The Intermediate Beach 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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Intermediate Beach MRDS details
Site Name
Primary: Intermediate Beach
Secondary: Clam Shell Beach
Commodity
Primary: Gold
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: 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
Name: Schist
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Pleistocene
Analytical Data
Not available
Materials
Ore: Arsenopyrite
Ore: Gold
Ore: Ilmenite
Ore: Magnetite
Ore: Pyrite
Gangue: Garnet
Comments
Comment (Exploration): Status = Inactive
Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = Intermediate Beach is a buried marine abrasion platform placer deposit as much as several hundred feet wide. The gravel is 6 to 12 feet thick, with 1-3 feet of pay gravel on bedrock. The elevation of the deposit is about 20 feet above sea level. Depth of burial is about 20 to 60 feet (Moffit, 1913; Nelson and Hopkins, 1972).? the deposit terminates abrubtly to the west. It appears to diminish in grade to the east at about Bourbon Creek, but it may continue eastward as a low-grade deposit through the head of Peluk Creek and lower parts of Otter and Florence Creeks (Metcalfe and Tuck, 1942, p. 36). The pay gravel contained abundant fragments of graphitic schist; locally, clam shells were so abundant that it was called the Clam Shell beach (Moffit, 1913, p. 118). The clams (mollusks) included species now living off Japan and some that only live south of present winter ice in the Bering Sea. Dall concluded that the climate in Intermediate Beach time was warmer than now at Nome (Dall, in Moffit, 1913, p. 45). Intermediate Beach appears to have formed when marine currents lowered an aurifeous platform during a Pleistocene transgression that formed Third Beach.? Intermediate Beach was discovered in the winter of 1905-1906 (Smith, 1908; Moffit, 1913). The deposit was dredged extensively between Center and Bourbon Creeks after the development of cold-water thawing. (Center Creek is not named on the 1970 edition of the topographic map but is probably the drainage paralleling the northeast runway of the Nome airport.)
Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Moffit, 1913
Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Marine gold placer deposit; marine abrasion platform concentration (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39).
Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = The deposit was drift mined after 1906. After the development of cold-water thawing in the 1920's, it was dredged, especially between Bourbon and Center Creeks.
References
Reference (Deposit): Metcalfe, J.B., and Tuck, Ralph, 1942, Placer gold deposits of the Nome district, Alaska: Report for U.S. Smelting, Refining, and Mining Co., 175 p.
Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1908, Investigations of mineral deposits of Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 345, p. 206-250.
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): Cobb, E.H., 1978, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Nome quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File report 78-93, 213 p.
Reference (Deposit): Nelson, C.H., and Hopkins, D.M., 1972, Sedimentary processes and distribution of particulate gold in the northern Bering Sea: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 689, 27 p., 1 plate.
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.
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