Little Squaw (Cosine

The Little Squaw (Cosine is a gold 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

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Site Name

Primary: Little Squaw (Cosine
Secondary: Sine
Secondary: Crystal
Secondary: Big Squaw Quartz
Secondary: Parabola
Secondary: Engineers Exploration Syndicate
Secondary: Idaho-Alaska Corp.)

Commodity

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Zinc
Secondary: Silver
Secondary: Lead

Location

State: Alaska
District: Chandalar

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: Veins are oxidized generally to about 75 ft depth; the principal oxidation products include scorodite and limonite.

Rocks

Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Devonian

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Arsenopyrite
Ore: Galena
Ore: Gold
Ore: Pyrite
Ore: Sphalerite
Ore: Scorodite
Gangue: Quartz

Comments

Comment (Geology): Age = Middle Cretaceous based on arguments by Dillon (1982) that the age of emplacement of the gold-bearing quartz veins of the Koyukuk and Chandalar districts was between the Neocomian metamorphism of the Devonian host rocks and their erosional unroofing and cooling in Albian time.

Comment (Geology): Age = Host rock is Devonian.

Comment (Exploration): Status = Inactive

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Chipp, 1970

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = A 185-foot adit with a raise to the surface at 160 feet and a 60-foot winze at 135 feet were reported completed between 1910 and 1933 (Cobb, 1983, OFR 83-278; Stanford, 1931). A road from the Little Squaw to a mill site on Spring Creek was built in 1909-10. Milling 27 tons of ore from the Little Squaw mine at this mill produced an average recovery of $22 per ton at $20 per ounce of gold; the recovery probably was only the free gold. In 1912, a 3-stamp mill was brought to Big Creek to test the Little Squaw ore and used until 1915. Considerable development work has been conducted in the area beginning in 1960 and has been reported to include 1,500 feet of underground workings, surface trenching, and installation of a 100-ton-per-day mill. While most of this work probably focused on the nearby Mikado property, some of the work was probably performed on the Little Squaw property as well.

Comment (Deposit): Other Comments = See also: Mikado Mine (CH045); there may be some confusion in the literature between Little Squaw and Mikado veins. The names Idaho-Alaska Corp. and Engineers Exploration Syndicate associated with this property refer to the transaction in 1932 in which the Idaho-Alaska Corp. took over the leases and options on various properties in the Chandalar district formerly held by the Engineers Exploration Syndicate. Other site names are names of claims on or near the mine.

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = The vein on the Little Squaw property is one of several auriferous quartz veins in an area trending northeast from the heads of Tobin and Big creeks to Squaw and Little Squaw creeks. In general, most of the gold-bearing quartz veins in this area are in or near steeply-dipping, northwest-trending normal faults in Devonian quartz-muscovite schist, phyllite, and quartzite intruded by Devonian mafic sills and dikes (Chipp, 1970). The mafic intrusions have been metamorphosed to greenstone or greenschist. Major structural features include large-scale northeast-trending anticlines and synclines, northeast-trending thrusts, and the northwest-trending, high-angle cross faults. Most of the veins are less than 10 feet thick and are discontinuous, pinching out within a few hundred feet or less. The veins are composed principally of white crystalline to microcrystalline quartz, and their sulfide content is generally less than 5 percent. The principal sulfides (in relative order of abundance) are arsenopyrite, galena, sphalerite, and pyrite. Scorodite and limonite are commonly oxidation products. The quartz veins exhibit evidence of post-depositional shearing, indicating that the veins were emplaced before or during fault movement. The genesis of these gold deposits is still in question; various authors have hypothesized genetic links to a variety of felsic and mafic igneous rocks from which the gold was remobilized during metamorphism (Mertie, 1925; Boadway, 1933; Chipp, 1970; Dillon, 1982).? the Little Squaw vein is generally described as brecciated and recrystallized quartz containing free gold, pyrite, arsenopyrite, galena, and sphalerite. Ashworth (1983) described two generations of quartz: (1) 'barren' massive, white, coarsely crystalline quartz on the hanging wall that is generally devoid of sulfides; and (2) 'main stage' quartz in the footwall that contains smeared arsenopyrite and scorodite, and gold that forms blebs in the quartz and wires in the vugs. At the surface, the vein is 4 feet wide and dips approximately 80 degrees south. At the bottom of a 60-foot winze the dip flattens to 60 degrees south, and the vein reportedly consists of several quartz stringers with abundant arsenopyrite. The vein averages 67 inches wide and consists mostly of barren quartz except for an 8- to 12-inch-wide footwall zone which appears streaked and ribbony due to abundant pyrite and arsenopyrite. Native gold, as flakes or wires, is common at the Little Squaw. In 1933, the vein was described as having a proven length of 200 feet and a depth of 130 feet with a grade of $38.50 per ton over a 4-foot width ($20 per ounce of gold) (Boadway, 1933). In 1934, a weighted average value of 0.505 ounce of gold per ton was determined by using the lower of duplicate assays.

