Osborn Creek

Site Name

Primary: Osborn Creek

---

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

Not available

---

Analytical Data

Not available

---

Materials

Ore: Gold

---

Comments

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

Comment (Production): Production Notes = Although production data are not available, the continuity and extent of mining operations suggest that Osborn Creek was one of the more productive creeks in the Nome area.

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Moffit, 1913

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = Extensive placer tailings on Osborn Creek start about 0.2 mile downstream of the mouth of St. Michaels Creek (NM277) and continue upstream for about 3.2 miles. Most of these tailings are probably the result of dredge operations that were almost continuous between 1911 and 1940. Gold was discovered in the creek in 1900, and small-scale mining began by about 1903.

Comment (Geology): Age = Quaternary.

Comment (Exploration): Status = Inactive

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = Placer gold was discovered on Osborn Creek in 1900. Except in an area just above St. Michaels Creek (NM277), Osborn Creek placer deposits mostly have gravel walls and paystreaks are floored by clay-rich false bedrock. Gravel was composed mostly of schist, marble, and quartz. Boulders of greenstone and granite (orthogneiss?) are abundant. Granite boulders believed by Collier to come from the Kigluaik Mountains were found as high as 800 feet on the 1,000-foot-tall mountain south of Willow Creek (Collier and others, 1908, p. 171).? Shallow placer deposits were mined for about 5 miles above the mouth of the Osborn Creek. Gravels probably contained about 2.50 to 4.50 dollars in gold (gold at 20.67 dollars per ounce; Collier and others, 1908, p. 171). Gravels were about 5 to 6 feet thick above a false bedrock in a pay section 100 feet wide. Gold was mostly coarse and well rounded, although some pieces were angular. A copper-bearing lode, reported to contain as much as 2 ounces of gold per ton (Smith, 1908), occurs above Osborn Creek (NM278), but much of the placer gold is probably reworked from coastal plain deposits.? Small-scale mining began about 1903 (Collier and others, 1908, p. 171-172) and was almost continuous up to WW II. Dredging was nearly continuous in two periods, from 1913 to 1924 and from 1928 to 1940 (Cobb, 1978 [OFR 78-93]). Larger scale mining developed by about 1911 with dredging and hydraulic mining (Smith, 1912; Chapin, 1914; Eakin, 1915 [B 622-I. p. 360-373]). The early period of dredging lasted until about 1924 (Smith, 1926). In 1928 another dredge was moved in from the Solomon River (Smith, 1930 [B 813]), and dredge mining occurred in most years at least through 1940 (Smith, 1942).? Bedrock in lower Osborn Creek is marble and schist, probaby of early Paleozoic protolith age (Hummel, 1962 [MF 247]; Till and Dumoulin, 1994; Bundtzen and others, 1994).

---

References

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): Chapin, Theodore, 1914, Placer mining on Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 592-L, p. 385-395.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1908, Investigations of mineral deposits of Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 345, p. 206-250.

Reference (Deposit): Bundtzen, T.K., Reger, R.D., Laird, G.M., Pinney, D.S., Clautice, K.H., Liss, S.A., and Cruse, G.R., 1994, Progress report on the geology and mineral resources of the Nome mining district: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, Public Data-File 94-39, 21 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:63,360.

Reference (Deposit): Collier, A. J., Hess, F.L., Smith, P.S., and Brooks, A.H., 1908, The gold placers of parts of Seward Peninsula, Alaska, including the Nome, Council, Kougarok, Port Clarence, and Goodhope precincts: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 328, 343 p.

Reference (Deposit): Till, A.B., and Dumoulin, J.A, 1994, Geology of Seward Peninsula and St. Lawrence Island, in Plafker, G., and Berg, H.C., eds., The Geology of Alaska: Geological Society of America, The Geology of North America, DNAG, v. G-1, p. 141-152.

Reference (Deposit): Eakin, H.M., 1915, Placer mining in Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 622-I, p. 366-373.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1930, Mineral industry of Alaska in 1928: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 813, p. 1-72.

Reference (Deposit): Hummel, C.L., 1962, Preliminary geologic map of the Nome C-1 quadrangle, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-247, 1 sheet, scale 1:63,360.

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): Smith, P.S., 1912, Notes on mining in Seward Peninsula, in Brooks, A.H., and others, Mineral resources of Alaska, Report on investigations in 1911: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 520-M, p. 339-344.

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.

---

The Top Ten Gold Producing States

These ten states contributed the most to the gold production that built the West from 1848 through the 1930s. The Top Ten Gold Producing States.