Henry Prather Prospect, Chistochina Mining District, Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Henry Prather Prospect	Prospect
Chistochina Mining District	Mining District
Valdez-Cordova Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

This prospect is within the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.
Location: This prospect is near Rainbow Creek on the north side of Elliott Creek valley (Moffit and Maddren, 1909, p. 64); it is at an elevation of about 4,100 feet in the SW1/4 section 35, T. 2 S., R. 7 E., of the Copper River Meridian. This prospect is approximately located, perhaps to within one-half mile. It is included in locality 65 Cobb and Matson (1972) and locality 55 of Winkler and others (1981 [OFR 80-892-B]).
Geology: Triassic Nikolai Greenstone hosts lenticular, fault-bounded bodies that contain bornite and chalcopyrite (Mendenhall and Schrader, 1903; Moffit and Mertie, 1923). Individual sulfide-bearing bodies can be 5 feet wide and 30 feet long. At this site, a later cross-cutting calcite vein, 8 to 12 inches wide, also contains bornite and chalcopyrite. The lenticular mineralization at the Henry Prather prospect may be a faulted segment of the sulfide-bearing body at the Goodyear prospect (VA030). The Nikolai Greenstone and overlying Chitistone Limestone are deformed into a large, asymmetric anticline with its axis approximately parallel to Elliott Creek. The copper mineralization is believed to be related to the regional mineralizing event that produced the rich Kennecott copper deposits in the McCarthy quadrangle (MacKevett and others, 1997).
Workings: Open cuts were used to explore this prospect.
Age: The copper mineralization is believed to be related to the mineralizing event that produced the rich Kennecott copper deposits in the McCarthy quadrangle to the east (MacKevett and others, 1997). This event is interpreted to have accompanied Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous deformation and metamorphism (MacKevett and others, 1997, p. 88).

Commodities (Major) - Cu
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Veins, disseminations, and fracture fillings in greenstone; probably related to

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	VA032

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References