Little Boulder Creek Mines (includes Queen Twin Creek and 4 unnamed tributaries), Hot Springs Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Little Boulder Creek Mines (includes Queen Twin Creek and 4 unnamed tributaries)	Group of Mines
Hot Springs Mining District	Mining District
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: This site represents an area of placer mining on Little Boulder Creek and its northern tributaries (Queen Twin Creek and 4 unnamed tributaries) that extends approximately 5 miles in an east-to-northeast direction. The site is in the southwest quarter of section 20, T. 4 N., R. 17 W., of the Fairbanks Meridian. The location is accurate within several hundred feet. This site roughly corresponds with the site for Little Boulder Creek, U.S. Bureau of Land Management MAS number 0020480072.
Geology: The Little Boulder Creek area is underlain mainly by Jurassic or Cretaceous clastic sedimentary rocks, which are intruded and contact metamorphosed by the Cretaceous monzodiorite to granite Roughtop Mountain pluton (Chapman and others, 1982; Reifenstuhl and others, 1998). Locally, Triassic or Permian phyllitic argillite, sandstone, and shale are in thrust contact with the Jurassic or Cretaceous sedimentary rocks (Reifenstuhl and others, 1998). North-trending, high-angle faults cut all of the rocks. Early references to Little Boulder Creek reported that the placer ground was thin, with low gold grades (Brooks, 1918). Chapin (1919) described 6 to 12 feet of alluvium consisting of silt with layers and lenses of angular slate fragments. Farrell & Higgins were active on Little Boulder Creek in 1967 (Heiner and others, 1968). Other placer mining-related activities from 1967 to 1983 included overburden stripping, trenching, test hole digging, and portable sluicebox sampling (Alaska Kardex files). Sample cuts were made with a bulldozer in 1989 and gold and scheelite were recovered from the samples. In 1990, J.L. Wood and Vern Petefish worked on Little Boulder Creek. In 1991, Wood continued to work the creek, while Windy Hill Mining prospected some areas (Bundtzen and others, 1992). Placer mining continued through the 1990's, including sluicing 9,000 cubic yards of material with a bulldozer-backhoe operation in 1992 (Alaska Kardex files). Wood also mined on Little Boulder Creek in 1997-98 (Swainbank and others, 1998; Szumigala and Swainbank, 1999) and planned mining through 2002 (Swainbank and others, 2000; Szumigala and others, 2001; Swainbank and others, 2002; Szumigala and others, 2003).
Workings: The first reports of placer mining on Little Boulder Creek were in 1917 (Brooks, 1918), and the deposits were worked nearly continuously through the 1930's. Farrell & Higgins were active on Little Boulder Creek in 1967 (Heiner and others, 1968). Other placer mining-related activities from 1967 to 1983 included overburden stripping, trenching, test hole digging, and portable sluicebox sampling (Alaska Kardex files). Sample cuts were made with a bulldozer in 1989 and gold and scheelite were recovered from the samples. In 1990, J.L. Wood and Vern Petefish worked on Little Boulder Creek. In 1991, Wood continued to work the creek, while Windy Hill Mining prospected some areas (Bundtzen and others, 1992). Placer mining continued through the 1990's, including sluicing 9,000 cubic yards of material with a bulldozer-backhoe operation in 1992 (Alaska Kardex files). Wood also mined on Little Boulder Creek in 1997-98 (Swainbank and others, 1998; Szumigala and Swainbank, 1999) and planned mining through 2002 (Swainbank and others, 2000; Szumigala and others, 2001; Swainbank and others, 2002; Szumigala and others, 2003).
Age: Quaternary.
Production: The first reports of placer mining on Little Boulder Creek were in 1917 (Brooks, 1918), and the deposits were worked nearly continuously through the 1930's. There is no public record of the amount of gold recovered during this period, or from any of the work from 1967 to 2003.

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

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Link to USGS - Alaska:	TN080

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References