Blacksand Island Beach Mine, Yakutat Mining District, Yakutat, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Blacksand Island Beach Mine	Mine
Yakutat Mining District	Mining District
Yakutat	City Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Information is lacking about the private drilling that was reported by Thomas and Berryhill in 1962. It is assumed, from the sparsity of recent work, that the grade of the deposit is low.
Location: The Blacksand Island placer extends for about 3.5 miles along the southwest shore of the island immediately northeast of the mouth of the Ahrnklin River. It is back of the Blacksand (Spit) placer (YA008).The coordinate location given is the approximate midpoint of the placer. The placer continues for about an equal distance (1.75 miles) northwesterly in the Yakutat B-5 quadrangle. The deposit is given as location 8 in Cobb (1972).
Geology: The Blacksand Island placer is in the depositional drainage area of the Ahrnklin River, hence possibly deltaic. The island could also be, in part, an older beach deposit that formed before Blacksand Spit. Irregular beach concentrates of black sand occur with interlocked magnetite-ilmenite and small amounts of gold.
Workings: The occurrence is one of the older placer deposits reported along the coast. Minor and generally unsuccessful mining activity was reported by Blackwelder (1907, p. 86-87); Thomas and Berryhill (1962) reported that there was some private churn drilling done about 1957, but the results are unknown. Foley and others (1995) reported analytical results from one sample--no. 276. The sample contained 0.63 percent titanium in a spiral concentrate split and did not contain gold in either the head- or spiral-concentrate splits.
Age: Holocene
Production: Very minor production took place in the 1890s and early 1900s.

Commodities (Major) - Au, Ti; (Minor) - Fe, Zr
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Riverine delta and beach deposit

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	YA009

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References