Porcupine Creek Mine, Koyukuk Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Porcupine Creek Mine	Mine
Koyukuk Mining District	Mining District
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

See also Quartz Creek (WI126).
Location: Porcupine Creek is a south-flowing tributary to the Middle Fork, Koyukuk River. It flows into the Middle Fork about 3 miles southwest of Coldfoot and 7 miles northeast of Twelvemile Mountain. The mine is on Porcupine Creek just below the junction with Quartz Creek. Placer mining has occurred from 3 miles above to perhaps 1.25 miles below the junction with Quartz Creek. The location is accurate within one-half mile.
Geology: Placer gold mining on Porcupine Creek was first reported in 1901 when Maddren (1913) noted that four men were producing $8 per man per day. The placer gold on Porcupine Creek occurs both in the modern channel and in a deep channel. Reed (1938) reported mining on the modern channel for a distance of 600 feet below and 3 miles above the mouth of Quartz Creek. Below Quartz Creek, Porcupine Creek was mined from 1916 until the time of Reed's visit in 1937. Below Quartz Creek, the depth to bedrock was 6 feet in the modern creek bed and deepened to about 30 feet as the workings moved toward the left limit of the creek. The gravel was frozen and consisted of small worn pieces of schist mixed with coarse sand and many large boulders. The gold occurs in the lower 3 to 6 feet of the gravel, but only a little gold was on bedrock. The gold is generally fairly fine with an occasional nugget, and had a fineness of 854. The value of the ground (in 1938) was about $0.59 per square foot of bedrock. Reed (1938) described workings in a 20 to 25-foot-wide, deep channel about 30 feet below the surface. Although the overlying material was frozen, the deep channel itself was not. Reed reports that the value of the ground was $0.67 per square foot of bedrock. Early mining of the modern channel was by ground sluicing and shoveling in; the deep channel was drift mined. There are reports of mining into the 1980's using a dozer (Bundtzen and others, 1984). Mining was reported on the creek in 2000 (Kurtak and others, 2002).
Workings: Early mining of the modern channel was by ground sluicing and shoveling in; the deep channel was drift mined. There are reports of mining into the 1980's using a dozer (Bundtzen and others, 1984). Mining was reported on the creek in 2000 (Kurtak and others, 2002).
Age: Quaternary.
Production: Maddren (1913) reported $2,000 of gold (approximately 105 ounces) was produced in 1900 and 1901. Bliss and others (1988) reported a total production of about 240 ounces. Heiner and Wolff (1968) indicate a total production from Porcupine Creek of as much as $100,000, but this figure is questionable.

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

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	WI152

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References