Comment (Reserve-Resource): Reserves = Various reserve figures have been published for the Chandalar area lode properties; these typically do not differentiate reserves for specific properties. Some of these figures are as follows: 12,000 tonnes grading 75 grams of gold per ton at the Mikado and Little Squaw (Nokleberg and others, 1996); an inferred lode reserve for the Chandalar district lodes of 45,000 tons with a grade of 2 ounces of gold per ton was reported as late as 1997 (Swainbank and others, 1998). Baggs and others (1988) reported measured reserves of 9,100 metric tons grading 58.70 grams of gold per metric ton as of 1980.

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

Comment (Production): Production Notes = Early production figures probably combined placer and lode production and indicate that approximately 65,000 oz were produced from lode and placer through 1995. Goldfarb and others (1997) reported that lode production was 17,000 oz and associated placer production was 46,000 oz.

References

Reference (Deposit): DeYoung, J.H., Jr., 1978, Mineral resources map of the Chandalar quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-878-B, 2 sheets, scale 1:250,000.

Reference (Deposit): Chipp, E.R., 1970, Geology and geochemistry of the Chandalar area, Brooks Range, Alaska: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Geologic Report 42, 39 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:36,000.

Reference (Deposit): Boadway, E.A., 1933, Report on Mikado and Little Squaw veins, Chandalar, Alaska: Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Miscellaneous Report 31-7, 37 p.

Reference (Deposit): Koschmann, A.H. and Bergendahl, M.H., 1968, Principal gold producing districts of the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 610, 283 p.

Reference (Deposit): Heiner, L.E., and Wolff, E.N., eds., 1968, Mineral resources of northern Alaska, Final report, submitted to the NORTH Commission: Mineral Industry Research Laboratory, University of Alaska, Report 16, 306 p.

Reference (Deposit): Anderson, Eskil, 1944, Petrographic descriptions of rocks collected during 1944 field investigation in north-west Alaska, and lists of ore and rock samples and placer concentrates collected in northwestern and interior Alaska during 1945 field season: Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Miscellaneous Report 195-28, 76 p.

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1973, Placer deposits of Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1374, 213 p.

Reference (Deposit): Brosgi, W.P., and Reiser, H.N., 1964, Geologic map and section of the Chandalar quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Geologic Investigations Map 1-375, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Reference (Deposit): Brooks, A.H., 1912, The Alaska mining industry in 1911, in Brooks, A.H., and others, Mineral resources of Alaska, 1911: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 520, p. 17-44.

Reference (Deposit): Brosgi, W.P., and Reiser, H.N., 1972, Geochemical reconnaissance in the Wiseman and Chandalar districts and adjacent region, southern Brooks Range, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 709, 21 p.

Reference (Deposit): Nokleberg, W.J., Bundtzen, T.K., Dawson, K.M., Eremin, R.A., Goryachev, N.A., Koch, R.D., Ratkin, V.V, Rozenblum, I.S., Shpikerman, V.I., Frolov, Y.F., Gorodinsky, M.E., Melnikov, V.D., Diggles, M.F., Ognyanov, N.V., Petrachenko, E.D., Petrochenko, R.I., Pozdeev, A.I., Ross, K.V., Wood, D.H., Grybeck, D., Khanchuck, A.I., Kovbas, L.I., Nekrasov, I.Y., and Sidorov, A.A., 1996, Significant metalliferous and selected non-metalliferous lode mineral deposits and placer districts, and for metallogenesis of the Russian Far East, Alaska, and the Canadian Cordillera: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 96-513-B, 385 p.; U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 96-513-B, 385 p. (CD-ROM format).

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1976, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Chandalar and Wiseman quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 76-340, 205 p.

Reference (Deposit): Grybeck, D.J., 1977, Known mineral deposits of the Brooks Range, Alaska: US Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-166C, 41 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:1,000,000.

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Chandalar quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-457, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Reference (Deposit): Berg, H.C., and Cobb, E.H., 1967, Metalliferous Lode Deposits of Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1246, 254 p.

Reference (Deposit): Arctic Environmental Information and Data Center, 1982, Mineral terranes of Alaska: University of Alaska, Fairbanks, 7 sheets, scale 1:1,000,000.

Reference (Deposit): Dillon, J.T., 1982, Source of lode and placer gold deposits of the Chandalar and upper Koyukuk Districts: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Open-File Report 158, 25 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Reference (Deposit): Brooks, A.H., 1911, The mining industry in 1910, in Brooks, A.K., and others, Mineral resources of Alaska, report on progress of investigations in 1910: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 480-B p. 21-43.

