The Step Creek 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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Step Creek MRDS details
Site Name
Primary: Step Creek
Secondary: Step Gulch
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: Occurrence
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 (Exploration): Status = Inactive
Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = One USBM churn-drill hole on the lower part of the creek (approximately 400 feet elevation) was completed (Mulligan, 1959, p. 20).
Comment (Geology): Age = Quaternary
Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Killeen and Ordway, 1955; Mulligan, 1959 (USBM RI 5493)
Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Alluvial tin placer (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39e)
Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = Step Creek crosses the contact zone of the Ear Mountain biotite granite stock. This is a Late Cretaceous (76.7 +/- 2.9 my; Hudson and Arth, 1983, p. 769) composite biotite granite that intrudes an impure and schistose carbonate sequence, with some metapelitic rocks, of unknown but probable Paleozoic age. The country rocks are variably converted to tactite and hornfels around the granite stock (Knopf, 1908, p. 28-29). .One USBM churn-drill hole at about 400 feet elevation in the lower part of the creek indicated 0.05 pounds of tin per cubic yard in a 10-foot thick gravel section and 2 feet of underlying bedrock. A sample from this hole contained quartz, orthoclase, albite, oligoclase, and tourmaline with smaller amounts of grossularite garnet, idocrase, diopside, ankerite, pyrite, zoisite, epidote, chlorite and limonite pseudomorphs after pyrite. Cassiterite was also identified in very small amounts (Mulligan, 1959, p. 29). Pan concentrate material from the headwater gulch over granite bedrock contained cassiterite, monazite, zircon, and 0.142% eU (Killeen and Ordway, 1955).
References
Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1975, Tungsten occurrences in Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Investigations Resource Map MR-66, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.
Reference (Deposit): Killeen, P L., and Ordway, R.J., 1955, Radioactivity investigations at Ear Mountain, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, 1945: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1024-C, p. 59-94.
Reference (Deposit): Mulligan, J.J., 1959, Tin placer and lode investigations, Ear Mountain area, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 5493, 53 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): Knopf, Adolph, 1908, Geology of the Seward Peninsula tin deposits, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 358, 71 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): 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): Hudson, T.L., and Arth, J. G., 1983, Tin-granites of Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 94, p. 768-790.
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