Road Cut

The Road Cut is a copper 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: Road Cut

Commodity

Primary: Copper
Primary: Gold
Secondary: Silver

Location

State: Alaska
District: Juneau (Skagway subdistrict)

Land Status

Not available

Holdings

Not available

Workings

Not available

Ownership

Not available

Production

Not available

Deposit

Record Type: Site
Operation Category: Prospect
Operation Type: Unknown
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant:

Physiography

Not available

Mineral Deposit Model

Not available

Orebody

Not available

Structure

Not available

Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Calcification, pyritization, silicification.

Rocks

Role: Host
Age Type: Host Rock
Age Young: Late Triassic

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Pyrite
Ore: Chalcopyrite
Gangue: Calcite
Gangue: Quartz

Comments

Comment (Geology): Age = the age is not well established. It can be no older than the Late Triassic metabasalts that host the deposit (Plafker, Hudson and Silberling, 1979; Plafker and Hudson, 1980). If the structures that localize the mineralization are related to the Chilkat Fault, then the age of the mineralization is probably Tertiary or youner as most movement on the Chilkat Fault has been post-Mesozoic (Lanphere, 1978).

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Still, 1988

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = The following description is summarized from Still (1988). The prospect is in a thick metabasalt sequence within 1/4 mile of an ultramafic intrusive. Mineralization is fault-controlled and is in a fault zone, the Road Cut fault that is up to 40 feet thick, strikes N35-40W, and dips steeply to the northeast. The fault zone consists of silicified, brecciated, and sheared metabasalt and locally sheared and brecciated diorite. At the surface, a higher grade zone outcrops over a strike length of 227 feet. Its eastern (upper) margin includes an 0.2- to 3.5-foot-thick quartz-calcite zone with up to 75% combined pyrite and chalcopyrite. Samples from this quartz-calcite zone contained from 0.8 to 32.26 ppm gold. The remainder of the width of the better mineralized zone consists of a shear zone of silicified metabasalt with 0.06% to 3% chalcopyrite, up to 5% pyrite, and gold values of 0.07 to 0.14 ppm. The higher-grade zone at the surface occurs within a 590-foot-long section of lower grade mineralization that is defined by drill holes and extends to a depth of at least 125 feet. This lower grade zone, which is open along strike to the north and south and down dip, ranges in width from 12 to 40 feet and consists of silicified, locally pyritized, brecciated metabasalt and, locally, brecciated diorite. Gold and copper values average less than 0.48 ppm gold and 268 ppm copper. From the descriptions of Still (1988) it appears that mineralization at the Road Cut and Road Cut II (SK005) prospects occurs along fault and shear zones that are subsidiary shears and splits to the nearby Chilkat fault. If so, the age of the mineralization is probably Tertiary or younger since most movement along the Chilkat Fault has probably been post-Mesozoic (Lanphere, 1978). Plafker, Hudson and Silberling (1979) and Plafker and Hudson (1980) cite fossil evidence for a Late Triassic (Karnian) age for the metabasalts on the Chilkat Peninsula. The nearby ultramafic body is probably 108-109 m.y. old based on potassium-argon ages from a pyroxenite at Battery Point (MacKevett and others, 1974). A sample of a copper-stained zone in greenstone collected a short distance due west of the Road Cut Prospect on the western shore of the Chilkat Peninsula by Winkler and MacKevett (1970) contained more than 9,999 ppm copper.

Comment (Exploration): Status = Inactive

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Copper sulfides with some precious metal values along a shear zone in metabasalt.

Comment (Deposit): Other Comments = This prospect is within a mile of the Chilkat State Park.

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = Work by the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1986 and 1987 included geologic mapping and sampling; 13 geophysical survey lines (magnetics, radiometrics and electromagnetics) totaling 7,600 feet in length; 7 diamond drill holes totaling 980 feet in length; and 6 trenches up to 6 feet deep and 20 feet long that were dug with mechanized equipment. Several geophysical anomalies that are subparallel to the deposit were drilled approximately 70 and 120 feet east of the surface mineralization but did not intersect significant mineralization (Still, 1988).

