Ronan Copper Prospect, Hyder Mining District, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Ronan Copper Prospect	Prospect
Hyder Mining District	Mining District
Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: The Ronan Copper prospect is in Section 2 at an elevation of about 2750 feet on the rounded ridge about 0.1 mile west of Skookum Creek, and about 0.8 mile east-southeast of the Riverside mine adit (Maas and others, 1995, p. 252, 255, and fig. 66). The location is accurate within about 0.1 mile.
Geology: The country rocks in the area of the Ronan Copper prospect are pelitic metasedimentary and subordinate andesitic metavolcanic strata of the Jurassic or older Mesozoic Hazelton Group; the Triassic Texas Creek Granodiorite, which underlies and locally intrudes the Hazelton; the Eocene Hyder Quartz Monzonite, which intrudes the Hazelton and Texas Creek rocks; and still-younger Tertiary lamprophyre dikes, which cut all the other rocks (Smith, 1973, 1977; Koch, 1996). Maas and others (1995, p. 252, 260) describe the deposit as one of group of gold-bearing pyrrhotite deposits comprising disseminations and masses of sulfide minerals, accompanied by quartz, in shear zones in Hazelton volcanic rocks. The sulfide minerals in this group of deposits include auriferous pyrrhotite, with associated chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite, and local sphalerite and galena. Maas and others (1995, p. 252) suggest that the Ronan Copper deposit is Jurassic in age, based on similarities in mineralogy, structural setting, and hostrock, to isotopically-dated Jurassic deposits nearby in the Hyder district (see, for example, BC065, 067). If so, the deposit is contemporaneous, at least in part, with island-arc volcanism in Hazelton time (Alldrick, 1993).
Workings: Prospect has been explored by surface pits and trenches. Channel samples collected in 1992 by the U. S. Bureau of Mines (Maas and others, 1995, p. 260) contain up to 169 ppb Au, 66.51 ppm Ag, and 2.5% Cu.
Age: Maas and others (1995, p. 252) suggest that the Ronan Copper deposit is Jurassic in age, based on similarities in mineralogy, structural setting, and hostrock, to isotopically-dated Jurassic deposits nearby in the Hyder district (see, for example, BC065, BC067). If so, the deposit is contemporaneous, at least in part, with island-arc volcanism in Hazelton time (Alldrick, 1993).
Alteration: Volcanic hostrock is impregnated with sulfide minerals.

Commodities (Major) - Ag, Au, Cu
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Polymetallic veins

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	BC089

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References