Sultana claims (Beaver prospects), Sulzer, Hetta Inlet, Prince of Wales Island, Ketchikan Mining District, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Sultana claims (Beaver prospects)	Group of Claims
Sulzer	- not defined -
Hetta Inlet	Occurrence
Prince of Wales Island	Island
Ketchikan Mining District	Mining District
Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

A Ag-Au-Cu-Fe-Mo-Zn occurrence/group of claims.

This prospect is on land that has been conveyed to the Sealaska Corporation, who hold the surface and subsurface rights, or the land is under application for transfer to them.

Mineralization is a Cu skarn deposit (deposit Model: Copper skarn (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 18b).

Location: The Sultana Group consists of several prospects spread over 6 claims. The group is centered about 1.0 mile east of the abandoned town of Sulzer and about 0.4 mile southeast of the center of section 11, T. 76 S., R. 84 E. Several additional occurrences near the prospects are included in this record. Herreid and others (1978) place the Sultana prospect about 0.6 mile east of this site, but they apparently did not visit it and the original location of Wright and Wright (1908) used in this record is probably more accurate.

Geology: The Sultana Group consists of several prospects spread over 6 claims. There are two adits, one 130 feet long, and several trenches and propect pits. A large Cretaceous granitic pluton is exposed east of the prospects; it intrudes schist and marble of the Late Proterozoic and Cambrian Wales Group (Eberlein and others, 1983; Herreid and others, 1978). Herreid and others (1978) mapped a band of albite-epidote and garnet-hornblende hornfels for about a mile along the shoreline just south of this site. According to Wright and Wright (1908), the mineralization consists of contact-metamorphic deposits in a cap of siliceous limestone over a granitic pluton. Garnet and epidote with disseminations and small masses of chalcopyrite, magnetite, and pyrrhotite occur at the contact between the metamorphosed limestone and the granitic rocks. In one adit, a mass of chalcopyrite-rich ore, 3 feet wide, is exposed near the portal; the workings then continue through 25 feet of barren garnet-epidote rock. Samples with pyrrhotite were originally thought to contain cobalt and nickel, but analyses showed only a trace of cobalt and less than 0.2 percent nickel. Maas and others (1995) collected four rock samples that contained up to 1,201 parts per million (ppm) copper, 5 ppm lead, 54 ppm zinc, 1.0 ppm silver, and 6 parts per billion (ppb) gold. Hedderly-Smith (1999 [Inventory]) describes several nearby mineral occurrences similar to the Sultana deposits. Several skarn outcrops with pyrrhotite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite in section13 contained up to 1,824 ppm copper and 2.0 ppm silver. A sample from a 1- to 3-foot-thick, pyrite-bearing silicified zone in schist south of the Sultana claims contained 1,058 ppm copper. A sample of black graphitic schist in the NW1/4 of section 11 contained 29 ppm molybdenum, 10.3 ppm silver, and 95 ppm arsenic.

Workings: The workings on the Sultana Group include at least two short adits at elevations of about 350 to 600 feet, and several trenches and pits scattered over at least 6 claims. There apparently has been no activity since at least 1908.

Age: Probably related to the nearby Cretaceous granitic intrusion.

Alteration: Extensive development of skarn at contact of Cretaceous granitic intrusion.

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	CR125

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References