Spring Creek Mine, Koyukuk Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Spring Creek Mine	Mine
Koyukuk Mining District	Mining District
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: Spring Creek is a small, west-flowing stream that empties into the east side of the middle of Wild Lake. Mining on Spring Creek has occurred principally from its mouth to the forks about 1.5 miles upstream of the mouth. The mine is plotted at an elevation of about 1,300 feet in about the center of the workings. The location is accurate.
Geology: Placer gold was discovered on Spring Creek in 1903, and the creek was mined extensively from 1904 through at least 1937 (Reed, 1938). Several mining operations described by Reed indicate that the depth to bedrock along Spring Creek varied from 5 to 25 feet and occasionally as much as 50 feet. The gravels were frozen and coarse and waterworn with numerous boulders on top of the gravel. The gold was coarse and unworn. It occurred in the lower 3 feet of the gravel and in the upper foot of the bedrock. The gold values determined from mining operations in the 1920's and 1930's were from $0.18 to $0.90 per square foot of bedrock; the fineness ranged from about 920 to 940. Maddren noted that $7,000 in gold (about 350 ounces) was produced from 1907 to 1909. Reed (1938) estimated that the total production through 1937 had been $59,500 (about 2975 ounces). There are no figures available for any later production. Kurtak and others (1999) collected six panned-concentrate samples along a 1.2-mile stretch of Spring Creek. The samples contained no visible gold but assays of the six samples averaged 1,260 ppb Au. Reed (1938) described the bedrock in Spring Creek as principally quartzite, and graphitic and greenstone schists. Dillon and others (1986) map the Spring Creek drainage area as Middle Devonian(?) siliceous clastic rocks.
Workings: Spring Creek was worked by opencut and drift mining from 1904 through at least 1937 (Reed, 1938).
Age: Quaternary.
Production: Maddren noted that $7,000 in gold (about 350 ounces) was produced from 1907 to 1909. Reed (1938) estimated that the total production through 1937 had been $59,500 (about 2975 ounces). There are no figures available for any later production.

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

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Link to USGS - Alaska:	WI010

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References