Basin Creek Mine, Nome Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Basin Creek Mine	Mine
Nome Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Basin Creek has been one of the most productive creeks on the east side of the Nome River in the Nome district.
Location: This alluvial placer gold mine is on Basin Creek, an east tributary to Nome River. About 7,000 to 8,000 feet of Basin Creek, between elevations of 150 and 350 feet, have been placer mined. The map location is 0.6 mile upstream of the mouth of Basin Creek, about where it enters the Nome River floodplain, in the NW1/4 section 28, T. 9 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. It is locality 112 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]). The location is accurate to within about 500 feet.
Geology: Gold was discovered on Basin Creek by 1900 (Brooks and others, 1901). At least 1 mile of the creek has been extensively placer mined, much by a small floating dredge. The partly crystalline gold was in a 150-foot-wide paystreak consisting of coarse gravels on bedrock and in crevices in bedrock. From top to bottom, the unconsolidated section included 2 feet of soil, 3 feet of rounded gravel, 12 feet of coarse, angular gravel containing more than 30 percent clasts greater than 10 inches in diameter, clay on bedrock, and 0.5 to 1.5 feet of fractured bedrock (Collier and others, 1908). Heavy mineral concentrates contained ilmenite, hematite, and scheelite. Coats (1944) later reported that the amount of placer scheelite in Basin Creek was negligible. The gold was approximately 900 fine (Purington, 1905). This mine continued to be active, at least for the purposes of tourist visits, at least until the 1970's. Bedrock is mainly marble, probably of Paleozoic protolith age (Hummel, 1962 [MF 247]; Till and Dumoulin, 1994). Bundtzen and others (1994) determined that albite-bearing mafic schist was in thrust contact with the marble about at the head of the paystreak in Basin Creek.
Workings: Extensive placer mine tailings are present along about 1 mile of Basin Creek upstream from the Nome River floodplain. Road construction materials have also been mined from the patented claims in Basin Creek. Mining since about 1960 has been mainly by a bucket line dredge with about 1.5-cubic-foot buckets. This dredge was constructed, and has been operated, by the Engstrom family.
Age: Quaternary.
Production: Production until about 1906 was about 1,450 ounces of gold (Moffit, 1913). Total production until 1996 is believed to be less than 20,000 ounces.

Commodities (Major) - Au, W
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Alluvial placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	NM301

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References