Olympic Creek Mine, Goodnews Bay, Bethel Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Olympic Creek Mine	Mine
Goodnews Bay	City
Bethel Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: Olympic Creek is a north tributary to Slate Creek, a north tributary to Goodnews River. This location is about 1 mile upstream of the confluence of Olympic and Slate Creeks and is the midpoint of placer workings mapped by Fechner (1988, fig. 5). It is locality 14 of Hoare and Cobb (1977) and of Cobb and Condon (1972).
Geology: Placer gold mining was reported on Olympic Creek from 1926 to 1931 (Hoare and Cobb, 1977). Fechner (1988, fig. 5) showed the location of a 0.4-mile-long mining cut along the west side of the creek that appears to be in a bench setting. The mined area includes about 10,000 square feet in an upper pit and about 4,000 square feet in a lower pit; the total mined volume is estimated to have been 100,000 cubic yards (Fechner, 1988). As the average grade of the mined material was reported to be 0.04 ounce of gold per cubic yard (Reed, 1931), total production could have been about 4,000 ounces of gold, much more than the 169 ounces that Fechner (1988, p. 50) identified as reported production. The coarse, angular gravel contains granitic cobbles up to 2 feet across; it is 6 feet thick in the creek and about 20 feet thick on the bench. Fechner (1988) collected six, 0.1 cubic yard sediment samples along 3 miles of the Olympic Creek dainage. These samples contained a trace to 0.0045 ounce of gold per cubic yard; one of these samples from along the lower part of the creek, contained 600 ppb platinum. Bedrock in the area includes Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary and volcanic rocks locally intruded by Upper Cretaceous to Lower Tertiary granitic rocks and Jurassic mafic/ultramafic plutonic rocks (Hoare and Coonrad, 1978).
Workings: Fechner (1988, fig. 5) showed the location of a 0.4-mile-long mining cut along the west side of the creek that appears to be in a bench setting. The mined area includes about 10,000 square feet in an upper pit and about 4,000 square feet in a lower pit; the total mined volume is estimated to have been 100,000 cubic yards (Fechner, 1988).
Age: Quaternary.
Production: The total mined volume is estimated to have been 100,000 cubic yards (Fechner, 1988). As the average grade of the mined material was reported to be 0.04 ounce of gold per cubic yard (Reed, 1931), total production could have been about 4,000 ounces of gold. This is considered a maximum estimate. It is much more than the 169 ounces that Fechner (1988, p. 50) identified as reported production.

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

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	GO019

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References