Upper Dry Creek

The Upper Dry 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: Upper Dry Creek
Secondary: Bear Creek (Gulch)

Commodity

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Tungsten

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: 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
Ore: Ilmenite
Ore: Limonite
Ore: Magnetite
Ore: Scheelite
Gangue: Garnet
Gangue: Quartz

Comments

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Collier and others, 1908

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = Most of the workings on upper Dry Creek are surface cuts. Tailings on Dry Creek where it enters onto the Nome coastal plain suggest that considerable dredging may have taken place there between 1920 and 1938. The east-side bench may have been at least partly mined by underground workings.

Comment (Geology): Age = Quaternary.

Comment (Exploration): Status = Active

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Alluvial placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = Dry Creek heads in high-level, gold-bearing gravels at the saddle between upper Dry Creek and Wet Gulch (NM248). Gold in uppermost Dry Creek was mined from 2-foot-thick gravels on a thin clay layer resting directly on schist bedrock. Mining began as early as 1900 when 1,200 ounces of gold were produced (Brooks and others, 1901). Significant early production also came from an east-side bench, 50 feet above the creek, where a 0.5- to 4-foot-thick pay streak was 20 to 60 feet wide; this pay was very rich. It commonly ran about 0.5 ounce of gold per cubic yard but in places exceeded 2.5 ounces of gold per cubic yard (Collier and others, 1908). Pay gravel was locally cemented by iron oxide (limonite) and buried by 20 to 50 feet of gravel, slide rock, fine sand, muck, and silt. The heavy-mineral concentrate contained garnet, ilmenite, magnetite, and scheelite. Gold was also mined from Bear Creek (or Gulch), a tributary to upper Dry Creek on the Anvil Mountain side.? Placer gold was mined extensively from Hotel Gulch downstream to an elevation of about 180 feet where Dry Creek enters the Nome coastal plain, just above the trace of Third Beach (NM258). The deposit was mined as recently as 1996. Extensive tailings suggest also that an ancestral Dry Creek probably flowed southwesterly at the point that the creek leaves the mountain front.? Bedrock along Dry Creek is mainly platy to massive marble with some felsic schist occurs near Bear Creek (Hummel, 1962 [MF 247]; Bundtzen and others, 1994).

References

Reference (Deposit): Brooks, A.H., Richardson, G. B., and Collier, A. J., 1901, Reconnaissance in the Cape Nome and Norton Bay regions, Alaska, in 1900: U.S. Geological Survey Special Publication, p. 1-180.

Reference (Deposit): Bundtzen, T.K., Reger, R.D., Laird, G.M., Pinney, D.S., Clautice, K.H., Liss, S.A., and Cruse, G.R., 1994, Progress report on the geology and mineral resources of the Nome mining district: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, Public Data-File 94-39, 21 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:63,360.

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Nome quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-463, 2 sheets, scale 1:250,000.

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): Moffit, F.H., 1913, Geology of the Nome and Grand Central quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 533, 140 p.

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.

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