Hed & Strand Mine (Head and Strand), Nome Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Hed & Strand Mine (Head and Strand)	Mine
Nome Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: The Hed & [and] Strand mine is in an east fork of upper Lost Creek, a south tributary to Stewart River; it is about 2.7 miles northeast of Mount Distin. The east fork tributary is known as Dahl Creek or Dahl Gulch (Cathcart, 1922, p. 224). The property is mainly in the SW1/4 section 14, T. 8 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. The location given is in the approximate center of the easternmost of two patented claims and near the main workings of the mine. The Hed & [and] Strand mine is locality 8 of Hummel (1962 [MF 248]) and locality 30 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]); it is located within about 500 feet of the coordinates.
Geology: The Hed & [and] Strand mine was developed by an adit and drifts on stibnite-bearing quartz veins in metamorphic rocks. The main vein was intersected 90 feet in from the portal of the adit; it strikes N 45 E and dips 48 N. At this point, the vein was followed by a 100-foot drift to the northeast and a 140-foot drift to the southwest (Mertie, 1918 [B 662-I, p. 425-449]). At the face of the 100-foot drift, the vein was about 2 feet wide and composed mostly of sheared schist with thin seams of stibnite on the hanging and foot walls. Where intersected in the adit, the vein was 4 feet wide; it consisted of white quartz and stibnite, with stibnite forming a footwall mass about 2 feet thick. A second subparallel vein was found 190 feet from the adit portal; it was drifted on for 170 feet. Lower grade material contains quartz and pyrite; Brooks (1916, p. 54-56) reported a mineralized mica schist with calcite, pyrite, and arsenopyrite. Mertie (1918, p. 438) reported that quartz with stibnite, exposed in the creek near the mine, assayed about 0.30 ounce of gold per ton; the associated stibnite contained about 0.1 ounce of gold per ton. The veins pinch and swell, and, as is typical of simple stibnite veins, the ore occurs in pods and kidneys (Bliss and Orris, 1986, p. 183-186). About 106 tons of stibnite ore were mined and shipped in 1915 and 1916. This ore had a low gold content. Development continued at the mine in the late 1920's and early 1930's. When Anderson (1947) visited the mine in about 1943, about 10 tons of 30 percent antimony ore were on the dumps and about 30 to 40 tons were exposed in mine workings. At that time, there were about 1,000 feet of accessible mine workings. The schist in the adit had a strike of about N 15 W and dipped at a low angle to the northeast. The main workings appear to lie within quartz-mica schist and a feldspar-rich epidote-bearing schist near a contact with massive marble (Bundtzen and others, 1994). The epidote-bearing schist may be part of a regional mafic metavolcanic assemblage that has an Ordovician protolith (Till and Dumoulin, 1994). Hummel (1962 [MF 248]) mapped an approximately east-west high-angle fault in Dahl Creek; the fault is upthrown on the south side. Earlier authors, including Mertie (1918 [B 662-I, p. 425-449]) and Cathcart (1922), noted a nearby metamorphosed granite body as possibly related to the mineralization, and Hummel (1962 [MF 248]) showed a small granite orthogneiss on the ridge east of the prospect. Granitic orthogneisses mapped by Bundtzen and others (1994) are about 1 mile north and 1 mile south of the prospect. The area is too complex to decipher with 1:63,360-scale mapping. The metamorphic rocks in this area are part of the Nome Group derived from Proterozoic or early Paleozoic protoliths (Till and Dumoulin, 1994). The Nome Group underwent regional blueschist facies metamorphism in the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous (Sainsbury, Coleman, and Kachadoorian, 1970; Forbes and others, 1984; Thurston, 1985; Armstrong and others, 1986; Hannula and McWilliams, 1995). The blueschist facies rocks were recrystallized to greenschist facies or higher metamorphic grades in conjunction with regional extension, crustal melting, and magmatism in the mid-Cretaceous (Hudson and Arth, 1983; Miller and Hudson, 1991; Miller and others, 1992; Dumitru and others, 1995; Hannula and others, 1995; Hudson, 1994; Amato and others, 1994; Amato and Wright, 1997, 1998). Lode gold mineralization on Seward Peninsula is mostly related to the higher temperature metamorphism in the mid-Cretaceous (Apodoca, 1994; Ford, 1993 [thesis]; Ford and Snee, 1996; Goldfarb and others, 1997). Lode antimony mineralization is inferred to be of the same approximate age.
Workings: Stibnite was discovered in Dahl Creek in about 1909, and development followed soon after. Workings consist of surface pits, an adit, and underground cross-cuts, drifts, and small stopes. Most of the workings were driven before 1918, and ore was produced and shipped in 1915 and 1916. Development continued at the mine in the late 1920's and early 1930's. When Anderson (1947) visited the mine in about 1943, about 10 tons of 30 percent antimony ore were on the dumps and about 30 to 40 tons were exposed in mine workings. At that time, there were about 1,000 feet of accessible mine workings. There was recent activity nearby in 1996-98 at the Bulk Gold prospect (NM071 and 072,) which includes the two patented Hed & [and] Strand claims.
Age: Mid-Cretaceous?; structures controlling deposits post-date regional metamorphism; mineralization could be similar in age to lode gold deposits of Seward Peninsula.
Alteration: Quartz veining and apparently some disseminated pyrite and arsenopyrite in nearby schist.
Production: About 106 tons of stibnite ore were mined and shipped in 1915 and 1916. This ore had a low gold content. Development continued at the mine in the late 1920s and early 1930s. When Anderson (1947) visited the mine in about 1943, about 10 tons of 30 percent antimony ore were on the dumps and about 30 to 40 tons were exposed in mine workings. At that time, there were about 1,000 feet of open mine workings.
Reserves: Probably a few tens of tons of stibnite ore were left exposed in mine workings (Anderson, 1947).

Commodities (Major) - Au, Sb
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Simple Sb deposit (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 27d).

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Link to USGS - Alaska:	NM070

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References