Second Beach Mine (east of Penny River); Jess Creek, Nome Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Second Beach Mine (east of Penny River); Jess Creek	Creek
Nome Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: This site is a linear beach placer about 3 miles long that extends east from the mouth of Penny River. It is, in part, known as Jess Creek (Collier and others, 1908). The location is the approximate mid-point of the placer; it is about a third of a mile north of the present beach. These are localities 134 and 135 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]).
Geology: A gold deposit at Jess Creek (not named on current U.S. Geological Survey topographic maps), which enters Norton Sound east of the mouth of Penny River, was correlated with Second Beach deposits (Collier and others, 1908, figure 9; Moffit, 1907, p. 134-144). This appears to part of the 3 miles of Second Beach placer deposits mapped by Sainsbury and others (1972 [OFR 72-321]) in this area. Second Beach deposits are at an elevation of about 35 feet above the modern beach and consist of quartz sand with drift wood, fragments of walrus tusks, and marine shells. Garnet sand was relatively abundant in pay sections that generally were developed on unconsolidated deposits. Second Beach deposits approximately mark the landward limit of the Pelukian marine transgression mapped by Bundtzen and others (1994).
Workings: The Jess Creek site was known at least by 1905 and was developed for mining before 1908 (Collier and others, 1908); State files show various claim groups along Second Beach at and east of Penny River (Heiner and Porter, 1972; Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, 1982).
Age: Late Pleistocene.

Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Auriferous beach placer.

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	NM179

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References