Location: Lake Creek drains the area between Mathews Dome and Wild Lake; it empties into the east side of Wild Lake about 0.5 mile north of the south end of the lake. Mining on Lake Creek has mainly been in an area near the head of the alluvial fan on the lower part of the creek and on an area above a fork of the creek about 1.5 miles east of Wild Lake. The two areas are about 0.8 mile apart and the coordinates are given for the midpoint between them. The location is accurate within 1 mile.
Geology: Gold was discovered on Lake Creek in 1903 (Maddren, 1913) and mining has continued intermittently through at least 1996 (Kurtak and others, 1999). Mining has been concentrated near the head of the alluvial fan where the creek enters Wild Lake and in a narrow portion of the creek valley about 1.5 miles east of the lake. Near the head of the alluvial fan, the depth to bedrock is 60 to 95 feet. In the upper valley of the creek, the depth to bedrock is only 3 feet. Reed (1938) reported production from early mining from 1904 to 1937 to be at least $26,000 (about 1,300 ounces of gold) but he speculated that the extent of the workings indicated the production was many thousands of dollars more. No information is available on production since 1937. The rocks in the area are predominantly muscovite-chlorite schist that contains numerous quartz lenses and veinlets (Kurtak and others,1999). Some of the quartz is parallel to the cleavage or schistosity, and some cross cuts it. Reed (1938) describes the bedrock about 200 feet above the last of the old workings (about 2 miles from the lake) as alternating micaceous and graphitic schist cut by a 300-feet-wide, greenstone schist dike. This greenstone dike was not observed by Kurtak and others (1999). Reed (1938) also noted soft reddish schist containing numerous quartz stingers at the head of Lake Creek. A sample of vein quartz from the Lake Creek drainage near the head of the alluvial fan contained minor chalcopyrite and tourmaline (Chipp, 1972, sample 133). The gravels on Lake Creek are coarse and waterworn with numerous large schist boulders. The upper part of the gravel contains erratics of conglomerate and black chert. The gold occurs as coarse, waterworn nuggets, and as fine flour gold. Maddren (1913) noted recovery of nuggets valued at $90 to $150 ( about 4.7 to 7.9 ounces). Two estimates of the value of the ground in two separate locations along the creek are $1.86 and $2.50 per square foot of bedrock (Reed, 1938). Joesting (1943) lists several minerals in the placer concentrates from Lake Creek, including two, inch-long pieces of stibnite, scheelite, native bismuth, native copper, hematite, pyrite and magnetite. Sluice concentrates collected by the Kurtak and others (1999) contains up to 5,930 ppb platinum, 976 ppm tungsten, 976 ppm tungsten, 0.44% bismuth, 1,750 ppm arsenic, and 3,043 ppb gold. The sluice concentrates did not contain visible gold. Samples of quartz veins and the schist bedrock contain no valuable metals.
Workings: Intermittent extensive mining by sluicing and drifting from 1904 through to at least 1996 (Kurtak and others, 1999).
Age: Quaternary.
Production: Reed (1938) reported production from early mining from 1904 to 1937 to be at least $26,000 (about 1,300 ounces of gold) but he speculated that the extent of the workings indicated the production was many thousands of dollars more. No information is available on production since 1937.
Reserves: In 1986 a placer reserve of 10,000 ounces of gold was announced by the owners (Bundtzen and others, 1987).

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

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Mineral List

10 valid minerals.