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

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

Location: Silver Creek, a north tributary of Steep Creek (NM093), flows south from the southwest flank of Mount Distin. The stream has been placer mined by mechanical methods for about 1,500 feet above its confluence with Steep Creek.
Geology: The lower 1,500 feet of Silver Creek has been placer mined by small-scale mechanical methods; this mining probably occurred in the 1930's and 1940's. The creek flows across interlayered marble, mica schist, and probably some metabasite for about a mile above its confluence with Steep Creek. The uppermost 2,000 feet of the drainage (above the mined section) is in massive marble (Hummel, 1962 [MF 248]; Bundtzen and others, 1994). Proximal sources for the placer gold may exist in the Silver Creek drainage. Soils developed on the basal contact of the massive marble in upper Silver Creek are highly anomalous in gold and arsenic (see NM096). In the summer of 1995, Kennecott Exploration Company mapped the Silver Creek drainage and excavated more than 1,000 feet of trenches east and west of Silver Creek in a search for the source of the arsenic and gold anomaly in soils. The source was not clearly identified, although gold-bearing hematitic zones, possibly overlying veins, were found west of Silver Creek. It is also possible that the McDuffee vein structure (NM092) exposed in Steep Creek extends southwesterly into the Silver Creek area.
Workings: Small-scale mechanical mining of placer gold probably took place in 1930's and 1940's. The area has been explored in the 1990s for lode gold deposits.
Age: Holocene.

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

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	NM094

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References