Arsenic Creek

The Arsenic Creek is a mercury 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: Arsenic Creek

Commodity

Primary: Mercury
Secondary: Arsenic

Location

State: Alaska
District: Bethel

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: Silicification.

Rocks

Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Campanian
Age Old: Barremian

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Realgar
Ore: Orpiment
Ore: Cinnabar
Gangue: Quartz

Comments

Comment (Geology): Age = Host rock is Pre Campanian - Post Barremian.

Comment (Exploration): Status = Inactive

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Epithermal mercury.

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Rutledge, 1948

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = In 1947, the U. S. Bureau of Mines completed 1,500 feet of dozer trenching and 1,440 feet of hand trenching, and collected 19 samples in the area of known lode mineralization (Rutledge, 1948).

Comment (Geology): Age = Post mid-Cretaceous, the age of the host sedimentary rocks. The mineralization may be Late Cretaceous or Early Tertiary, the age of widespread intermediate to felsic igneous activity in the region (Box and others, 1993).

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = Lode mercury mineralization was identified on Arsenic Creek sometime between 1910 and 1920 (Rutledge, 1948). In 1947, the U. S. Bureau of Mines completed 1,500 feet of dozer trenching and 1,440 feet of hand trenching in the area of known lode mineralization (Rutledge, 1948). Three separate small but high-grade lode deposits were identified over a distance of 200 feet on the south side of the creek. These deposits are along or within 50 feet of the creek. The larger deposit (Deposit 1 of Rutledge, 1948, p. 5) is a sheared and fractured zone that is primarily developed in sandstone. The enclosing shears strike N 30 to 35 E, approximately parallel to bedding, but dip 70 northwest, opposite to bedding. Mineralization in the sheared zone includes realgar, cinnabar, and quartz in vein stockworks and seams along fractures and bedding. Eight samples collected over the 25-foot wide zone ranged in grade from 0.6 to 35.4 pounds of mercury per ton; a weighted average for these samples is 3.4 pounds of Hg per ton. Rutledge (1948, p. 5) concluded that the mineralized zone had a rhombohedral, pipe-like form and could not be traced along strike. Another lode deposit, 100 feet upstream, is similar in form but smaller. Five samples from this deposit ranged in grade from 1.6 to 44.6 pounds of Hg per ton; the higher grades were from thin sulfide-rich zones, including silicified shale, only a few inches thick. The third lode deposit, 200 feet east of the first, includes small lenses of white and gray quartz with enclosed cinnabar along a vertical N 30 E-striking fault zone. A composite sample of three, 3- to 6-inch-thick high grade lenses contained 45.8 pounds of Hg per ton. Arsenic, up to 18 percent or more, is present in all samples. In the larger deposits, realgar is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Orpiment is locally present. A realgar- and orpiment-rich sample contained 0.05 ppm Au (Frost, 1990, table 1, sample 7TF003). Although specific lode deposits could not be traced along strike, dozer trenches revealed thin mercury-bearing zones over about 700 feet of length; 0.5- to 1.6-foot-wide samples from these trenches contained 0.2 to 3.4 pounds of Hg per ton and 0.05 to 0.1 percent As. The bedrock in Arsenic Creek is sandstone and shale of the mid-Cretaceous Kuskokwim Group locally intruded by mafic dikes or sills (Rutledge, 1948; Hoare and Cobb, 1977; Box and others, 1993).

Comment (Production): Production Notes = About 2,000 pounds of cinnabar concentrates were recovered during placer mining operations on Rainy Creek (BH002), mostly below the mouth of Arsenic Creek.

References

Reference (Deposit): Frost, T.P., 1990, Geology and geochemistry of mineralization in the Bethel quadrangle, southwestern Alaska, in Goldfarb, R. J., Nash, J. T., and Stoeser, J. W., eds., Geochemical studies in Alaska by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1989: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1950, p. C1-C9.

Reference (Deposit): Box, S.E, Moll-Stalcup, E.J., Frost, T.P., and Murphy, J.M., 1993, Preliminary geologic map of the Bethel and southern Russian Mission quadrangles, southwestern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2226-A, 20 p., scale 1:250,000.

Reference (Deposit): Rutledge, F.A., 1948, Investigations of the Rainy Creek mercury prospect, Bethel district, Kuskokwim region, southwestern Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 4361, 7 p.

Reference (Deposit): Hoare, J.M., and Cobb, E.H., 1977, Mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bethel, Goodnews, and Russian Mission quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-156, 98 p.

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Bethel quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-455, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

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