Tonawanda Creek Mine, Hot Springs Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

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

Location: Mining claims were staked in 1980, followed by placer mining along Tonawanda Creek (Alaska Kardex files). The discovery claim was on the creek at the northeast corner of section 6, T. 3 N., R. 15 W., of the Fairbanks Meridian, and claims extended above and below the discovery claim. The site is at the discovery claim. The location is accurate within about 500 feet. This site roughly corresponds with the site for Tonawanda Creek, U.S. Bureau of Land Management MAS number 0020480128.
Geology: The Tonawanda Creek mine is one of a group of cassiterite- and gold-bearing placer deposits known as the Tofty tin belt, a 12-mile-long area that trends east-northeast, between Roughtop Mountain to the north and Hot Springs Dome to the south (Thomas, 1957). Roughtop Mountain and Hot Springs Dome respectively are underlain by Cretaceous (K-Ar age date of 92 +/- 5 Ma) and Tertiary (K-Ar age date of 62 +/- 3 Ma) granitic plutons (Chapman and others, 1982). The plutons intrude and contact metamorphose Mesozoic marine sedimentary strata, which also are cut by diverse faults, including regional-scale, east-northeast-striking, thrust faults (Reifenstuhl and others, 1998). A carbonatite sill(?) is in the Triassic section of these strata and there are exposures of serpentinized, Cretaceous(?) mafic and ultramafic rock, mainly on Serpentine Ridge. The gold- and cassiterite ('tin')-bearing creeks flow normal to the trend of the tin belt. They head in the plutonic, metamorphic, and mafic/ultramafic rocks of Roughtop Mountain and Serpentine Ridge, which probably are the source(s) of some of the metalliferous minerals in the placer deposits. Concentrations of gold diminish toward the south, probably due to dispersion (Thomas, 1957). Bedrock at the Tonawanda Creek mine is Triassic or Permian, subphyllitic to phyllitic, argillite, sandstone, and shale, and a steeply-dipping Jurassic carbonatite sill (Reifenstuhl and others, 1998). Mining claims were staked along Tonawanda Creek in 1980 (Alaska Kardex files), and worked semi-continuously from 1980 to 1994. An affidavit of annual labor from 1986 listed 22 state mining claims and stripping on No. 1 below Discovery.
Workings: Mining claims were staked along Tonawanda Creek in 1980 (Alaska Kardex files), and worked semi-continuously from 1980 to 1994. An affidavit of annual labor from 1986 listed 22 state mining claims and stripping on No. 1 below Discovery.
Age: Quaternary?

Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - Sn?
Development Status: Undetermined.
Deposit Model: Placer Au(-Sn) (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	TN113

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References