The Black Gulch 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
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.
Black Gulch MRDS details
Site Name
Primary: Black Gulch
Commodity
Primary: Gold
Location
State: Alaska
District: Kougarok
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 (Geology): Age = Quaternary; an early radiocarbon age on shallow parts of the frozen and stratifed peat and silt of Black Gulch was 8,800 +/- 200 years (Hopkins, 1963, Figure 8). The thin gold-bearing gravels on bedrock here were many feet stratigraphically below the radiocarbon dated deposits.
Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = Surface open-cut placer mining, including dozer and sluice operations, took place on this creek.
Comment (Production): Production Notes = Although gold was discovered here at least by 1906 (Brooks, 1907), significant mining seems to have taken place just before WW II (Smith, 1939 (B 910A); 1939 (B917A); 1941) and after (Hopkins (1963).
Comment (Exploration): Status = Inactive
Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = Gold was discovered soon after the turn of the century on tributaries to the Noxapaga River including Black Gulch (Collier and others, 1908) and mining took place here after WW II (Hopkins, 1963; Cobb, 1975, OFR 75-429). Frozen, stratified peat and silt (muck), 20 to 30 feet-thick, commonly overlies a few feet of auriferous gravel on schist bedrock in the general area (Hopkins, 1963, Figure 8, p. 94). Muck locally contains bones of extinct Pleistocene mammals. Although tundra cover of bedrock is extensive in the area (Till and others, 1986), Hopkins (1963) indicates that quartz-calcite veins are common in schist bedrock of the gold- producing tributaries to the Noxapaga River.
Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Cobb, 1975 (OFR 75-429)
Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)
References
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): Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Bendeleben quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-417, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.
Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S. 1939, Mineral industry in Alaska in 1937: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 910-A, p. 1-113.
Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1975, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bendeleben quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 75-429, 123 p.
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): 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): Hopkins, D.M., 1963, Geology of the Imuruk Lake area, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1141-C, p. C1-C101.
Reference (Deposit): Brooks, A.H., 1907, The Alaskan mining industry in 1906: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 314, p. 19-39.
Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1939, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1938: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 917-A, p. 1-113.
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.
