Black Gulch

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

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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.

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