Reference (Deposit): Bundtzen, T.K., Eakins, G.R., and Conwell, C.N., 1982, Review of Alaska mineral resources 1981: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Annual Report 1981, 48 p.

Reference (Deposit): Eakins, G.R., Bundtzen, T.K., Robinson, M.S., Clough, J.G., Green, C.B., Clautice, K.H., and Albanese M.A., 1983, Alaska's mineral industry, 1982, Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Special Report 31, 63 p.

Reference (Deposit): Mosier, E.L., Cathrall, J.B., Antweiler, J.C., Tripp, R.B., Lueck, L., and Eakins, G.R., 1987, Gold occurrences and characteristics in the Chandalar-Koyukuk area, in Albanese, M.A. and Campbell, B.W., eds., Proceedings of 9th Annual Alaska Conference on Placer Mining: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Miscellaneous Paper 9, p. 45-53.

Reference (Deposit): Ashworth, K.K., 1983, Genesis of gold deposits at the Little Squaw mines, Chandalar mining district, Alaska: Bellingham, Washington, Western Washington University, M.Sc. thesis, 98 p.

Reference (Deposit): Maddren, A.G., 1913, The Koyukuk-Chandalar region, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 532, 119 p.

Reference (Deposit): Boadway, E.A., 1932, Report on Sulzer properties, Chandalar, Alaska: Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Miscellaneous Report 31-6, 23 p., 4 sheets.

Reference (Deposit): Reiser, H.N., Brosgi, W.P., De Young, J.H., Jr., Marsh, S.P., Hamilton, T.D., Cady, J.W., and Albert, N.R.D., 1979, The Alaskan Mineral Resource Assessment Program: Guide to information contained in the folio of geologic and mineral resource maps of the Chandalar quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 758, 23 p.

Reference (Deposit): Thompson, G.L., 1925, Report on the property of the Chandalar Gold Company: Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Miscellaneous Report 31-1, 18 p.

Reference (Deposit): Reed, I.M., 1927, Report on some of the quartz prospects of the Chandalar district: Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Miscellaneous Report 31-2, 4 p.

Reference (Deposit): Stanford, J.V., 1931, Report on Little Squaw, Bonanza, and Mikado groups of claims, Chandalar, Alaska: Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Miscellaneous Report 31-5, 10 p.

Reference (Deposit): Reed, I.M., 1930, Report on the Little Squaw area of the Chandalar mining district: Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Miscellaneous Report 31-4, 18 p.

Reference (Deposit): Mertie, J.B., Jr., 1925, Geology and gold placers of the Chandalar district, in Brooks, A.H., and others, Mineral resources of Alaska, report on progress of investigations in 1923: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 773, p. 215-263.

Reference (Deposit): Swainbank, R.C., Clautice, K.C., and Nauman, J.L., 1998, Alaska's Mineral Industry 1997: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Special Report 52, 65 p.

Reference (Deposit): Brooks, A.H., 1914, Mineral resources of Alaska in 1913: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 592, p. 340-341.

Reference (Deposit): Grybeck, D.J., and De Young, J.H., 1978, Map and tables describing mineral resource potential of the Brooks Range, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-1-B, 19 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:1,000,000.

Reference (Deposit): Dillon, J.T., Lamal, K.K., and Huber, J.A., 1989, Gold deposits in the upper Koyukuk and Chandalar mining districts, in Mull, C.G., and Adams, K.E., eds., Bedrock geology of the eastern Koyukuk Basin, central Brooks Range, and east-central Arctic Slope along the Dalton Highway, Yukon River to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Guidebook 7, 2 v., 309 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:125,000 and 1:2,851,200.

Reference (Deposit): Baggs, D.W., Northam, M.J., Meyer, M.P., and Maas, K.M., 1988, Selected significant mineral deposits in Alaska, a minerals availability system overview: U.S. Bureau of Mines Information Circular 9177, 124 p.

Reference (Deposit): Goldfarb, R.J., Miller, L.D., Leach, D.L., and Snee, L.W, 1997, Gold deposits in metamorphic rocks in Alaska, in Goldfarb, R.J., and Miller, L.D., eds., Mineral deposits of Alaska: Economic Geology Monograph 9, 482 p.

Reference (Deposit): Nokleberg, W.J., Bundtzen, T.K., Grybeck, D.J., Koch, R.D., Eremin, R.A., Rozenblum, I. S., Sidorov, A.A., Byalobzhesky, S.G., Sosunov, G.M., Shpikerman, V.I., Gorodinsky, M.E., 1993, Metallogenesis of mainland Alaska and the Russian Northeast: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 93-0339, 3 sheets, 230 p.

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