Jay Creek; Eagle Gulch Mine, Koyukuk Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Jay Creek; Eagle Gulch Mine	Mine
Koyukuk Mining District	Mining District
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: Jay Creek is a southwest-flowing tributary of Rye Creek; it is about 6 miles southeast of Mathews Dome. This mine is about 1/2 mile above the mouth of Jay Creek. Eagle Gulch, which is unnamed on the Wiseman B-3 topographic map, is a small, right-limit tributary to Jay Creek. Although the exact location of the placer workings on Jay Creek is not known, Reed (1938) noted that the claims extended from No. 1 Below Discovery (which reached about 500 feet into the Rye Creek valley) to No. 5 Above Discover, and that the creek was mined from the mouth to the lower reaches of No. 5 Above Discovery claim. The location is accurate.
Geology: Gold was discovered on Jay Creek in 1904 but mining did not begin until 1912 (Reed, 1938). Jay Creek is reputed to be the richest creek in the Wild River district. Jay Creek is in a canyon that averages about 50 feet wide. Brooks (1916) reported that the paystreak was 30 feet wide and 4 feet thick. Reed (1938) describes the gravel as thawed, very coarse grained with subangular sediments, 3 to 12 feet thick, and contains numerous erratic, conglomerate boulders. The gold occurs throughout the gravel and in the upper foot of the bedrock. The gold is coarse grained, unworn, very dark colored, and about 970 fine. Dillon (1982) reports a stibnite-quartz vein upstream from the placer, and Bliss and others (1988) speculated that the source of the gold is stibnite(?)-quartz veins within the drainage. The rocks in the vicinity consist of alternating bands of graphitic schist, micaceous schist, and greenstone schist (Reed, 1938). A little gold was found in Jay Creek near the mouth of Eagle Gulch, a locally named, small, right-limit tributary to Jay Creek (Reed, 1938). A chip sample of a quartz vein with pyrite and chalcopyrite in the upper drainage of Jay Creek contains 21 ppb gold and 82 ppm arsenic (Kurtak and others, 1999; sample no. 95). See also Rye Creek (WI084).
Workings: From 1912 through at least 1935, the creek was mined by booming and shoveling into sluice boxes. Mining took place over 5 or 6 claim lengths from the mouth of the creek to the lower part of No. 5 Above Discovery. A mechanized mining operation was active on Jay Creek in 1998.
Age: Quaternary.
Production: The estimated total production from Jay Creek through 1935 is about $200,000 (approximately 10,000 oz.). The ground that was mined had an average value of about $0.505 per square foot of bedrock (gold at $35 per ounce) (Reed, 1938). There is no information available about recent mining.

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

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	WI082

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References