Livengood Creek Mines, Tolovana Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Livengood Creek Mines	Group of Mines
Tolovana Mining District	Mining District
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: A productive placer area of approximately 25 square miles, near the town of Livengood. Most of the gold production in the district has been from buried placers along the north side of the valley half a mile from Livengood Creek (Overbeck, 1920).
Geology: Mertie (1918, p. 256), reported that most of the mining occurred along the old channel from bench claims northwest of Livengood Creek. The old channel has an average width of 127 feet, an average depth to bedrock of 80 feet, and at the time of Mertie's report, had been traced for approximately 4 miles. The bedrock is mainly chert, with some greenstone and limestone. Gold is found in basal gravel and weathered bedrock. Concentrates contain gold, magnetite, ilmenite, limonite, picotite, hematite, barite, and pyrite. By 1939, a large auriferous bench that occupied the northwest limit of Livengood Creek valley was defined (Bundtzen and others, 1982).
Workings: Placer mining has taken place from 1914 to the present. Much of the development and production had been confined to relatively shallow pay in tributaries of Livengood Creek. By 1939, a large auriferous bench that occupied the northwest limit of Livengood Creek valley was defined (Bundtzen and others, 1982). This bench was covered by 80 to 110 feet of muck but because the pay streaks were thawed, extensive drift mining was not possible. A larger company, Livengood Placers, was formed to develop these bench deposits, which vary from 100 to 1,000 feet in width and extend for at least 6 miles (Bundtzen and others, 1982). Gold reserves of over 1 million ounces were defined by drilling prior to 1940. A dredge operated near the town of Livengood in 1940, 1946 and probably other years (Cobb, 1976; OFR 76-633, p. 115). In the winter of 1981, Livengood Joint Ventures (LJV), a consortium of Asamera Minerals, Canadian Natural Resources, and Stanford Mines of Canada and the United States, contracted Doyon, Ltd., to strip overburden from the bench and construct a large settling pond; both projects were completed in June, 1981 (Bundtzen and others, 1982). Annual production from 1978 t0 1981 varied from 800 to about 3,000 ounces of gold (Bundtzen and others, 1982). The washing plant for this operation consisted of two sluice boxes fed by a dozer or front-end loader. By 1981, a large washing plant was acquired. Alaska Placer Development reported mining activity on the Livengood bench in 1988, 1994, 1996 and 1997. In 1994, a crew of 8 to 10 processed approximately 156,000 cubic yards of auriferous pay using opencut-hydraulic mine technology (Swainbank and others, 1995, p. 28). In 1996, Alaska Placer Development conducted a vigorous exploration program to ascertain the full extent of the pay zone (Swainbank and others, 1997).
Production: Placer mining has taken place from 1914 to the present; however, exact production figures are not available. Annual production from 1978 to 1981 varied from 800 to about 3,000 ounces of gold (Bundtzen and others, 1982). In 1994, a crew of 8 to 10 processed approximately 156,000 cubic yards of auriferous pay using open cut-hydraulic mine technology (Swainbank and others, 1995, p. 28).
Reserves: Gold reserves of over 1 million ounces were defined by drilling prior to 1940 (Bundtzen and others, 1982). One reserve estimate based on data from 640 drill holes indicates about 17 million cubic yards of placer gravel that would average about $2.10 per cubic yard in gold at its 1976 price (Eberlein and others, 1977, p. 67).

Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - Ag, Sn, W
Development Status: Yes; large
Deposit Model: Placer gold deposit (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

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Link to USGS - Alaska:	LG008

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