Ruby and Golconda

The Ruby and Golconda is a 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

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Site Name

Primary: Ruby and Golconda

Commodity

Primary: Copper

Location

State: Alaska
District: Nome

Land Status

Not available

Holdings

Not available

Workings

Not available

Ownership

Not available

Production

Not available

Deposit

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

Physiography

Not available

Mineral Deposit Model

Not available

Orebody

Not available

Structure

Not available

Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Oxidation.

Rocks

Not available

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Azurite
Ore: Chalcopyrite
Ore: Limonite
Ore: Malachite
Gangue: Quartz

Comments

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Concordant copper-bearing quartz vein in schist.

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = Mertie (1918 [B 622-I, p. 442]) reported azurite and malachite in fractured quartz on the Ruby and Golconda claims at the head of Twin Mountains Creek. A copper-bearing quartz vein located by Kennecott Exploration Company at the head of Twin Mountain Creek in 1993 is assumed to be the vein described by Mertie. Hummel (1962 [MF 247, locality 9]) reported copper at the nearby Lilly prospect (NM189) but he may have confused the Lilly and Ruby and Golconda prospects because the Lilly deposit apparently does not contain copper (C.C. Hawley, unpub. data, 1993).? the Ruby and Golconda deposit is a concordant quartz vein about 2 feet thick. The vein is coated with limonite and contains less than 2 percent malachite and azurite as fracture coatings and about 1 percent disseminated chalcopyrite in grains less than 0.2 inch across. The quartz strongly resembles limonite-stained sugary quartz boulders found throughout the western part of the Nome district, most commonly in stream float. Such boulders contain sparsely disseminated chalcopyrite and few other sulfide minerals. The concordant nature of the quartz vein at Ruby and Golconda and similar occurrences elsewhere suggests that these copper-bearing quartz veins are very early, having formed essentially by metamorphic processes prior to the main gold-mineralizing events at Nome. This early quartz could correlate with the weakly metallized quartz rods at the upper Butterfield Creek deposit (NM164).

Comment (Deposit): Other Comments = Sometimes confused with the nearby Lilly prospect (NM189).

Comment (Geology): Age = Pre-Late Cretaceous; possibly as old as early Paleozoic, the protolith age of the enclosing metamorphic rocks.

Comment (Exploration): Status = Inactive

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Mertie, 1918

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = A short tunnel was reported but was not found by Mertie (1918) or by C.C. Hawley in 1993.

References

Reference (Deposit): Hummel, C.L., 1962, Preliminary geologic map of the Nome C-1 quadrangle, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-247, 1 sheet, scale 1:63,360.

Reference (Deposit): Mertie, J.B., Jr., 1918, Lode mining and prospecting on Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 662, p. 425-449.

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