Iron Creek Mine, Port Clarence Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Iron Creek Mine	Mine
Port Clarence Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: Iron Creek is the 1.3 mile-long north headwater tributary to Sutter Creek (TE021) that drains the east side of Potato Mountain (TE024) and the south side of the South Hill prospect (TE023). Its headwaters are against the highest part of Potato Mountain and separted by a small divide from the west fork of Buck Creek (TE020). This is locality 28 of Cobb and Sainsbury (1972). Cobb (1975) summarized relevant references under the name 'Iron Cr.'.
Geology: Bedrock in the headwaters of Iron Creek is thermally metamorposed thin- bedded metapelite, metasandstone, and minor impure metacarbonate rocks of unknown but probable Paleozoic age. These rocks makeup the relatively resistant upland of Potato Mountain that is interpreted to be underlain at depth by biotite granite (Hudson and Reed, 1997, p. 454). Its headwaters are adjacent to the most significant lode cassiterite mineralization in the area (Mulligan, 1965). This short headwater drainage has thin alluvial gravels, generally 4 to 5 feet thick, and a narrow pay streak that contained up to a few pounds of tin per cubic yard. Hand mining and sluicing took place along 1,500 feet of the creek channel starting about one half mile upstream from the confluence with Sutter Creek.
Workings: About 1,500 feet of the headwater reach has been hand mined; the pay streak was 4 to 5 feet thick and 15 to 20 feet wide. The USBM completed 22 churn-drill holes along 7 lines spread out over 3,200 feet of the drainage (Heide and Rutledge, 1949) and detrital cassiterite mapping in the headwaters to help define lode occurrences (Mulligan, 1965).
Age: Quaternary
Production: A small amount of the 1,124 short tons of tin that were produced from alluvial placers in the Potato Mountain area came from Iron Creek (Mulligan, 1965, p. 17).
Reserves: One small area (200 x 600 feet in area and 5 feet thick), averages about 0.6 pounds of tin per cubic yard (Heide and rutledge, 1949, p. 15; Mulligan, 1965, p. 24).

Commodities (Major) - Sn
Development Status: Yes
Deposit Model: Alluvial tin placer (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39e)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	TE022

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References