Duryea; Duryea & McNeil; Ida G; Silver Bell; War Eagle; Silver Creek; Hi-Hope; Bear Creek Prospect, Bristol Bay Mining District, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Duryea; Duryea & McNeil; Ida G; Silver Bell; War Eagle; Silver Creek; Hi-Hope; Bear Creek Prospect	Prospect
Bristol Bay Mining District	Mining District
Kenai Peninsula Borough	Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: The Duryea prospect is at an elevation of about 2,000 feet at the head of an unnamed north fork of Silver Creek. It is about 3.5 miles up the Native Trail that connects Meadow Lake with the old Iliamna village site. The prospect is mainly in the NW1/4 SW1/4 sec. 5, T. 6 S., R. 27 W., Seward Meridian, but it may extend west into section 6. The location is probably accurate within 0.5 mile. The Duryea prospect is number 6 of Detterman and Cobb (1972).
Geology: The country rocks at the Duryea prospect are the Upper Triassic Bruin Limestone Member of the Kamishak Formation, and greenstone that conformably underlies(?) the limestone (Detterman and Reed, 1980). The Bruin Limestone strikes northeast and consists mainly of massive- to thin-bedded, light- to dark-gray limestone interbedded with banded green and white chert. The limestone and greenstone are intruded by a myriad of vertical dikes that crosscut the formation and by larger dikes and sills that parallel the strike of the limestone (Martin and Katz, 1910, 1912). The mineral occurrences apparently are vein and replacement deposits in limestone. Exposures and shallow pits aligned about N45E suggest a fault-controlled mineralized zone about 5,000 feet long, marked by gossan of manganiferous iron oxide and limonite. The most abundant ore minerals below the oxidized zone appear to be sphalerite, galena, pyrite, and minor amounts of chalcopyrite. Brooks (1913) was told of arsenopyrite on the property. Martin and Katz (1912) reported owner's claims of samples assaying 80 to 196 ounces of silver per ton, about 1 ounce of gold per ton, 35 to 50 percent lead, and 15 to 20 percent zinc.
Workings: Claims were first located in about 1901-02 (Martin and Katz, 1910). Brooks (1913) reported that two tunnels were driven and intersected ore at a depth of 150 feet. Development work, including plans for a test shipment, trail improvements, and underground development, probably continued through 1922 (Brooks, 1914, 1915, 1923; Brooks and Capps, 1924). Moxham and Nelson (1952) reported that the underground workings had caved prior to their investigation in 1949, and Butherus and others (1981) could find no certain evidence of the deposits at the Duryea, although they reported mineralization in the area.
Age: Late Triassic or younger.
Alteration: Skarn-like replacement of limestone. Oxidation of sulfide minerals.

Commodities (Major) - Ag, Au, Pb, Zn; (Minor) - Cu
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Zn-Pb skarn? (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 18c).

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Link to USGS - Alaska:	IL020

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References