Mulchatna Occurrence, Bristol Bay Mining District, Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Mulchatna Occurrence	Occurrence
Bristol Bay Mining District	Mining District
Lake and Peninsula Borough	Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Cobb and Reed (1981) mention gold in most river bars of the Mulchatna River, with most prospecting occurring around the late 1890's or early 1900's.
Location: About 13 km northeast of VABM Overlook, near where the southeast flowing Springway Creek enters the Mulchatna River. NW1/4 sec. 3, T. 4 N., R. 37 W., of the Seward Meridian. Locality is accurate to within 800 m.
Geology: Spurr (1900) reported placer gold, too flaky and fine to save, 200 miles from mouth of river as early as 1890. Brooks (1904) reported gold has long been known in the upper reaches of the river. Placer said to yield $4-5 per day per man in 1903, but area too remote for mining. Cobb (1976) indicated he thought Brooks (in 1904 report) may have been discussing placers of Bonanza Creek. The most abundant bedrock in the areas upstream of the claims is unit KJs (Nelson and others, 1983). Unit KJs is described as interbedded lithic graywacke, silty sandstone, black shale, and local conglomerate. Irregular quartz segregations and veinlets are locally present. Scattered stocks and locally abundant dikes of intermediate to felsic composition intrude these sedimentary rocks. Adjacent to some of the larger igneous bodies are narrow contact aureoles of pelitic hornfels. Unit KJs is intruded (locally) by various Cretaceous to Tertiary plutons. The plutons include quartz monzonite, grano-diorite, diorite, and rhyolite dikes. Also present is Unit Tv of Nelson and others (1983) which includes rhyolitic breccia, ash-flow tuff, flows, and intrusive rocks and subordinate mafic to intermediate flows. Potassium-argon ages for unit Tv range from 56.2 to 62.7 m.y. (Eakins and others, 1978).
Workings: Three placer gold claims noted in 1973 by the U.S. Bureau of Mines.
Age: The placer gold is Quaternary, the source of gold could come from a variety of rocks with diverse ages.
Alteration: Not applicable
Production: No production
Reserves: No reserves

Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: Undetermined
Deposit Model: Placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	LC023

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References