Apache; Navajo Prospect, Petersburg Mining District, Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Apache; Navajo Prospect	Prospect
Petersburg Mining District	Mining District
Hoonah-Angoon Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Although the Apache-Navajo prospect is on patented claims, the area around it is in the Chuck River Wilderness Area which is closed to prospecting and mining.
Location: The Apache and Navajo adits are at an elevation of about 2,700 feet, about 2.3 miles east of the mouth of Spruce Creek at the head of Windham Bay. The adits are about 0.3 mile northeast of the center of section 30, T. 49 S., R. 76 E.
Geology: The Apache-Navajo prospect is one of several prospects and mineral occurrences (SD046-049) in what is often referred to as the Third Zone of Spencer (1906; Kimble and others (1984). They are generally gold-quartz veins and veinlets in muscovite schist of Cretaceous age (Brew and Grybeck, 1984). The Apache-Navajo prospect was explored by two adits, one 60 feet long and the other 80 feet long (Kimble and others, 1984). The prospect was active from 1900 to 1903 but there has been little work since. The claims were patented in 1909. The deposit consists of irregular quartz veinlets and veins that generally parallel the foliation of the host rocks. They are oriented in several directions, notably N35-45W, 55-75SW and N04-08W, 70W. The veins were sampled by Kimble and others (1984); the highest grade sample they collected contained a trace of gold (less than 0.15 part per million (ppm) and up to 0.07 ppm silver. The deposits at the nearby Marty prospect (SD041) and the Sumdum Chief Mine (SD028) have been dated at about 55 million years (Goldfarb and others, 1997). This prospect is geologically similar and probably of the same age. Goldfarb and others (1997) also propose that most gold-quartz vein deposits along the Juneau Gold Belt such as this one were formed from fluids generated by Cretaceous metamorphism and then forced to the site of deposition by the emplacement of the Coast Range Batholith.
Workings: The Apache-Navajo prospect was explored by two adits, one 60 feet long and the other 80 feet long (Kimble and others, 1984). The prospect was active from 1900 to 1903 but there has been little work since. The claims were patented in 1909.
Age: The deposits at the nearby Marty prospect (SD041) and the Sumdum Chief Mine (SD028) have been dated at about 55 million years (Goldfarb and others, 1997). This prospect is geologically similar and probably of the same age.

Commodities (Major) - Ag, Au
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Low-sulfide gold-quartz vein (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a).

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	SD046

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References