Colorado Creek

The Colorado Creek is a silver and 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: Colorado Creek

Commodity

Primary: Silver
Primary: Gold
Secondary: Mercury
Secondary: Palladium
Secondary: Antimony
Secondary: Uranium

Location

State: Alaska
District: Innoko

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

Model Name: Placer Au-PGE

Orebody

Not available

Structure

Not available

Alterations

Not available

Rocks

Not available

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Palladium
Ore: Samarskite
Ore: Xanthoconite
Ore: Gold
Ore: Powellite
Ore: Coulsonite
Gangue: Garnet
Gangue: Ilmenite
Gangue: Magnetite

Comments

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = Almost all past production has been from surface workings. Prior to 1915, some shafts were driven near the junction of Colorado Creek with Creston Creek. Beginning in 1930, hydraulic mine operations predominated, and from the late 1930s to the present, dragline-bulldozer have predominated. Hydraulic boom-dam methods proved to be very successful in previous years. ? From 1946 to 1948, the Goodnews Bay Mining Company conducted an extensive churn drilling program on Colorado Creek in anticipation of proving up a reserve that could be mined by a bucket line dredge. The company terminated the project and judged it was not suitable for a dredge. (John Fullerton, 1998). In recent years, the payzone has averaged about 0.015 ounces gold per cubic yard of pay (Ron Rosander, written communication, 1997).

Comment (Exploration): Status = Active

Comment (Geology): Age = Middle Pleistocene, based on isotopic dates from overburden and geological inference (Bundtzen and others, 1997; Thorson and Guthrie, 1982).

Comment (Deposit): Other Comments = See Neirod-East (MD020), Montana Saddle (MD018), and Montana Creek (MD015) prospects.

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Bundtzen and others, 1997

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = The Colorado Creek gold-polymetallic placer deposit in the Medfra quadrangle is a portion of a 6.5 mile (10.4 km) long auriferous placer paystreak originating in the Cripple Creek Mountains. The payzone in the Medfra C-6 quadrangle comprises about 2.0 miles (3.2 km) or 30 percent of the total commercially exploited deposit. The auriferous gravels in the lower end average about 16 feet (5 m) thick and have an average width of 800 feet (243 m). The east limit of the paystreak gradually turns into an elevated ancestral bench overlain by up to 40 feet (12 m) of mixed eolian and colluvial deposits of Illinoin and Wisconsin age. The overburden contains well preserved Pleistocene megafauna which has been excavated by University of Alaska-Fairbanks Museum personnel (Thorson and Guthrie, 1982). ? the gravels in Colorado Creek paystreak contain abnormally high concentrations of boulders up to 3 feet (0.9 m) in diameter derived from the Cripple Creek Mountains. This, coupled with knowledge that the Cripple Creek Mountains were glaciated in Quaternary time, suggests a glaciofluvial outwash origin for the placer deposits (Bundtzen and others, 1997). ? Gold in Colorado Creek averages 873 fine with 121 silver. Anomalous mercury (up to 2.02 percent) was detected in some placer gold. An unusual group of rare heavy minerals were identified from mine concentrates, including traces of palladium, the niobium-uranium-yttrium mineral samarskite, the vanadium mineral coulsonite, and the silver sulfosalt xanthoconite (Bundtzen and others, 1987). In addition, an abnormally high concentration of garnet-magnetite-tactie cobbles have been recovered in cleanups, presumably derived from mineralization at the Neirod-East prospect (MD020).

Comment (Commodity): Ore Material = palladium (trace)

Comment (Commodity): Ore Material = xanthoconite

Comment (Commodity): Ore Material = samarskite

Comment (Production): Production Notes = The first reported gold production from Colorado Creek occurred in 1913, when O. A. Olsen mined from a shaft near Creston Creek on a small scale (Bundtzen and others, 1997). After World War I, production was intermittent until 1928, when Sid Paulsen initiated a hydraulic mining venture. Dragline-bulldozer equipment was introduced in 1937. Mining continued on a small scale during World War II. From 1949 to 1958, Fullerton Brothers Mining Inc. and Strandberg and Sons Mining Inc. conducted large scale dragline-bulldozer operations in two locations on the creek. The Fullertons worked on the lower end mainly in the Medfra quadrangle. Mine activities ceased by 1960s. Beginning in 1974, Rosander Mining Company acquired most of the claims in the Colorado Creek basin and initiated medium scale dragline-bulldozer operations, which continues to the present day. Based on researching past mining records, Bundtzen and others (1997) estimate that approximately 110,000 ounces (3,421 kg) of gold and 12,500 ounces (388 kg) of silver were produced in Colorado Creek from 1913 to 1997. About 30 percent of this total came from the portion of the deposit within the Medfra C-6 quadrangle.

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Placer Au-PGE deposits (Cox and Singer, 1986; model no. 39a)

Comment (Commodity): Ore Material = palladium (trace)

References

Reference (Deposit): Bundtzen, T.K., Pinney, D.S., and Laird, G.M., 1997, Preliminary geologic map and descriptive data tables from the Ophir C-1 and western Medfra C-6 quadrangles, Alaska: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Public Data File Report 97-46, 10 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:63,360.

Reference (Deposit): Thorson, R.M., and Guthrie, R.D., 1982, Stratigraphy of the Colorado Creek Mammoth locality, Alaska: Quaternary Research, vol. 37, p. 214-278.

Reference (Deposit): Mertie, J.B., Jr., 1936, Mineral deposits of the Ruby-Kuskokwim region, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 864-C, 115-245.

Reference (Deposit): Patton, W.W., Jr., Moll, E.J., Dutro, J.T., Jr., Silberman, M.L., and Chapman, R.M., 1980, Preliminary geologic map of Medfra quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 80-811-A, 1 sheet, scale l:250,000.

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