Intermediate Beach

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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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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