Lower Sweepstakes Creek; Eagle; Circle; Rampart and Fairbanks claims; A. Johnson; Moon; W. Porter; J. Winder Mine, Koyuk Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Lower Sweepstakes Creek; Eagle; Circle; Rampart and Fairbanks claims; A. Johnson; Moon; W. Porter; J. Winder Mine	Mine
Koyuk Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Stream gradient approximately 50 feet per mile.
Location: The lower Sweepstakes Creek placer mine is along Sweepstakes Creek at Bear Gulch, an eastward-flowing, informally named tributary which drains Bear Mountain. The mine is in section 3, T. 2 S., R. 13 W., of the Kateel River Meridian. At various times, the claims at this site also have been referred to as Eagle, Circle, Rampart, and Fairbanks; A. Johnson; Moon; W. Porter; and J. Winder. Cobb, 1972 (MF-389), location 41.
Geology: Placer mining at this site was mainly in low bench deposits along the east side of Sweepstakes Creek. On these benches 2 to 6 feet of muck overlies 3 to 6 feet of gravel. Gravels in the creek bed are 6 to 14 feet deep. On lower claims depth to bedrock is 15 feet. Partially decomposed bedrock was excavated during mining to a depth of a few inches. Mining was mainly for gold, but a little platinum was recovered near the mouth of Bear Gulch. Sweepstakes Creek drains the southwestern part of the Cretaceous Granite Mountain monzonite pluton. Samples of concentrates or syenite-rich stream gravels contained chrome spinel, garnet, hematite, hydrothorianite, ilmenite, magnetite, uranothorianite, and zircon (Gault and others, 1953).
Workings: Small-scale gold placer mining took place at this site from the 1900's until the 1950's. Some activity was reported in the area in 1989-1991 (Bundtzen and others, 1990; Bundtzen and others, 1992). In 1947 the U.S. Geological Survey sampled the placer to evaluate its radioactive mineral potential.
Age: Quaternary.
Production: Gold worth $10,000 and an ounce of platinum reportedly were mined in 1917 (gold at $20.67/ounce) (Harrington, 1919). On Moon's claims 9 and 10, a placered area of 1,500 square feet consisted of 6 feet of gravel overlain by 6 feet of tundra. The paystreak was in a half-foot of gravel and 1 foot of bedrock. Moon recovered 9 ounces of gold at $28.50 per ounce (Gault and others, 1953).

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

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Link to USGS - Alaska:	CA005

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References