Big Hurrah

Site Name

Primary: Big Hurrah

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Commodity

Primary: Gold
Secondary: Zinc
Secondary: Copper
Secondary: Tungsten
Secondary: Silver

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Location

State: Alaska
District: Nome

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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: Producer
Operation Type: Unknown
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant:

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Physiography

Not available

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Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein

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Orebody

Not available

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Structure

Not available

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Alterations

Alteration Text: Silicification, carbonatization, and development of quartz-carbonate stockworks.

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Rocks

Not available

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Analytical Data

Not available

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Materials

Ore: Arsenopyrite
Ore: Sphalerite
Ore: Scheelite
Ore: Pyrite
Ore: Gold
Ore: Electrum
Ore: Chalcopyrite
Gangue: Albite
Gangue: Quartz
Gangue: Sericite

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Comments

Comment (Production): Production Notes = The Big Hurrah mine is the only productive lode gold mine on Seward Peninsula. The gold-quartz veins in slaty graphitic schist produced about 27,000 ounces of gold (Read and Meinert, 1986) primarily between 1903 and 1907, when a 20-stamp mill was in operation (Smith, 1908).

Comment (Workings): Workings / Exploration = A 60-degree inclined shaft extended to the 250 feet level; there are about 1,800 feet of lateral workings developed off it on the 70, 150, and 250 foot-levels. In 1954, a 105-foot-long sublevel was driven at 20 feet below the 150-East level (Asher, 1969, DGGS R33). Surface prospecting pits and trenches are widespread including many dug in the 1980's.

Comment (Exploration): Status = Active

Comment (Reference): Primary Reference = Read and Meinert, 1986

Comment (Geology): Geologic Description = The Big Hurrah mine is the only productive lode gold mine on Seward Peninsula. Gold-quartz veins in slaty graphitic schist produced about 27,000 ounces of gold (Read and Meinert, 1986) primarily between 1903 and 1907, when a 20-stamp mill was in operation (Smith, 1908). The ore that was mined averaged a little less than 1 ounce gold per ton (Cobb, 1978, OF 78-181); six samples collected underground in 1952 from the 70 foot level contained 0.08 to 5.2 ounces Au per ton and 0.5 to 17.2 ounces Ag per ton (Asher, 1969, DGGS R33). The mill tailings were cyanided and there were attempts to restart underground mining in the 1950's. A fire and unstable ground prevented further underground work and all workings are now flooded. However, considerable core drilling and surface trenching has taken place in more recent years, primarily in the 1980s. Read and Meinert (1986) describe five types of veins: 1) quartz +/- carbonate lenses, 2 to 7 cm thick, locally contain minor sphalerite, chlorite and arsenopyrite; 2) quartz, carbonate, pyrite, sphalerite and chalcopyrite form tabular veins 2 to 5 mm thick; 3) ribbon quartz veins up to 4 m wide (average 0.5 m wide) occupy NW-trending faults and contain more than 90 % quartz, dolomite, albite, sericite, scheelite, arsenopyrite, pyrite and native gold; the total sulfide content is less than 2 to 3 percent and scheelite is less than 1%; 4) quartz-albite +/- arsenopyrite veins 5 to 25 cm wide contain up to 25% albite, up to 20% arsenopyrite and minor gold; thought to be syngenetic; 5) post-mineralization carbonate-quartz veinlets 2 to 3 mm thick that cut all other vein types. Coats (1944) estiimated that the scheelite content of gold ore that remained in the bins was 0.25 percent by volume. Some veins are up to several hundred feet long; the larger veins strike northwest and dip southwest (Asher, 1969, DGGS R33). Fluid inclusion data from these veins indicate multiple generations of fluids; early veins contain CO2-CH4 and later veins are rich in H2O-NaCl. Homogenization temeratures vary from 390 to 90 degrees C. The available data suggest the gold-bearing fluids were produced by regional metamorphic processes. The country rock is part of a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (Sainsbury and others, 1972; Till and others, 1986) that includes a distinctive black, very fine-grained, graphitic schist that early workers called the Hurrah Slate in this area. The Big Hurrah veins are probably similar in age to some other gold-quartz veins of southern Seward Peninsula. The other southern Seward Peninsula lode gold deposits formed as a result of mid-Cretaceous metamorphism (Apodoca, 1994; Ford, 1993, Ford and Snee, 1996; Goldfarb and others, 1997) that accompanied regional extension (Miller and Hudson, 1991) and crustal melting (Hudson, 1994). This higher temperature metamorphism was superimposed on high pressure/low temperature metamorphic rocks of the region.

Comment (Commodity): Gangue = carbonate

Comment (Deposit): Model Name = Gold-quartz vein in metamorphic rocks; low sulfide-Au quartz vein (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a).

Comment (Geology): Age = Cretaceous

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References

Reference (Deposit): Coats, R.R., 1944, Occurrences of scheelite in the Solomon district, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 4, 4 p.

Reference (Deposit): Miller, E.L., and Hudson, T.L., 1991, Mid-Cretaceous extensional fragmentation of a Jurassic-Early Cretaceous compressional orogen, Alaska: Tectonics, v. 10, p. 781-796.

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1978, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-181, 185 p.

Reference (Deposit): Till, A.B., Dumoulin, J.A., Gamble, B. ., Kaufman, D.S., and Carroll, P.I., 1986, Preliminary geologic map and fossil data, Soloman, Bendeleben, and southern Kotzebue quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 86-276, 10 p., 3 plates, scale 1:250,000.

Reference (Deposit): Apodoca, L. E., 1994, Genesis of lode gold deposits of the Rock Creek area, Nome mining district, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Boulder, Colorado, University of Colorado, Ph.D. dissertation, 208 p.

Reference (Deposit): Read, J.J., and Meinert, L.D., 1986, Gold-bearing quartz vein mineralization at the Big Hurrah mine, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Economic Geology, v. 81, p. 1760-1774.

Reference (Deposit): Sainsbury, C.L., Hudson, T.L., Ewing, R., and Marsh, W.R., 1972, Reconnaissance geologic maps of the Solomon D-5 and C-5 quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 511, 12 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:63,360.

Reference (Deposit): Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic resources map of the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-445, scale 1:250,000.

Reference (Deposit): Hudson, T.L. 1994, Crustal melting events in Alaska, in Plafker, G., and Berg, H. C., eds., The Geology of Alaska: Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America, The Geology of North America, v. G-1, p. 657-670.

Reference (Deposit): Ford, R.C., and Snee, L.W., 1996, 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology of white mica from the Nome district, Alaska: The first ages of lode sources to placer gold deposits in the Seward Peninsula: Economic Geology, v. 91, p. 213-220.

Reference (Deposit): Goldfarb, R.J., Miller, L.D., Leach, D.L., and Snee, L.W, 1997, Gold deposits in metamorphic rocks in Alaska, in Goldfarb, R.J., and Miller, L.D., eds., Mineral deposits of Alaska: Economic Geology Monograph 9, 482 p.

Reference (Deposit): Smith, P.S., 1910, Geology and mineral resources of the Solomon and Casadepaga quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 433, 234 p.

Reference (Deposit): Ford, R.C., 1993, Geology, geochemistry, and age of gold lodes at Bluff and Mt. Distin, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Golden, Colorado School of Mines, Ph.D. dissertation, 302 p.

Reference (Deposit): Asher, R.R., 1969, Geologic and geochemical study, Solomon C-5 quadrangle, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: Alaska Division of Mines and Geology Geologic Report 33, 64 p.

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