Quartz Creek Mine, Kougarok Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi
| Regional Level Types | |
|---|---|
| Quartz Creek Mine | Mine |
| Kougarok Mining District | Mining District |
| Nome Census Area | Census Area |
| Alaska | State |
| USA | Country |
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Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):
65° 21' 39'' North , 164° 42' 14'' West
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):
Type:
Köppen climate type:
Unnamed tributaries to Quartz Creek are reported to have scheelite in placer concentrates (Anderson, 1947).
Location: Quartz Creek crosses the Nome-Taylor road at about mile 78.5 (Brakes Bottom). Cobb (1972,1975) reports that placer mining took place from about 3,000 feet upstream of the road crossing to the intersection of North Fork of Quartz Creek and Quartz Creek, a total distance of about 7,000 feet. This is locality 42 of Cobb (1972; MF 417).
Geology: This part of Quartz Creek drains across schist in the upper part and Pliocene-Pleistocene Kougarok gravel in the lower part (Hopkins, 1963; Sainsbury and others, 1969; Till and others, 1986). Gold was discovered here in 1999 or 1900 (Brooks and others, 1901; Collier and others, 1908). Even the first workers (Brooks and others, 1901) suspected that at least some of the gold was reworked from Kougarok gravel which has been shown to contain small amounts of gold (Sainsbury and others, 1969; Sainsbury, 1975). Gravel mined at the mouth of Dahl Creek was 2 to 3 foot-thick on a blue clay false bedrock (Collier and others, 1908). The medium coarse gold here probably came from Dahl Creek (BN006). However, the best placers were reported to be on bedrock in the upstream parts of the creek. All bedrock in the area is part of a Lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (Sainsbury and others, 1969; Till and others, 1986). Sainsbury and others (1969) emphasize that gold placers in this area are most strongly associated with exposures of the metamorphic bedrock assemblage rather than with Kougarok gravel.
Workings: Open-cut placer mining operations have occurred at several places along about 7,000 feet of the creek.
Age: Quaternary
Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - W
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)
Select Mineral List Type
Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical ElementsCommodity List
This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.Mineral List
1 valid mineral.
Detailed Mineral List:
| ⓘ Native Gold Formula: Au |
Gallery:
List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification
| Group 1 - Elements | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ⓘ | Native Gold | 1.AA.05 | Au |
List of minerals for each chemical element
| Au | Gold | |
|---|---|---|
| Au | ⓘ Native Gold | Au |
Other Databases
| Link to USGS - Alaska: | BN008 |
|---|
Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality
North AmericaContinent
North America PlateTectonic Plate
- Brooks-Seward DomainDomain
- Nome ComplexAccretionary Complex
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