Location: This prospect is on the ridge between Silver and Short Creeks, north tributaries to upper Stewart River, at an elevation of 1,550 feet. It is in the eastern part of a large claim block held by Altar Resources over what is called the Metal Ridge prospect. This claim block extends from Short Creek west across Silver Creek to Windy Creek and north to the headwaters of Charlie Creek (NM048). The location used here is the approximate center of the eastern part of the claim block.
Geology: Reconnaissance soil, rock, and stream sediment geochemical surveys by Cominco American in 1992, and subsequently by Altar Resources, have defined an approximately east-west trending zone of anomalous gold, copper, lead, zinc, arsenic, and locally bismuth values that define the Metal Ridge prospect. On the ridge between Silver and Short Creeks, anomalous values in soils and rocks were as much as 110 ppb gold, 1,180 ppm zinc, 223 ppm copper, 246 ppm lead, and 1,470 arsenic (Altar Resouces, 1999, unpublished report). The prospect is near the contact between lower grade metasedimentary rocks with relict sedimentary structures to the south and amphibolite facies metasedimentary rocks to the north (Bundzten and others, 1994). The contact between the higher and lower grade metamorphic assemblages may be a large normal fault that dropped the block to the south down. The metamorphic rocks are probably part of the Nome Group derived from Proterozoic to early Paleozoic protoliths (Till and Dumoulin, 1994). The Nome Group underwent regional blueschist facies metamorphism in the Late Jurassic or Early Cretaceous (Sainsbury, Coleman, and Kachadoorian, 1970; Forbes and others, 1984; Thurston, 1985; Armstrong and others, 1986; Hannula and McWilliams, 1995). The blueschist facies rocks were recrystallized to greenschist facies or higher metamorphic grades in conjunction with regional extension, crustal melting, and magmatism in the mid-Cretaceous (Hudson and Arth, 1983; Miller and Hudson, 1991; Miller and others, 1992; Dumitru and others, 1995; Hannula and others, 1995; Hudson, 1994; Amato and others, 1994; Amato and Wright, 1997, 1998). Lode gold mineralization on Seward Peninsula is mostly related to the higher temperature metamorphism in the mid-Cretaceous (Apodoca, 1994; Ford, 1993 (thesis); Ford and Snee, 1996; Goldfarb and others, 1997).
Workings: Reconnaissance soil, rock, and stream sediment geochemical surveys by Cominco American in 1992, and subsequently by Altar Resources, have defined the Metal Ridge prospect.
Age: Possibly Paleozoic or older if stratabound, but probably mid-Cretaceous if the deposits are in veins and disseminations that post-date metamorphism.
Alteration: Oxidation.

Commodities (Major) - Au, Cu, Pb, Zn; (Minor) - Ag, As
Development Status: None

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Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.

Mineral List

6 valid minerals.