Location: The Independence Mine is on a northwest-trending ridge about 2 kilometers east of Ganes Creek at an elevation of about 500 meters in the SW1/4 SW1/4, section 15, T. 33 N., R. 38 W., of the Seward Meridian. The mine is accurately located.
Geology: The Independence Mine is one of two lode deposits in the Iditarod Quadrangle with a recorded production of gold. The deposit at the mine is a quartz-carbonate-sulfide vein about 1.5 to 3 feet thick on the hanging wall of an altered composite andesite-granite porphyry dike. According to Eakin (1914) the vein exposed in underground workings averaged about 2 feet thick. The dike strikes N55-70E and dips steeply SE. The granite porphyry phase, which may be dominant, averages about 32 feet thick and can be traced in rubble for about 1,000 feet. The altered andesite phase is exposed in trenches above the underground workings (Bundtzen and Laird, 1982). About 1 to 5 percent sulfides, principally arsenopyrite, pyrite, and stibnite and minor cinnabar and stephanite, are disseminated in the vein and adjacent dike rock. Gold occurs in iron-stained crevices and vugs in quartz. Eakin (1914) reported microscopic native gold embedded in magnetite in vein material. Grab samples of the vein reported by McGimsey and others (1988) and Bundtzen and Miller (1997) contain up to 180.0 parts per million (ppm) gold, 13.0 ppm silver, 2.10 percent arsenic, 20 ppm bismuth, 0.56 percent antimony, more than 10.0 ppm mercury, 1,500 ppm lead, and 300 ppm tin. The vein was developed by an adit and possibly several hundred feet of inclined and level workings. About 470 tonnes of ore mined in 1911 and 1912 produced 479 ounces of gold. The Independence Mine is similar to other gold-polymetallic veins along the Ganes-Yankee Creek fault and dike swarm (Miller and Bundtzen, 1994; Bundtzen and Miller, 1997). Anomalous tin is present at the Independence Mine, it is known elsewhere in the region in rocks of about 70 Ma age, as in felsic plutonic rocks at Donlin Creek prospect (ID167). Mineralization at the Independence and nearby deposits along the Ganes-Yankee Creek fault and dike swarm has been compared to the Donlin Creek system by Miller and Bundtzen (1988) and Bundtzen and Miller (1997).
Workings: According to Eakin (1913), the underground work during 1912 consisted of a 60-foot tunnel, a 60-foot winze driven at the end of the adit, and two drifts about 30 and 50 feet long. The equipment at the mine site included a 12-horsepower engine and a Little Giant crusher and stamp mill. In 1979, the portal's entrance had caved and exposed the winze. Remnants of the stamp mill are about 650 feet meters south of the underground workings in a unnamed gulch. The mine was abandoned after the early production but has been prospected in recent years. Warren Magnuson explored the mine with trenches and open cuts in the 1960s and 1970s. Westgold explored the area in the early 1990s. Placer Dome Exploration conducted a detailed soil survey over the Independence Mine and drilled two core holes totaling about 500 feet in 1996-97 (St. George, 1998). Although the full details of the Placer Dome Exploration exploration are confidential, gold-bearing veins are known to have been intersected below the mine workings.
Age: The granite-porphyry dike at the Independence Mine has been dated at 70.4 Ma (T.K. Bundtzen, unpublished data, 1998).
Alteration: Local silicification and development of siderite and other carbonate minerals in an altered dike; secondary oxidation.
Production: The only production was in 1911 and 1912 when the Carter Creek Mining Company produced 479 ounces of gold from the underground workings.
Reserves: Probably small.

Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - Ag, As, Hg, Pb, Sb, Sn
Development Status: Yes
Deposit Model: Low sulfide gold-quartz vein or Porphyry gold-copper deposit; (Cox and Singer,

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Mineral List

9 valid minerals.