Location: The east part of the Bulk Gold prospect of Altar Resources comprises land at the head of Dorothy Creek and east of the ridge at the head of Dahl Creek, a tributary to Los Creek, but not shown on the 1972 edition of the USGS topographic map. The east block includes sections 13 and 24, T. 8 S., R. 33 W., and part of section 18 in T. 8 S., R. 32 W., Kateel River Meridian. The location is on a north-trending ridge overlooking the head of Dorothy Creek. It approximately coincides with pits where bedrock contains anomalous arsenic and gold (David Lajack, written communication, 1999). The location of the pits is accurate to within about 500 feet of the coordinates.
Geology: The Bulk Gold prospect was identified from stream sediment sampling and soil samples collected between 1994 and 1998 (Daniel Lajack, written communication, 1999). Prospect pits are located just south of the saddle on the south side of hill 1137, immediately north of the center of section 13, T. 8 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. Bedrock samples collected from the prospect pits contained from 0.027 to 0.035 ounce of gold per ton and from 7,490 ppm to more than 1 percent arsenic. The arsenic is present as arsenopyrite or its oxidation product, scorodite. Another sample collected about due west of the pits in upper Dorothy Creek contained 0.011 ounce of gold per ton and 1.7 percent arsenic. Antimony values were anomalous in these samples. Controls of mineralization are unknown. The east part of the Bulk Gold prospect is underlain mostly by massive marble and feldspathic epidote-bearing schist that is probably in thrust contact with the underlying marble (Bundtzen and others, 1994). The epidote-bearing schist may be part of a regional mafic metavolcanic assemblage that has an Ordovician protolith (Till and Dumoulin, 1994). The prospect pit area is shown by Bundtzen and others (1994) as entirely underlain by marble. Hummel (1962 [MF 248]) mapped several small granitic orthogneiss sills in this area. The metamorphic rocks in this area are part of the Nome Group derived from Proterzoic to early Paleozoic protoliths (Till and Dumoulin, 1994). The Nome Group underwent regional blueschist facies metamorphism in the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous (Sainsbury, Coleman, and Kachadoorian, 1970; Forbes and others, 1984; Thurston, 1985; Armstrong and others, 1986; Hannula and McWilliams, 1995). The blueschist facies rocks were recrystallized to greenschist facies or higher metamorphic grades in conjunction with regional extension, crustal melting, and magmatism in the mid-Cretaceous (Hudson and Arth, 1983; Miller and Hudson, 1991; Miller and others, 1992; Dumitru and others, 1995; Hannula and others, 1995; Hudson, 1994; Amato and others, 1994; Amato and Wright, 1997, 1998). Lode gold mineralization on Seward Peninsula is mostly related to the higher temperature metamorphism in the mid-Cretaceous (Apodoca, 1994; Ford, 1993 [thesis]; Ford and Snee, 1996; Goldfarb and others, 1997).
Workings: The only development is hand-dug prospect pits excavated in the period 1994-98, when the area was explored by Teck Exploration Company and Altar Resources.
Age: Mid-Cretaceous?; mineralization could be similar in age to many lode gold deposits of Seward Peninsula.
Alteration: Oxidation.

Commodities (Major) - Au, Sb; (Minor) - As
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Possibly disseminated and stratabound in metamorphic rocks, or in low sulfide A

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Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical Elements

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.

ⓘ Arsenic

ⓘ Gold

Mineral List

5 valid minerals.