Cape Creek Beach

The Cape Creek Beach is a tin 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: Cape Creek Beach
Secondary: American Tinfields, Inc.

Commodity

Primary: Tin

Location

State: Alaska
District: Port Clarence

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

Model Name: Alluvial placer Sn

Orebody

Not available

Structure

Not available

Alterations

Not available

Rocks

Not available

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Cassiterite

Comments

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = Exploration has included 74 churn-drill holes that delineate the deposit (Mulligan and Thorne, 1959, p. 45-47).

Comment (Geology): Age = Quaternary

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Mulligan and Thorne, 1959

Comment (Reserve-Resource): Reserves = Not defined; tin grades are too low to have justified mining in the past.

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = These deposits have formed from the reworking of alluvial deposits by recent shorelines at the mouth of Cape Creek. Seventy-four churn-drill holes define a fan-shaped area of about 25 acres of cassiterite-bearing, wave-worked beach deposits peripheral to the Cape Creek drainage where it crosses a 1,000 foot -wide coastal zone before entering Bering Sea. This low coastal zone is a former lagoon that is now filled with prograded beach deposits. The tin-bearing deposits are 4 to 26 feet thick and commonly 10 to 15 feet thick. The churn-drill holes extended to bedrock. The beach deposits are frozen except along the modern beach. Tin grades in the beach placer are low; commonly a few hundreths to a few tenths pound of tin per cubic yard (Mulligan and Thorne, 1959, p. 46-47).

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Beach tinplacer (related to alluvial tin placer (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39e)

Comment (Exploration): Status = Inactive

References

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1975, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Teller quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 75-587, 130 p.

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., and Sainsbury, C.L., 1972, Metallic mineral resource map of the Teller quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-426, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Reference (Deposit): Mulligan, J.J., and Thorne, R.L., 1959, Tin-placer sampling methods and results, Cape Mountain district, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Information Circular 7878, 69 p.

Reference (Deposit): Sainsbury, C.L., 1972, Geologic map of the Teller quadrangle, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Map I-685, 4 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Reference (Deposit): Heide, H.E., and Sanford, R.S., 1948, Churn drilling at Cape Mountain tin placer deposits, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 4345. 14 p.

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