Silver Pick; Silver Pick No. 2 Prospect, Kantishna Mining District, Denali Borough, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Silver Pick; Silver Pick No. 2 Prospect	Prospect
Kantishna Mining District	Mining District
Denali Borough	Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

The claims are in Denali National Park and Preserve.
Location: The Silver Pick prospect (Cobb, 1980 [OFR 80-363]) is at an elevation of about 2700 feet on the southeast flank of Quigley Ridge, just below the crest of the ridge. The location is about 500 feet northeast of the common endline between the Silver Pick and Silver Pick No. 2 claims. It is probably accurate within 300 feet. The Silver Pick prospect is included with the Little Maud prospect (MM119) in location 8 of Cobb (1972 [MF 366]), and in location 6 of MacKevett and Holloway (1977). It is included with the Darling unpatented claim in location 23 of Bundtzen (1981); and corresponds to patented claim 18 of Hawley and Associates (1978), and to occurrence 32 of Thornsberry, McKee, and Salisbury (1984).
Geology: The area of the Silver Pick and Silver Pick No. 2 claims is underlain by graphitic phyllite, quartz schist, and quartz-mica phylllite or semischist of the Spruce Creek sequence (Seraphim, 1962; Hawley and Associates, 1978, fig. 4.1-A(1)-3; Bundtzen, 1981). At least three veins that strike northeast are exposed on the Silver Pick claims. A S30E crosscut tunnel whose portal is on the adjacent Little Maud claim (MM119) intersected the 3 veins, one of which is probably about on the side line between the Little Maud and Silver Pick claims. The strongest vein was intersected at 165 feet in the crosscut; it strikes N 65 E, and dips 67 SE (Capps, 1919, p. 105; Davis, 1923, p. 125-126). The vein is about 13 feet thick. It consists of about a foot of calcite and 12 feet of quartz and siderite containing arsenopyrite, pyrite, sphalerite, galena, and tetrahedrite (Bundtzen, Smith, and Tosdal, 1976, occurence 21). This vein may correlate with a vein exposed at the surface (Seraphim, 1962; Bundtzen, 1981). Another intersected vein consists mainly of quartz containing some galena and sparse free gold. In near-surface exposures, the arsenopyrite is largely oxidized to scorodite, and the iron minerals are altered to melanterite. One sample of the principal vein assayed about 25 ounces of silver per ton, 3.05 percent lead, and 7.65 percent zinc (Thornsberry, McKee, and Salisbury (1984, v. 2, occurrence 32). Moffit (1933, p. 330) reported assays of as much as 300 ounces of silver per ton in some galena-rich vein material.
Workings: The Silver Pick deposit was discovered before 1918 (Capps, 1919) in a crosscut adit driven from the adjacent Little Maud claim (MM119). It was extensively explored in 1960-61 by Moneta-Porcupine (Seraphim, 1962). In 1983, the U.S. Bureau of Mines drilled one core hole (K-7). The hole, drilled northwesterly, intersected a gougy, mineralized zone between 128 and 169 feet, but only about 10 percent of the core in the mineralized interval was recovered, and its grade is unknown (Thornsberry, McKee, and Salisbury, 1984, v. 2, occurrence 32, drill logs).
Age: The deposit is assumed to be Eocene (see record MM091).
Alteration: Silicification. Near-surface oxidation of arsenic and iron minerals.

Commodities (Major) - Ag, Au; (Minor) - Cu, Pb, Zn
Development Status: No
Deposit Model: Polymetallic vein (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 22c).

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Link to USGS - Alaska:	MM120

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References