Buck Creek (including Left Fork; West Fork; Peluk Creek; and upper Buck Creek Mine; Bucks Creek), Port Clarence Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Buck Creek (including Left Fork; West Fork; Peluk Creek; and upper Buck Creek Mine; Bucks Creek)	Creek
Port Clarence Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: Buck Creek is the principal drainage on the east side of Potato Mountain (TE024) and the principal source of placer cassiterite production in this area. From headwaters against Potato Mountain, the stream drains 4 miles eastward to its mouth on Grouse Creek. Important tributaries to Buck Creek include Sutter Creek (TE021), Iron Creek (TE022) in the headwaters of Sutter Creek, Left Fork, West Fork, Peluk Creek, and upper Buck Creek. This is locality 29 of Cobb and Sainsbury (1972). Cobb (1975) summarized relevant references under the name 'Buck Cr.' and 'Peluk Cr.'.
Geology: Bedrock in the headwaters of Buck Creek is thermally metamorposed thin-bedded metapelite, metasandstone, and minor impure metacarbonate rocks of unknown but probable Paleozoic age. These rocks makeup the relatively resistant upland of Potato Mountain that is interpreted to be underlain at depth by biotite granite (Hudson and Reed, 1997, p. 454). Significant lode tin deposits are present in the headwaters of Buck Creek and its tributaries (Mulligan, 1965). Placer cassiterite occurs throughout the active drainage of Buck Creek, from its headwaters against Potato Mountain to its mouth about 4 miles eastward on Grouse Creek. The alluvial gravels have been mined by two small bucket-line dredges along the present stream channel from the mouth at Grouse Creek westward for 15,000 feet. Hand mining took place for 1,500 feet further upstream. As noted by Mulligan (1965, p. 14-15), Buck Creek seems to contain a small amount of gravel for the size of its valley. The thickness of the gravel section is commonly only 4 to 6 feet and widths are about 200 feet. The gravels are well-sorted, contain few boulders over 1 foot in diameter, and little clay (Heide and Rutledge, 1949, p. 5). Overburden varies from 0 to 14 feet thick in USBM churn-drill holes. The grade of the productive gravel has been estimated to have averaged 2.9 pounds of tin per cubic yard (Heide and Rutledge, 1949, p. 21). Grades as high as 9.5 pounds of tin per cubic yard were identified locally by USBM churn-drilling (Heide and Rutledge, 1949, p. 11). Here as elsewhere on western Seward Peninsula, the gravels are fozen except along active steam courses.
Workings: The lower 15,000 feet of Buck Creek was mined by two small bucket-line dredges. Another 1,500 feet of the creek above the dredged area was mined by hand methods. Post-mining churn-drilling by the USBM included 86 holes along the main drainage of Buck Creek and additional holes on tributaries.
Age: Quaternary
Production: Most of the 1,124 short tons of tin produced from the Potato Mountain area (Heide and Rutledge, 1949, p. 4) came from the placers of Buck Creek.
Reserves: Post-mining churn drilling by the USBM identified small areas containing up to 5 pounds of tin per cubic yard (Heide and Rutledge, 1949).

Commodities (Major) - Sn; (Minor) - Au (Sutter Creek to West Fork areas)
Development Status: Yes
Deposit Model: Alluvial tin placer (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39e)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	TE020

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References