Foster Prospect, Council Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Foster Prospect	Prospect
Council Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: The Foster prospect is in the headwaters of a north tributary of Omilak Creek at an elevation of approximately 1,250 feet. Omilak Creek flows westward from headwaters in the northern Darby Mountains to the Fish River in McCarthy's Marsh. This is locality 15 of Cobb (1972; MF 417; 1975; OFR 75-429) and locality 55 of Gamble (1988).
Geology: The Foster prospect is a zone of massive galena-bearing gossan, 700 feet long that is localized along the vertically fractured axis of an anticline. The host rocks are bleached and partly silicified marble that is part of a high grade metasedimentary assemblage of lower Paleozoic or Precambrian age (Till and other, 1986). The deposit is extensively and deeply oxidized and the gossan material is primarily limonite, goethite, cerussite, and anglesite (Herreid, 1965). Nodules of massive galena (to 2 feet across) encased in secondary oxides and carbonates are scattered through the mineralized zone and are residually concentrated at and near the surface (Mulligan, 1962). Dozer trenching has exposed a 12 by 90 foot gossan zone to a depth of 20 feet (Mulligan, 1962). Eight, three-foot long channel samples collected in the surface trench contained a trace to 25.6 % Pb (average 9.8 % P), a trace to 7.6 % Zn (average 1.5 % Zn), 5.7 to 42.5 % Fe (average 22.2 % Fe), a trace Au, 0.14 to 14.90 ounces/ton Ag (average 4.9 ounces/ton Ag), 0.1 to 0.3 % Sn (average 0.16 % Sn) adn 0.1 to 0.3 % Cu (Mulligan, 1962). Diamond drilling showed that extensive oxidation is present to depths greater than 400 feet. This drilling did not encounter massive sulfides, but sixteen assays of mixed core and sludge samples through the oxidized and mineralized zone averaged 4.6 % Pb and 0.95 ounces/ton Ag (Mulligan, 1962).
Workings: Several trenches and pits were dug in about 1890 when the nearby Omilak mine (BN097) was in operation. Initial dozer trenching took place in 1949 and the U. S. Bureau of Mines later added seven more dozer trenches. The U. S. Bureau of mines also completed 11 diamond drill holes between 201 and 430 feet in length, totalling 3,015 linear feet of drilling (Mulligan, 1962).
Age: Cretaceous ?; Epigenetic mineralization in metamorphic rocks of Seward Peninsula is primarily of Cretaceous age.
Alteration: Oxidation, fracturing, and leaching of wall-rock is known to a depth of 430 feet.
Production: Several tons of hand sorted, high grade ore have been collected and piled near the prospect.

Commodities (Major) - Ag, Au, Cu, Pb, Sn, Zn
Development Status: No
Deposit Model: Polymetallic vein or replacement in marble (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 19a or

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	BN098

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References