Goose Creek Mine, Kougarok Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Goose Creek Mine	Mine
Kougarok Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: Goose Creek is a northwest tributary to Noxapaga River. The mouth of Goose Creek is 1.7 miles downstream from the mouth of Andesite Creek, an eastern tributary to Noxapaga River. The location of placer workings on this creek is approximate. This is locality 54 of Cobb (1972; MF 417; 1975; OFR 75-429).
Geology: Gold was reportedly discovered on Goose Creek in 1900 (Brooks, 1901) and mining soon followed (Collier, 1902). Mining also took place here before and after WW II (Smith, 1941; Hopkins, 1963). Frozen, stratified peat and silt (muck), 20 to 30 feet-thick, commonly overlies a few feet of auriferous gravel on schist bedrock (Hopkins, 1963, Figure 8, p. 94). Muck locally contains bones of extinct Pleistocene mammals. Although tundra cover of bedrock is extensive in the area (Till and others, 1986), Hopkins (1963) indicates that quartz-calcite veins are common in schist bedrock of the gold- producing tributaries to the Noxapaga River.
Workings: Surface open-cut placer mining has taken place on this creek.
Age: Quaternary; an early radiocarbon age on shallow parts of the frozen and stratified peat and silt of nearby Black Gulch was 8,800 +/- 200 years (Hopkins, 1963, Figure 8).

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

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	BN020

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References