obtained from the USGS Mineral Resources Data System. The locations and other information in this database have not been verified for accuracy. It should be assumed that all mines are on private property.

Mine Info

Satelite View

MRDS mine locations are often very general, and in some cases are incorrect. Some mine remains have been covered or removed by modern industrial activity or by development of things like housing. The satellite view offers a quick glimpse as to whether the MRDS location corresponds to visible mine remains.

Site Name

Primary: Lucky Shot
Secondary: Willow Creek Mines Inc.

Commodity

Primary: Gold
Primary: Copper
Secondary: Zinc
Secondary: Tellurium
Secondary: Lead

Location

State: Alaska
District: Willow Creek

Land Status

Not available

Holdings

Not available

Workings

Not available

Ownership

Not available

Production

Not available

Deposit

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

Physiography

Not available

Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein

Orebody

Not available

Structure

Not available

Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Wall rock is intensely chloritized, sericitized, and ankeritized. Reported to be no gold in wall rock (Ray, 1933). Wall-rock alteration seldom extends more than 10 to 12 inches beyond the quartz filling. Sericitization and carbonate alteration predominate, but there is some pyritization and in the outer parts of the alteration zone chloritization is present (Ray, 1954).

Rocks

Not available

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Telluride
Ore: Arsenopyrite
Ore: Chalcopyrite
Ore: Galena
Ore: Gold
Ore: Pyrite
Ore: Sphalerite
Ore: Tetrahedrite
Gangue: Quartz

Comments

Comment (Geology): Age = Late Cretaceous or younger; veins cut the Late Cretaceous Willow Creek Pluton.

Comment (Exploration): Status = Inactive

Comment (Deposit): Other Comments = the combined Lucky Shot - War Baby production of 252,000 ounces of gold makes it (them) the number one producer of gold in the district. A small amount of copper was also produced. Deposit has striking similarity to Mother lode and Grass Valley lodes of California.

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = Quartz veins cut quartz diorite of the Late Cretaceous Willow Creek Pluton, which is jointed and sheeted near the surface, but has less developed structures underground. The Willow Creek Pluton is a zoned pluton: the outer part consists of hornblende quartz diorite and lesser hornblende tonalite; the core consists of hornblende-biotite granodiorite, and lesser hornblende-biotite quartz monzodiorite and biotite quartz monzonite. According to Ray (1933), auriferous quartz veins are in a block about 1,200 ft wide between two major northeastward-dipping transverse faults. Quartz veins are generally 2 to 4 ft wide and have an approximate strike of N 80 E, and an average dip of 40 N . Veins appear to belong to a single system that is displaced by major cross faults. In places the vein system branches in the hanging wall, while the footwall is marked by slickensides separating lode from fresh, unaltered country rock . Lode is cut off to the east by a fault which is estimated to have offset the vein by 600 to 700 feet to the east, as indicated by identification of the same vein in workings of the adjacent War Baby mine (ARDF number AN003). Veins contain two generations of quartz, marked by the evidence of crumpling of earlier generation and recementation by later generation. Some quartz is deposited in fissures and some in open spaces, while thick quartz lenses appear sporatically, which were likely caused by repeated movement along fissures. Gold is in well defined ore shoots associated with pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, tetrahedrite, galena, and tellurides (Ray, 1933). Wall-rock alteration seldom extends more than 10 to 12 inches beyond the quartz filling. Sericitization and carbonate alteration predominate, but there is some pyritization and in the outer parts of the alteration zone chloritization is present (Ray, 1954).

Comment (Production): Production Notes = Production records were combined for the Lucky Shot and the War Baby mine (ARDF number AN003). Both mines were simultaneously operated by Willow Creek Mines. Stoll (1997) estimated the total amount of gold recovered from the Lucky Shot - War Baby vein on the northwest wall of Craigie Creek valley to be 252,000 ounces.

