Copper King Prospect, Chisana Mining District, Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Copper King Prospect	Prospect
Chisana Mining District	Mining District
Valdez-Cordova Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

The locality is in the Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve.
Location: This prospect is at an elevation of about 6,000 feet, southwest of the terminus of Middle Fork Glacier. It is near the southwest corner of section 20, T. 1 S., R. 19 E. of the Copper River Meridian. This is locality 172 of MacKevett (1976); the location is probably accurate to within 1,000 feet. Cobb and MacKevett (1980) included this prospect under the name 'Copper King (White River)'.
Geology: This deposit at this prospect consists of a 2-meter-thick zone in Triassic amygdaloidal basalt that contains native copper, azurite, and malachite (Capps, 1916; MacKevett, 1976). The copper is intergrown with calcite, prehnite, and other zeolite minerals. Copper mineralization is common in Triassic Nikolai Greenstone and is thought to have accompanied regional deformation and low-grade metamorphism in the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (MacKevett and others, 1997).
Workings: The prospect was explored by two open cuts and 2 short adits (Capps, 1916).
Age: Cretaceous? Copper mineralization is common in Nikolai Greenstone and is thought to have accompanied regional deformation and low-grade metamorphism in the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (MacKevett and others, 1997).
Alteration: Replacement by calcite, epidote(?), prehnite, and other zeolite minerals.

Commodities (Major) - Cu
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Basaltic Cu (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 23)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	MC009

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References