Tin Cup

Site Name

Primary: Tin Cup

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Commodity

Primary: Tin

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Location

State: Alaska
District: Port Clarence

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Land Status

Not available

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Holdings

Not available

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Workings

Not available

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Ownership

Not available

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Production

Not available

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Deposit

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

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Physiography

Not available

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Mineral Deposit Model

Not available

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Orebody

Not available

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Structure

Not available

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Alterations

Alteration Type: L
Alteration Text: Alteration of the felsic dikes is probably weak clay and sericite development.

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Rocks

Not available

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Cassiterite

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Comments

Comment (Exploration): Status = Probably inactive

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Puchner,1984; Puchner, 1986

Comment (Reserve-Resource): Reserves = Not defined

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = Surface mapping and sampling and one vertical diamond drill hole to a total depth of 1,437 feet have been completed here.

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Uncertain; prospect is an area of weakly altered felsic dikes in marble above a buried tin granite complex. Mineralization at depth could include various types of tin greisen, skarn or replacement deposits (models 15c, 14b, and 14c of Cox and Singer, 1986)

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = The Tin Cup prospect is in marble that stratigraphically overlies the highly deformed metapelitic schist of the Kougarok Mountain area. The base of the marble is in many places schistose carbonate rocks and quartzite; the contact with underlying metapelitic rocks is probably a deformed unconformity. The marble may be as young as Devonian (Puchner, 1986, p. 1777) but the underlying metapelitic schist could be as old as Precambrian (Gardner and Hudson, 1984). Several felsic dikes intrude the marble at the Tin Cup prospect (Puchner, 1986, p. 1778). These dikes are visible from the air and were the focus of initial exploration that followed up the pan concentrate tin anomalies reported by Marsh and others (1972). Claims staked here by Texasgulf, Inc. in 1978 later became part of the Kougarok project of the Anaconda Minerals Company. The felsic dikes and associated mineralization such as skarn veinlets are assumed to be similar in age to intrusion and related mineralization at the nearby Kougarok prospect. The radiometric ages referenced by Puchner (1986) for the Kougarok prospect include an Rb/Sr age of 72 +/- 2 my for porphyritic biotite granite and a K/Ar age of 70.2 +/- 2.6 my for zinnwaldite granite from the Main plug. . The felsic dikes have various orientations and several intersect in the Tin Cup area. They are weakly altered and have anomalous tin contents. Gravity surveys indicate that the main granite pluton at depth is about 10,000 feet or more below the surface here (Puchner, 1986, p. 1778). Anaconda drilled one diamond drill hole in the Tin Cup prospect area. This veritical hole reached a depth of 1,437 feet, did not encounter significant mineralization, and bottomed in marble. However, below 656 feet depth, ten felsic dikes varying from less than a foot to 34 feet in intercept thickness, were encountered. Numerous skarn veinlets, with up to 400 ppm tin, were also encountered below 656 feet in this hole (Puchner, 1984). Magnetic anomalies are also reported to be present here (Puchner, 1984).

Comment (Geology): Age = Late Cretaceous; the felsic dikes and associated mineralization such as skarn veinlets are assumed to be similar in age to intrusion and related mineralization at the nearby Kougarok prospect. The radiometric ages referenced by Puchner (1986) for the Kougarok prospect include an Rb/Sr age of 72 +/- 2 my for porphyritic biotite granite and a K/Ar age of 70.2 +/- 2.6 my for zinnwaldite granite from the Main plug.

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References

Reference (Deposit): Marsh, W.R., Sainsbury, C.L., Hamilton, J.C., and Ewing, Rodney, 1972, Tin in panned concentrates, Serpentine River, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 536, 7 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): Hudson, T.L., and Arth, J. G., 1983, Tin-granites of Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 94, p. 768-790.

Reference (Deposit): Barnes, D.F., and Hudson, T. L., 1977, Bouguer gravity map of Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-796-C, scale 1:1,000,000.

Reference (Deposit): Puchner, C.C., 1984, 1983 Annual report; Kougarok Project: Anchorage, Alaska, Anaconda Minerals Company internal report (Report held by Cook Inlet Region, Inc., Anchorage, Alaska).

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): Gardner, M.C., and Hudson, T.L., 1984, Structural geology of Precambarian and Paleozoic metamorphic rocks, Seward terrane, Alaska [abs.]: Geological Society of American, Abstracts with Programs, v. 16, no. 5, p. 285.

Reference (Deposit): Gardner, M.C., and Hudson, T.L., 1984, Structural geology of Precambarian and Paleozoic metamorphic rocks, Seward terrane, Alaska [abs.]: Geological Society of American, Abstracts with Programs, v. 16, p. 285.

Reference (Deposit): Puchner, C.C., 1986, Geology, alteration, and mineralization of the Kougarok Sn deposit, Seward Peninsula, Alaska; Discussion reply: Economic Geology, v. 82, p. 2201-2204.

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