Hammond River; Hammond Creek Mine, Koyukuk Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Hammond River; Hammond Creek Mine	Mine
Koyukuk Mining District	Mining District
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: The Hammond River is a large, northern tributary of the Middle Fork, Koyukuk River. It begins near Alhamblar Mountain, nearly 35 miles north of its junction with the Middle Fork. The mouth of the Hammond River is located approximately 4 miles northeast of Wiseman and 3 miles east of Midnight Dome. Gold has been produced from the Hammond River for a distance of about 13 miles above its mouth, but most mining has been within 3 miles of the mouth. The 13 miles of productive ground extends from its mouth to the mouth of Canyon Creek. The coordinates are about the center of the more productive ground, near the Discovery claim.
Geology: Gold was discovered on the Hammond River about 1900 (Maddren, 1913). The gold is mainly along the lower 13 miles of the river, although most mining has occurred within 3 miles of its mouth. The gold is in the modern channel, a deep channel, and a high channel. Most of the gold has come from the deep channel. There has been intermittent mining of the gravels in the modern channel, mostly prior to 1910. This mining was principally in areas where the river has cut to bedrock from just below Buckeye Gulch to above the mouth of the Hammond River. According to Maddren (1913), this mining in the modern channel produced about $8,000 to $10,000 in gold (gold at $20.67 per ounce) by 1913. Gravel in the deep channel have been mined from near the mouth of Buckeye Gulch to about a mile or so above the mouth of the Hammond River. The lower end of the deep channel extends into the valley of the Middle Fork, Koyukuk River, but is truncated in valley, presumably by glacial scouring. The deep channel is approximately 30 feet wide and lies more than 115 feet below the modern river level at its lower end, rising to about 35 feet below the modern channel near its upper end. The gravels of the deep channel were said to become richer downstream. The gold in the deep channel occurs directly on bedrock; it is coarse grained, rounded, and waterworn. Galena and pyrite are locally associated with the gold. The deep channel, except for a few areas overlooked by the early miners, was thought to be mined out by 1937 (Reed, 1938). Workings in one of these overlooked spots in 1936 and 1937 found a section 8-10 thick of paying gravel. The channel was 35 feet wide and the depth to bedrock was 115 feet. The gravel consisted of small boulders and large cobbles, separated by sand and fine gravel. The gravel was frozen to bedrock (although this was not always the case at other locations along the deep channel) and the bedrock was described as hard schist (Reed, 1938). The gold included many nuggets, was waterworn, and had a fineness of 961. According to Reed (1938), the ground was valued at about $1.46 per square foot of bedrock (gold at $35 per ounce). Gold also occurs in sections of a high channel preserved along the lower Hammond River. These sections appear to be 40-50 feet above the modern river bed and were first encountered in locations where the high channel is cut by tributary streams such as at Buckeye Gulch (WI100). Little additional information is available about these bench deposits. Much coarse gold has been produced from the Hammond River, including several nuggets valued at $800 to $1100 (gold at $20.67 per ounce.) and a 137 ounce nugget (Maddren, 1913; Dillon, 1982). Mosier and Lewis (1986) reported that gold in 14 samples from Hammond River varies from from 845 to 929 fine with a median fineness of 900. See also: Slisco Bench (WI129).
Workings: Workings included extensive drift mining on the deep channel, beginning around 1913 and continuing until around 1950. Drift mining of the deep channel was often impeded by water problems in thawed gravels. There was limited mining of the modern stream bed, generally by hand methods, in the early 1900's. Some mining took place on preserved sections of a high channel early 1900's. Mining has continued along the Hammond River intermittently through at least the 1990's. This work included opencut mining near Wiseman in 1993 (Bundtzen and others, 1994) and open-pit mining as late as 2000 (Szumigala and others, 2001).
Age: Quaternary.
Production: The total placer gold production figures for the Hammond River are uncertain, but most reports agree that it has been substantial. Bliss and others (1988) indicate that total production may have been in the range of 1.2 to 1.8 tonnes of gold (although these figures likely included production from tributaries, including Gold Bottom Gulch (WI104), Buckeye Gulch (WI100), Swift Creek (WI130), and Steep Creek). Eden (2000) reported that only 17,255.90 ounces of gold has been produced from the Hammond River between 1904 and 1999.

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

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	WI103

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References