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Ray, 1933

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = Staked in 1918 or earlier. Taken under option by Willow Creek Mines in 1918. Development commenced in 1918 with open pits and a short tunnel. Considered to be one of the major gold producers of the district from 1923 to 1942, except for 1923 and 1928 when fires damaged the surface plant. Development included several open cuts and probably about a mile of underground workings plus stopes, with the average stope width of 4 to 6 ft. Surface improvements consisted of a mill and power plant, assay shop, bunk houses to hold 100 men, and machine and blacksmith shops. The mills capacity in 1931 was 35 tons per day. Old tailings were cyanided starting around 1936 (Smith, 1938). Only the main crosscuts were accessible in 1950.

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Low-sulfide Au-quartz veins (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a)

References

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1933, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1930: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 836-A, p. 1-83.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1941, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1939: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 926-A, p. 1-106.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1939, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1937: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 910-A, p. 1-113.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1942, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1940: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 933-A, p. 1-102.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1933, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1931: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 844-A, p. 1-81.

Reference (Deposit): Moffit, F.H., 1927, Mineral industry in Alaska in 1925: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 792-A, p. 1-39.

Reference (Deposit): MacKevett, E.M., Jr., and Holloway, C.D., 1977, Map showing metalliferous mineral deposits in the western part of southern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-169-F, 38 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:1,000,000.

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1979, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials in the Anchorage quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 79-1095, 184 p.

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Anchorage quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-409, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Reference (Deposit): Chapin, Theodore, 1920, Lode developments in the Willow Creek district: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 712-F, p. 169-176.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1938, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1936: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 897-A, p. 1-107.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S. 1939, Mineral industry in Alaska in 1937: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 910-A, p. 1-113.

Reference (Deposit): Chapin, Theodore, 1921, Lode developments in the Willow Creek district: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 714-E, p. 201-206.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1939, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1938: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 917-A, p. 1-113.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1937, Mineral industry in Alaska in 1935: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 880-A, p. 1-95.

Reference (Deposit): MacKevett, E.M., Jr., and Holloway, C.D., 1977, Map showing metalliferous and selected non-metalliferous mineral deposits in the eastern part of southern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-169-A, 99 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:1,000,000.

Reference (Deposit): Ray, J.C., 1933, The Willow Creek gold-lode district, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 849-C, p. 165-229.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1936, Mineral industry in Alaska in 1934: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 868-A, p. 1-91.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1934, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1933: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 864-A, p. 1-94.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1934, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1932: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 857-A, p. 1-91.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1933, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1930: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 836, p. 1-83.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1933, Mineral industry in Alaska in 1931: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 844-A, p. 1-82.

Reference (Deposit): Stoll, W.M., 1997, Hunting for gold in Alaska's Talkeetna Mountains 1897-1951: Greensburg, Pennsylvania, Henry Printing, 301 p.

Reference (Deposit): Ray, R.G., 1954, Geology and ore deposits of the Willow Creek Mining district, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1004, 86 p.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1929, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1926: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 797, p. 1-50.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1932, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1929, in Smith, P.S., and others Mineral resources of Alaska, report on progress of investigations in 1929: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 824-A, p. 1-81.

Reference (Deposit): Brooks, A.H., 1923, The Alaska mining industry in 1921: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 739, p. 1-50.

Reference (Deposit): Brooks, A.H. and Capps, S.R., 1924, Mineral industry in Alaska, 1922: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 755, p. 1-56.

Reference (Deposit): Brooks, A.H., 1925, Alaska's mineral resources and production, 1923: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 773, p. 3-52.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1942, Mineral Industry of Alaska in 1940: U. S. Geological Survey Bulletin 933-A, p. 1-102.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1930, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1927: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 810-A, p. 1-64.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1930, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1928: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 813-A, p. 1-72.

Reference (Deposit): Capps, S.R., 1940, Geology of the Alaska Railroad region: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 907, 201 p.

The Top Ten Gold Producing States

These ten states contributed the most to the gold production that built the West from 1848 through the 1930s. The Top Ten Gold Producing States.