Christmas Creek

Site Name

Primary: Christmas Creek

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Commodity

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Tungsten

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Location

State: Alaska
District: Juneau (Skagway subdistrict)

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Land Status

Not available

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Not available

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

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

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Physiography

Not available

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Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Placer Au-PGE

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Orebody

Not available

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Structure

Not available

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Alterations

Not available

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Rocks

Name: Gravel
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Holocene

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Gold
Ore: Scheelite

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Comments

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Hoekzema and others, 1986

Comment (Geology): Age = Quaternary.

Comment (Exploration): Status = Inactive

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Placer Au (Cox and Singer; model 39a).

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = According to Hoekzema and others (1978), the lower portions of Christmas Creek were placer mined sporadically in the early 1900's and the late 1970's but the total production has only been about 200 ounces of gold. The creek is a small, steep, north-flowing tributary to Glacier Creek and has a gradient of 1,000 feet per mile. Four reconnaissance samples of alluvial gravels from old mining cuts near the junction with Glacier Creek indicated a relatively equal distribution of gold through 8 feet of gravel that averaged 0.0065 ounces of gold per cubic yard. The placer gold is rough and nuggety and panned-concentrate samples also contained garnet, magnetite, and zircon. Fine-grained, well-worn 'glacial' gold was panned from the lower 6 feet of of glacial till exposed in Christmas Creek and, apparently, contrasts with the placer gold in the alluvial gravels. Christmas Creek is the only locality in the Porcupine area where gold has been recognized in glacial till.? Placer gold in the Porcupine area is generally considered to be derived from a northwest-trending zone of auriferous quartz-sulfide veins in metasediments in the Skagway B-4 quadrangle (Wright, 1904 [B 225 and B 236]; Eakin, 1918 and 1919; MacKevett and others, 1974). However, Hoekzema and others (1986) speculate that the placer gold in Christmas Creek may have been derived from stratiform volcanogenic mineral deposits in metavolcanic rocks.

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = The lower portion of Christmas Creek was placer mined with a small hydraulic plant in 1910 and this property was patented in 1916. A small heavy equipment operation worked the area in the late 1970's with meager results (Hoekzema and others, 1986).

Comment (Reserve-Resource): Reserves = According to Hoekzema and others (1986), the identified resources are largely restricted to the lower 0.5 miles of the creek. The lowermost section of the creek in the vicinity of previous workings is estimated to contain 12,000 cubic yards of gravel that contain 0.0065 ounces of gold per cubic yard. An additional resource of up to 30,000 cubic yards is estimated to occur farther upstream.

Comment (Production): Production Notes = Total production is estimated at 200 ounces of gold (Hoekzema and others, 1986).

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References

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1978, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Mt. Fairweather and Skagway quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-316, 123 p.

Reference (Deposit): Eakin, H.M., 1919, The Porcupine gold placer district, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 699, 29 p.

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1981, Summaries of data on and lists of references to metallic and selected nonmetallic mineral occurrences in the Skagway quadrangle, Alaska; Supplement to Open-File Report 78-316; Part A, Summaries of data to January 1, 1980: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 81-82-A, 11 p.

Reference (Deposit): Still, J.C., Hoekzema, R.B., Bundtzen, T.K., Gilbert, W.G., Wier, K.R., Burns, L.E., and Fechner, S.A., 1991, Economic geology of Haines-Klukwan-Porcupine area, southeastern Alaska: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Report of Investigations 91-4, 156 p., 5 sheets, scale 1:63,360.

Reference (Deposit): Still, J.C., 1991, Bureau of Mines mineral investigations in the Juneau mining district, Alaska, 1984 - 1988, v. 2, Detailed mine, prospect, and mineral occurrence descriptions, section A, Haines-Klukwan-Porcupine subarea: U.S. Bureau of Mines of Mines Special Publication, 214 p.

Reference (Deposit): Hoekzema, R.B., Fechner, S.A., and Bundtzen, T.K., 1986, Distribution, analysis, and recovery of placer gold from the Porcupine mining area, southeast Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report 89-86, 49 p., 4 sheets.

Reference (Deposit): Still, J.C., Weir, K.R., Gilbert, W.G., and Redman, E.C., 1984, Stream-sediment, float, and bedrock sampling in the Porcupine mining area, southeast Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report 173-84, 19 p.

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1981, Summaries of data and lists of references to metallic and selected nonmetallic mineral occurrences in the Skagway quadrangle, Alaska, Supplement to Open-File Report 78-316, Part A in Summaries of data to January 1, 1980: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 81-82-A, 11 p.

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