Lane; Anchorage Gold Mines Co.; Glaciers Prospect, Willow Creek Mining District, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Lane; Anchorage Gold Mines Co.; Glaciers Prospect	Prospect
Willow Creek Mining District	Mining District
Matanuska-Susitna Borough	Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: One mile west-northwest of headwaters of Glacier Creek, a tributary of Reed Creek. Marked with adit symbol and labeled 'Lane Prospect' on the Anchorage D-6 1:63,360-scale topographic map. Accurate within 400 ft. Locality 18 of Cobb (1972) and locality 15 of MacKevett and Holloway (1977).
Geology: Quartz vein cuts tonalite of the Late Cretaceous Willow Creek Pluton. The coarse, vuggy vein is 8 inches thick and contains numerous isolated pieces of free gold (Ray, 1954). The vein trends N 25 W, and dips 35 to 38 SW, and is exposed underground for 25 ft. Gold also occurs as hairlike masses in pyrite and in a dark-gray sulfide. Wall-rock alteration within a few inches of the vein is intense, but seldom extends more than 10 to 12 inches beyond the quartz filling. Sericitization and carbonate alteration predominate, but there is some pyritization and in the outer parts of the alteration zone chloritization is present (Ray, 1954). Kurtak (1986) also reported that gold was visible in quartz float on the adit dump. A grab sample of dump float contained 9.4 ppm (0.27 oz/ton) Au and a grab sample of the vein quartz contained 2.5 ppm (0.07 oz/ton) Au. The Willow Creek Pluton is a zoned pluton: the outer part consists of hornblende quartz diorite and lesser hornblende tonalite; the core consists of hornblende-biotite granodiorite, and lesser hornblende-biotite quartz monzodiorite and biotite quartz monzonite.
Workings: Prospect explored by 20 ft tunnel and an aerial tram was being installed in 1950 (Ray, 1950). Kurtak (1986) reported that gold was visible in quartz float on the adit dump. A grab sample of dump float contained 9.4 ppm (0.27 oz/ton) Au and a grab sample of the vein quartz contained 2.5 ppm (0.07 oz/ton) Au. It appears that any high grade ore that previously existed has been mined out (Kurtak, 1986).
Age: Late Cretaceous or younger; vein cuts the Late Cretaceous Willow Creek Pluton.
Alteration: Wall-rock alteration within a few inches of the vein is intense, but seldom extends more than 10 to 12 inches beyond the quartz filling. Sericitization and carbonate alteration predominate, but there is some pyritization and in the outer parts of the alteration zone chloritization is present (Ray, 1954).
Production: No recorded production.

Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: Undetermined
Deposit Model: Low-sulfide Au-quartz veins (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	AN052

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References