Canyon Creek Mine, Council Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

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

Location: Canyon Creek is a large west tributary to the Casadepaga River. The mouth of Canyon Creek is at 270 feet elevation, 11 miles upstream from the confluence of the Casadepaga and Niukluk Rivers. Placer mining took place along the lower 1.5 miles of the creek. This is locality 51 of Cobb (1972, MF 445; 1978, OF 78-181).
Geology: The active floodplain of Canyon Creek is incised about 10 feet into terraces that are best developed on the north side of the creek. The terraces are cut into pelitic schist bedrock and mantled by about 12 feet of clean well-rounded gravel. The bench gravels carry gold throughout although it is concentrated on bedrock (Smith, 1910). Some gravels of the active drainage include large schist slabs probably reflecting the proximity of bedrock. The active stream gravels were 3 feet thick about 2 miles upstream of the mouth (Brooks and others, 1901). Although open cut and hydraulic mining was initially undertaken, a dredge operated on Canyon Creek at least in the period 1916-18 (Cobb, 1978, OF 78-181). Sainsbury and others (1972, OFR 511) show placer tailings along the lower 0.5 miles of the creek and Cobb (1972, MF442) shows mining to have been undertaken along the creek between the mouths of Sunshine and Boulder Creeks. Bedrock in the Canyon Creek area is mostly a pelitic schist assemblage of Cambrian or Precambrian age that is contact with a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage to the west in the headwaters of Canyon Creek (Till and others, 1986).
Workings: Small-scale surface open cut and some dredging operations took place on the creek from between 1910 to at least 1918. Sainsbury and others (1972) show placer tailings along the lower 0.5 miles of the creek and Cobb (1972, MF442) shows mining to have occurred along the creek between the mouths of Sunshine and Boulder Creeks.
Age: Quaternary; the numerous incised terraces along the Casadepaga River and its major tributaries indicate that more than one cycle of erosion and deposition has developed placer deposits in the area. The low elevations between 170 and 270 feet along the first 11 miles of the river, suggest that Quaternary sea level fluctuations could have influenced placer development.

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

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	SO083

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References