Penny Creek Mine, Nome Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Penny Creek Mine	Mine
Nome Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: Penny Creek is a northeast tributary to lower Solomon River. The mouth of Penny Creek is 1.5 miles upstream from Lees Camp. This is locality 101 of Cobb (1972, MF 445; 1978, OF 78-181).
Geology: Mining on Penny Creek started as early as 1900; some gold was as coarse as an $18 (1 ounce) nugget (Brooks and others, 1901). The lower 8,000 feet of the creek, which is at least locally incised up to 20 feet, has been mined mostly by small scale operations. The elevation of this part of the creek is between 75 and 150 feet. There is some marble bedrock with an overlying clay layer and thin gravels, but most of the creek is underlain by schist (Smith, 1910). The creek crosses a subdued upland about 500 feet in elevation or less that early workers called the Solomon River terrace (Brooks and others, 1901). This topographic feature does not closely follow the Solomon River and may instead be related to Quaternary sea level fluctuations. Bedrock here is part of a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (Sainsbury and others, 1972, OFR 511; Till and others, 1986).
Workings: Small-scale mining took place episodically between 1900 and at least 1934. These operations probably included hand, hydraulic and open-cut dozer/sluice methods.
Age: Quaternary; the location and elevation (75 to 150 feet) of this area indicate that it was affected by Quaternary sea level fluctuations.

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

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	SO018

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References