Comment (Reserve-Resource): Reserves = Still (1988) divides the mineralized area of the prospect into two zones, a higher grade gold-copper zone and a lower grade 'DDH' zone. He estimates a near-surface resource of 700 tons of material with 0.09 ounce of gold per ton, 0.17 ounce of silver per ton, and 0.8% copper in the gold-copper zone. A slightly deeper resource on this zone is estimated to consist of 4,729 tons of material with 0.02 ounces of gold per ton and 0.1% copper. He estimates a resource of 3 million tons of material with 0.008 ounces of gold per ton in the DDH zone.

References

Reference (Deposit): Gilbert, W.G., Still, J.C., Burns, L.E., Wier, K.R., and Redman, E.C., 1991, Geochemistry of Haines-Klukwan-Porcupine area, southeastern Alaska: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Report of Investigations 91-5, 1 sheet, scale 1:63,360, 75 p.

Reference (Deposit): Still, J.C., Hoekzema, R.B., Bundtzen, T.K., Gilbert, W.G., Wier, K.R., Burns, L.E., and Fechner, S.A., 1991, Economic geology of Haines-Klukwan-Porcupine area, southeastern Alaska: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Report of Investigations 91-4, 156 p., 5 sheets, scale 1:63,360.

Reference (Deposit): Still, J.C., 1988, Gold-copper Mineralization of the Chilkat Peninsula and Islands: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report 49-88, 39 p., 11 sheets.

Reference (Deposit): Still, J.C., 1991, Bureau of Mines mineral investigations in the Juneau mining district, Alaska, 1984 - 1988, v. 2, Detailed mine, prospect, and mineral occurrence descriptions, section A, Haines-Klukwan-Porcupine subarea: U.S. Bureau of Mines of Mines Special Publication, 214 p.

Reference (Deposit): Adler, K.M., and Adler, K.P., 1987, Haines Road Cut Project, 1987 geophysical survey: Anchorage, Alaska, On-Line Exploration Services, Inc., 3 p. (Unpublished material available at the Juneau Mineral Information Center, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Juneau, Alaska).

Reference (Deposit): Adler, K.M., 1986, Geophysical data review in Haines Road Cut Prospect, Skagway A-2 quadrangle, Alaska: Anchorage, Alaska, On-Line Exploration Services, Inc., 3 p. (Unpublished material available at the Juneau Mineral Information Center, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Juneau, Alaska).

Reference (Deposit): Plafker George, Hudson, T.L., and Silberling, N.J., 1979, Upper Triassic fossils from a sequence of volcanic and sedimentary rocks on the Chilkat Peninsula, southeastern Alaska, in Johnson, K.M., and Williams, J.R., eds., The United States Geological Survey in Alaska: Accomplishments during 1978: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 804-B, p. B107-B110.

Reference (Deposit): Plafker, George, and Hudson, T., 1980, Regional implications of Upper Triassic metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks on the Chilkat Peninsula, southeastern Alaska: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 17, p. 681-689.

Reference (Deposit): Kruger, F.G., 1986, Untitled report covering geophysics conducted on the Road Cut prospect: Salisbury and Associates, Inc., 3 p. (Unpublished material available at the Juneau Mineral Information Center, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Juneau, Alaska).

Reference (Deposit): Adler, K.M., and Adler, K.P., 1988, Haines Road Cut Project, 1987 geophysical survey. Update: Anchorage, Alaska, On-Line Exploration Services, Inc., 8 p. (Unpublished material available at the Juneau Mineral Information Center, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Juneau, Alaska).

Reference (Deposit): MacKevett, E.M., Jr., Robertson, E.C., and Winkler, G.R., 1974, Geology of the Skagway B-3 and B-4 quadrangles, southern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 832, 33 p.

Reference (Deposit): Winkler, G.R., and MacKevett, E.M., Jr., 1970, Analyses of bedrock and stream-sediment samples from the Haines-Porcupine region, southeastern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 369, 91 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:125,000.

Reference (Deposit): Lanphere, M.A., 1978, Displacement history of the Denali fault system, Alaska and Canada: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 115, p. 817-822

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