Location: The occurrence is on the crest and side slopes of a southerly trending ridge between Windy and Silver Creeks, north tributaries of the upper Stewart River. It is in the western 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 Charlie Creek drainage (NM048). The location used here is centered on the area in the western part of the claim block where soil and rock samples contain highly anomalous metal contents.
Geology: Reconnaissance soil, rock, and stream sediment geochemical surveys by Cominco American in 1992, and subsequently by Altar Resources, have defined an east-west trending zone of anomalous gold, copper, lead, zinc, arsenic, and and locally bismuth values that define the Metal Ridge prospect. On the ridge between Silver and Windy Creeks, anomalous values in soils and rocks were as much as 310 ppb gold, 2,328 ppm zinc, 296 ppm copper, 442 ppm lead, 7,065 ppm arsenic, and 48 ppm bismuth (Altar Resouces, 1999, unpublished report). Surface matrials are highly oxidixed and original sulfide minerals have not been identified. The zone of anomalous metal contents in rocks and soils extends for about 3,000 feet along the ridge crest at this locality. This mineralized zone is about 1.4 miles southeast of the quartz-bismuth-gold veins of Charlie Creek (NM048). This 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 drops 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 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: Probably mid-Cretaceous.
Alteration: Oxidation.

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

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Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical Elements

Commodity List

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

Mineral List

7 valid minerals.