Gold Hill Mine (drift mine near Dexter), Nome Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Gold Hill Mine (drift mine near Dexter)	Mine
Nome Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: The Gold Hill drift placer mine is in the headwater divide between Deer and Grouse Gulch, small north tributaries to Dexter Creek (NM303). The map location is the location of the Gold Hill shaft at an elevation of about 575 feet in the NE1/4 section 31, T. 10 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. It is included in locality 117 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463]; 1978 [OFR 78-93]).
Geology: The Gold Hill mine is one of several near the divide between upper Anvil Creek (NM236) and Dexter Creek (NM303) at surface elevations of about 450 to 600 feet, where high-level gravels were placer mined for gold. These deposits were in gravels that ranged from a few feet to more than 200 feet thick and commonly were very rich (Brooks and others, 1901; Collier and others, 1908). The richest pay was near bedrock and in decomposed or fractured bedrock. The high-level gravels were mined mostly by drifting, but some hydraulic mining also took place. Specific information about the Gold Hill deposit is not available. The high-level gravels were originally interpreted to be alluvial deposits in stream channels of former drainage systems, but more recent interpretations described them as glacial outwash-related material (Cobb, 1973 [B 1374] Nelson and Hopkins, 1972). The presence of erratic granite boulders and other exotic rock types suggests a glacial origin, but the exotic clasts are commonly in near-surface materials and not distributed throughout the high-level gravels (Moffit, 1913). The origin of the high-level gravels thus still seems in question. The richness of some of the placers suggests extensive reworking, proximity to lode sources, or both. Bedrock is mostly marble, in contact with graphitic schist to the north. these rocks are probably of early Paleozoic protolith age (Hummel, 1962 [MF 247]; Sainsbury, Hummel, and Hudson, 1972 [OFR 72-326]; Till and Dumoulin, 1994; Bundtzen and others, 1994).
Workings: Underground workings, probably now caved or flooded, were accessed by a shaft.
Age: Quaternary.
Production: Specific information about the Gold Hill deposit or its production is not available. Production from the high-level gravels of the general area totaled about 100,000 ounces by 1903 (Collier and others, 1908).

Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Alluvial placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	NM243

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References