Lower Dahl Creek Mine, Shungnak Mining District, Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Lower Dahl Creek Mine	Mine
Shungnak Mining District	Mining District
Northwest Arctic Borough	Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Dahl Creek was the main placer gold producer in the district. Nephrite boulders were recovered from stream gravels during placer mining starting in the 1950's. Nephrite was produced from the creek up to the 1970's. The land is owned by NANA Regional Corporation.
Location: The lower Dahl Creek placer deposit is about 3/4 mile north of the Dahl Creek landing strip and about 4 miles by road from Kobuk. The deposit, which extends for about a mile along the creek, is in sections 15, 16, and 21, T. 18 N., R. 9 E., of the Kateel River Meridian. Mayfield and Grybeck (1978), location 30.
Geology: At the lower Dahl Creek placer deposit, gold occurs on false bedrock or in glacial drift commonly less than 10 ft. below the surface. The gold is irregularly distributed through the gravel. The gold is fairly coarse but with few nuggets. It was worth about $16.50 per ounce in 1931. Where the stream valley opens into the Kobuk Valley three shafts were sunk through glacial till, two to 25 feet and one to 80 feet. These test holes went through alternating beds of sand and gravel dipping slightly to the south and failed to reach bedrock. Fine colors of gold were found in the sand and gravel in all the holes, but no regular paystreak was found. One-half mile below the mouth of the canyon the depth to bedrock varies from 2 to 8 feet. Two lines, at 500 foot spacing, of three shafts each cross the stream valley in this area. The shafts were sunk to 25 feet and did not reach bedrock. Gold reportedly occurs in a paleo-channel. The ground mined in this area was estimated to yield about $1.02 per cubic yard (Reed, 1931). Bedrock in the area consists of conglomeratic metasediments and black phyllite of early to mid-Paleozoic age. The black phyllite is cut by numerous quartz veins. Stream gravel is medium fine, containing well waterworn pieces up to 2 inches in diameter. Distributed throughout the gravel are numerous large boulders of greenstone or metamorphosed conglomerate, and an occasional boulder of gneissic granite (Reed, 1931).
Workings: Gold was first discovered in 1898 and the claims have been worked more or less consistently up to 1968. Starting in 1950, nephrite boulders were recovered during the mining process. This continued into the early 1970's. In 1988 and 1989 NANA took jig samples from each of the claim blocks in an attempt to complete a patenting application on the claims. These data are available by request from NANA Regional Corp.
Age: Quaternary.
Production: Total production from Dahl Creek (also see ARDF number SH003) is estimated to be 15,000 ounces to more than 17,000 ounces (Degenhart and others, 1978).

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

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	SH002

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References