Christmas Creek Mine, Haines, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Christmas Creek Mine	Mine
Haines	City Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: Christmas Creek is an informally named, north flowing creek that intersects Glacier Creek at an elevation of between 1,100 feet and 1,200 feet. The location is shown near the mouth of the creek in the SE1/4, section 35, T28S, R53E of the Copper River Meridian. Mine workings extend to head of Christmas Creek, 1.6 miles to the South. It is shown as locations 15 to 18 in figure 7 of Hoekzema and others (1986).

Geology: According to Hoekzema and others (1978), the lower portions of Christmas Creek were placer mined sporadically in the early 1900's and the late 1970's but the total production has only been about 200 ounces of gold. The creek is a small, steep, north-flowing tributary to Glacier Creek and has a gradient of 1,000 feet per mile. Four reconnaissance samples of alluvial gravels from old mining cuts near the junction with Glacier Creek indicated a relatively equal distribution of gold through 8 feet of gravel that averaged 0.0065 ounces of gold per cubic yard. The placer gold is rough and nuggety and panned-concentrate samples also contained garnet, magnetite, and zircon. Fine-grained, well-worn 'glacial' gold was panned from the lower 6 feet of of glacial till exposed in Christmas Creek and, apparently, contrasts with the placer gold in the alluvial gravels. Christmas Creek is the only locality in the Porcupine area where gold has been recognized in glacial till. Placer gold in the Porcupine area is generally considered to be derived from a northwest-trending zone of auriferous quartz-sulfide veins in metasediments in the Skagway B-4 quadrangle (Wright, 1904 [B 225 and B 236]; Eakin, 1918 and 1919; MacKevett and others, 1974). However, Hoekzema and others (1986) speculate that the placer gold in Christmas Creek may have been derived from stratiform volcanogenic mineral deposits in metavolcanic rocks.

Workings: The lower portion of Christmas Creek was placer mined with a small hydraulic plant in 1910 and this property was patented in 1916. A small heavy equipment operation worked the area in the late 1970's with meager results (Hoekzema and others, 1986).

Age: Quaternary.

Production: Total production is estimated at 200 ounces of gold (Hoekzema and others, 1986).

Reserves: According to Hoekzema and others (1986), the identified resources are largely restricted to the lower 0.5 miles of the creek. The lowermost section of the creek in the vicinity of previous workings is estimated to contain 12,000 cubic yards of gravel that contain 0.0065 ounces of gold per cubic yard. An additional resource of up to 30,000 cubic yards is estimated to occur farther upstream.

Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - W

Development Status: Yes; small

Deposit Model: Placer Au (Cox and Singer; model 39a).

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	SK062

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References