Christmas and Enterprise Prospect (Whitney claims), Lemesurier Island, Chichagof Mining District (Chicagof Mining District), Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Christmas and Enterprise Prospect (Whitney claims)	Prospect
Lemesurier Island	Island
Chichagof Mining District (Chicagof Mining District)	Mining District
Hoonah-Angoon Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Two patented claims, inactive for many years. Favorable area for skarn and porphyry-type molybdenum-copper deposits. The area is in Tongass National Forest, outside of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. It appears to be open for mineral location.

Location:
The prospect is about 50 feet above sea level near the southernmost point on Lemesurier Island, about 0. 2 mile west of triangulation station Gail. It is located accurately within about 0.1 mile. It is location 61 of Cobb (1972).

Geology:
Molybdenum and copper occur in contact-type deposits in marble of Paleozoic age that has been intruded by a granitic pluton of probable Cretaceous age. At the Whitney claims, a thirty-foot-wide zone along a contact between marble and granitic rock is mainly garnet-pyroxene tactite. A 78-foot adit driven in about 1916, started in tactite, cut through banded hornfels and quartzite, and ended in 'diorite'. Molybdenite occurs as fracture coatings and as disseminations in the tactite. Hornfels is developed locally and contains chalcopyrite. Local molybdenite-lined vugs or pockets in the tactite contain as much as several percent molybdenum.

Workings:
Surface exposures of molybdenite and chalcopyrite were explored in a 78-foot-long tunnel and 25-foot-crosscut, that were driven in about 1916. The occurrence was first reported by Knopf in 1912 and subsequently described in resource summaries by several researchers. It was visited by Reed in 1938, and in 1942, Smith summarized developments and also reported that Reed believed the prospect deserved more work.

Age:
Cretaceous or younger.

Alteration:
Development of hornfels and tactite.

Production:
Small test shipments made.

Commodities:
(Major) - Mo; (Minor) - Cu

Development Status:
None.

Deposit Model:
Contact metasomatic deposit, molybdenum skarn.

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	MF079

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References