First Chance Creek, American Tinfields Inc. Mine, Port Clarence Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
First Chance Creek	Creek
American Tinfields Inc. Mine	Mine
Port Clarence Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Hudson and Reed (1997) have concluded that a marine transgression affected the Cape Creek area and contributed to higher grades in the pay streak on bedrock that is present there. This transgression would have also affected First Chance Creek although evidence of it in the form of marine deposits has not been noted in the previous work.
Location: First Chance Creek is a west tributary to Cape Creek (TE006) located 0.75 miles upstream from the mouth of Cape Creek mouth at Tin City on the Bering Sea coast. This is a small, 0.5 mile long drainage whose headwaters do not extend to the uplands of Cape Mountain to the west. First Chance Creek was included as part of locality 25 of Cobb and Sainsbury (1972). Cobb (1975) summarized relevant references under the names 'Cape Cr.' and 'American Tinfields, Inc.'.
Geology: Thin overburden (1 - 6 feet) overlies a thin (3 - 5 feet) gravel section on Mississippian limestone bedrock (Sainsbury, 1972). Churn-drill holes and shafts indicated grades between 0.5 and 4 pounds of tin per cubic yard (Mulligan and Thorne, 1959, p. 44) and an average grade of one pound of tin per cubic yard in the lower 1,500 feet of the drainage and traces of tin above (Mulligan, 1966, p. 20). Mulligan and Thorne (1959, p. 21) noted that some of the detrital cassiterite was coarse and attached to gangue minerals (not described) suggesting to them a local lode source rather than transport from Cape Mountain uplands to the west or north. This led to detrital cassiterite mapping in the area of First Chance Creek and discovery of the First Chance Creek Valley lode tin occurrence (TE010) between First Chance Creek and Sarah Creek (Mulligan, 1966, p. 21-22).
Workings: The lower 1,500 feet of the drainage has been mined by various surface, non-float methods.
Age: Quaternary
Production: Production is a small part of the total 1,650 short tons of tin produced from placers in the Cape Mountain area (Hudson and Reed, 1997, p. 452).
Reserves: Not defined; the lower 1,500 feet of the drainage has been mined.

Commodities (Major) - Sn
Development Status: Yes
Deposit Model: Alluvial tin placer (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39e)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	TE007

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References