Canyon Creek

The Canyon 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: Canyon Creek

Commodity

Primary: Gold

Location

State: Alaska
District: Aniak

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

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Gold

Comments

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = The creek has been mined by open-cut methods over about 2.5 miles of its length. Much of the mining before WW II was by crude hand methods; a dozer was not added to the the operations until 1947. The amount of mining since WW II has not been reported.

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = Placer gold was discovered on Canyon Creek in 1913 and mining occurred almost every year up to and possibly after WW II (Hoare and Cobb, 1977). The creek has not been glaciated. Gravels in the narrow flood plain, up to 300 feet wide, were 14 feet thick at the mouth and thinned upstream to thicknesses of 1 to 4 feet (Maddren, 1915). About 2.5 miles of the creek were mined, mostly by crude hand methods that, before WWII, included ripping up and washing individual bedrock slabs. The recovered gold was coarse and included flat, pumpkin-seed-size nuggets. The grade ran from 0.06 to 0.12 ounce of gold per square foot of bedrock. Panning of the tailings after WW II recovered much fine gold (Hoare and Cobb, 1977, p. 6). An alluvial bench, with gravels up to 10 feet thick, is present along the east side of the creek. Gold is reported to be present throughout the bench gravels (Hoare and Cobb, 1977). Bedrock in the drainage is mostly clastic sedimentary rocks of the mid-Cretaceous Kuskokwim Group. These rocks are intruded and thermally metamorphosed by an Upper Cretaceous felsic stock in the headwaters of the creek; dikes and sills are present locally elsewhere (Hoare and Cobb, 1977; Box and others, 1993).

Comment (Geology): Age = Quaternary.

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Hoare and Cobb, 1977

References

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.

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): Maddren, A.G., 1915, Gold placers of the lower Kuskokwim with a note on copper in the Russian Mountains: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 622-H, p. 292-360.

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.

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