Lower Willow Creek

The Lower Willow Creek 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: Lower Willow Creek

Commodity

Primary: Gold

Location

State: Alaska
District: Council

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: Placer Au-PGE

Orebody

Not available

Structure

Not available

Alterations

Not available

Rocks

Not available

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Gold

Comments

Comment (Exploration): Status = Probably inactive

Comment (Geology): Age = Quaternary; the numerous incised terraces along the Casadepaga River and its major tributaries (including Lower Willow Creek) indicate that more than one cycle of erosion and deposition has developed placer deposits in the area. The low elevations between 170 and 270 feet along the first 11 miles of the river, suggest that Quaternary sea level fluctuations could have influenced placer development.

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = This west tributary of the Casadepaga River, lower Willow Creek, is incised as much as 30 feet into terraces of its drainage and, near its mouth, terraces of the Casadepaga River. Bedrock is exposed at many locations along Lower Willow Creek (Sainsbury and others, 1972, OFR 511) and placer mining has taken place at least locally for a distance of 5 miles upstream from the mouth. Sainsbury and others (1972) show tailings along 1.6 miles of the drainage starting about 1.2 miles upstream from the mouth. Benches are present on both sides of creek but the richest were on the north bank between Cahill and Rocky Creeks where mining is reported (Smith, 1910). The gold from the active drainage was both fine and coarse with nuggets up to about 0.1 ounce. Bedrock in Lower Willow Creek is a pelitic schist assemblage that may be Cambrian or Precambrian in age that is in contact with a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage to the west (Till and others, 1986).

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Smith, 1910

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = Placer mining has taken place at least locally for a distance of 5 miles upstream from the mouth. Sainsbury and others (1972, OFR 511) show tailings along 1.6 miles of the drainage starting about 1.2 miles upstream from the mouth. Most of the mining was between 1900 and 1915 and a dredge was operated between 1911 and 1915 (Cobb, 1972, OF 78-181).

References

Reference (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.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1910, Geology and mineral resources of the Solomon and Casadepaga quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 433, 234 p.

Reference (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.

Reference (Deposit): Sainsbury, C.L., Hudson, T.L., Ewing, R., and Marsh, W.R., 1972, Reconnaissance geologic maps of the Solomon D-5 and C-5 quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 511, 12 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:63,360.

Reference (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.

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