California Creek

Site Name

Primary: California Creek

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Commodity

Primary: Gold

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Location

State: Alaska
District: Aniak

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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: Sand and 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

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Comments

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = Dredge tailings cover about 5.6 miles of the California Creek drainage, including about one-half mile of the lower creek along the Tuluksak River valley. Dredging continued for about 1.5 miles upstream of the mouth of Rocky Creek (RM027), and some mining may have taken place for another mile to the headwaters of California Creek. The tailings have an average width of anout 0.15 mile and a maximum width of 0.4 mile near the mouth of the creek. Much of the mining took place from about 1947 to 1960 (Hoare and Cobb, 1977). Additional mining took place in the late 1980's.

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

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

Comment (Deposit): Other Comments = Older references to California Creek refer to what is now called upper Tuluksak River (RM028) on USGS topographic maps.

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = California Creek is an important placer-gold producing tributary to the upper Tuluksak River. At least 3 miles of California Creek have been extensively dredged, including about on-half mile of the lower creek along the Tuluksak River valley. Dredging continued for about 1.5 miles upstream of the mouth of Rocky Creek (RM027), and some mining may have taken place for another mile to the headwaters of California Creek. Most of the California Creek drainage is underlain by thermally metamorphosed Jurassic volcanic rocks along the east side of a large mid-Cretaceous granitic pluton (Box and others, 1993).

Comment (Geology): Age = Quaternary.

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References

Reference (Deposit): Hoare, J M., and Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Russian Mission quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-444, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

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): 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): Hoare, J M., and Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Russian Mission quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-444, scale 1:250,000.

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