The Second Beach 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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Second Beach MRDS details
Site Name
Primary: Second Beach
Commodity
Primary: Gold
Secondary: Silver
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: Producer
Operation Type: Unknown
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant:
Physiography
Not available
Mineral Deposit Model
Not available
Orebody
Not available
Structure
Not available
Alterations
Not available
Rocks
Name: Sand and Gravel
Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Holocene
Analytical Data
Not available
Materials
Ore: Gold
Ore: Ilmenite
Ore: Magnetite
Ore: Pyrite
Gangue: Garnet
Comments
Comment (Production): Production Notes = Possibly about 700,000 dollars, or 34,000 ounces of gold, were recovered, mostly before 1912.
Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Tuck and Metcalfe, 1942
Comment (Exploration): Status = Active?
Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Placer; buried beach.
Comment (Geology): Age = Quaternary.
Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = Second Beach was discovered in 1902 near Peluk Creek; it is termed Second Beach because it was the second beach deposit discovered in the district (Metcalfe and Tuck, 1942). Development of the deposit by drift mining started almost immediately (Brooks, 1905; Moffit, 1906; Collier and others, 1908). Except for gaps near Penny, Snake, and Nome Rivers, and Hastings Creek, the Second Beach is nearly continuous, although not everywhere mineable. Metcalfe and Tuck (1942) interpret the absence of the beach at Penny, Nome, Snake and Hastings, as an absence in sedimentation--'the beach may never have existed here as the [ancestral] streams were flowing into the Second Beach sea at this time.' the beach has been removed by erosion where intersected by Cunningham and Peluk Creeks.? the beach appears to have formed in different depositional environments. East of Hastings Creek, Metcalfe and Tuck (1942) inferred that it formed on an offshore bar. West of Hastings to near Little Derby Creek, and between Otter and Dry Creeks, the beach is at the base of an old escarpment eroded into older marine sediments. In general, gold occurs on clay false-bedrock, but it appears to lie on schist bedrock for a short distance between Peluk and Otter Creeks (Kastelic, 1975; Metcalfe and Tuck, 1942). At the Snake and Nome Rivers, local beaches appear to have formed on sand spits near the mouths of ancestral channels of these drainages.? the beach was generally buried by 10 to 25 feet of frozen sand and gravel. In some areas overburden was very thin and the beach was surface mined, but most of the beach was drift mined over beach widths of 10 to 100 feet. As on Present Beach, gold was fine and flaky and commonly associated with garnet-rich sand. The deposit appears to have been exceptionally rich just west of Otter Creek where 75,000 dollars worth (3,750 ounces) of coarse gold reportedly were recovered. Total production to 1911 was reported by Metcalfe and Tuck (1942) to be about 600,000 dollars (30,000 ounces). Not more than 100,000 dollars (5,000 ounces) has been recovered since then.
Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = Second Beach was discovered in 1902 near Peluk Creek, which had eroded through the deposit. Once known, the beach was easily recognized because it was marked by a surface escarpment about 10 to 40 feet high (Collier and others, 1908). The original prospectors recognized beach characteristics such as rounded quartz pebbles, marine shells, and remnants of marine vertebrates.
References
Reference (Deposit): Moffit, F.H., 1906, Gold mining on Seward Peninsula, Alaska, in Brooks, A.H., and others, Report on progress of investigations of mineral resources in Alaska in 1905: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 284, p. 132-144.
Reference (Deposit): Brooks, A.H., 1905, Placer mining in Alaska in 1904: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 259, p. 18-31.
Reference (Deposit): Kastelic, W.R., 1975, Gold placer exploration, Nome, Alaska: Colorado Mining Association, 1975 Mining Yearbook, p. 85-90.
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): 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): 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.
Reference (Deposit): Metcalfe, J.B., and Tuck, Ralph, 1942, Placer gold deposits of the Nome district, Alaska: Report for U.S. Smelting, Refining, and Mining Co., 175 p.
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