Madeline; Mattie Mine (upper workings), Nome Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Madeline; Mattie Mine (upper workings)	Mine
Nome Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: The Madeline placer mine is at an elevation of about 600 feet in the headwaters of Anvil Creek (NM236) and about 3,400 feet southwest of the summit of King Mountain. It is on the northeast side of the divide between upper Anvil Creek (NM236) and Deer Gulch on Dexter Creek (NM303). The map location is in the SW1/4 section 30, T. 10 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. It is included in locality 117 (Dexter Hill) of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]).
Geology: The Madeline mine is one of several near the divide between upper Anvil Creek (NM236) and Dexter Creek (NM303) at surface elevations of about 450 to 600 feet, where high-level gravels were placer mined for gold. These deposits were in gravels that ranged from a few feet to 150 feet thick and commonly were very rich (Brooks and others, 1901). The richest pay was near bedrock and in decomposed or fractured bedrock. The high-level gravels were mined mostly by drifting, but some hydraulic mining also took place. At the Madeline mine, the section exposed in a shaft included 1 foot of turf and 60 feet of sand and gravel overlying 4 to 9 feet of pay gravel; the pay streak was in a bedrock channel 15 to 150 feet wide that was followed for one-half mile (Collier and others, 1908). The high-level gravels were originally interpreted as alluvial deposits in stream channels of former drainage systems, but more recent interpretations describe them as glacial outwash-related material (Cobb, 197 [B 1374]; Nelson and Hopkins, 1972). The presence of erratic granite boulders and other exotic rock types suggests a glacial origin, but the exotic clasts are mostly in near-surface materials and not distributed throughout the high-level gravels (Moffit, 1913). The origin of the high-level gravels thus still seems in question. The richness of some of the placers suggests extensive reworking, proximity to lode sources, or both. The Anvil fault transects the area near Nekula Gulch. The Anvil fault is a through-going, high-angle structure that juxtaposes different types of graphitic schist in this area (Hummel, 1962 [MF 247]). Bedrock is mostly graphitic schist, probably of early Paleozoic protolith age (Hummel, 1962 [MF 247]; Sainsbury, Hummel, and Hudson, 1972 [OFR 72-326]; Till and Dumoulin, 1994; Bundtzen and others, 1994).
Workings: The Madeline mine is a drift mine off a shaft about 65 feet deep. At least a half mile of drifting took place.
Age: Quaternary.
Production: Production from the high-level gravels of the general area totaled about 100,000 ounces by 1903 (Collier and others, 1908).

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

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	NM239

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References