Unnamed Prospect (ARDF - MZ026; north of Ninemile Point); Ninemile Creek, Melozitna Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Unnamed Prospect (ARDF - MZ026; north of Ninemile Point); Ninemile Creek	Creek
Melozitna Mining District	Mining District
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

The Ninemile Creek prospect is on land selected by Doyon, Limited. For further information, contact Doyon, Limited, 1 Doyon Place, Suite 300, Fairbanks, Alaska 99701-2941.
Location: This lode prospect is at an elevation of about 400 feet on the west bank of an unnamed creek that is locally called Ninemile Creek; it flows south into the Yukon River at Ninemile Point. The prospect is slightly more than 3 miles north of the Yukon River and about 4 miles north of the eastern tip of Burns Island. The site, informally called the Ninemile Creek prospect, is in the northwest corner of section 30, T. 4 S., R. 25 E., Kateel River Meridian. The location is accurate.
Geology: The rocks in the area of the Ninemile Creek prospect are Paleozoic quartz-feldspar-biotite gneiss and biotite-bearing quartzite, with subordinate quartz-biotite schist, marble, and calc-silicate rock (Patton and others, 1977). The gneiss is garnetiferous, locally contains sillimanite, and includes bodies of gneissic and massive quartz monzonite. To the south, the gneiss and quartzite grade into pelitic schist containing small bodies of marble and greenstone. The bedrock is covered by Quaternary silt and fine sand to the east in the Sunset Creek drainage. The Lower Cretaceous Melozitna pluton intrudes the metamorphic rocks several miles to the north. The Kaltag Fault, a regional northeast-striking, high-angle fault whose trace parallels the northern banks of the Yukon River, is south of the prospect. Geochemical sampling programs were conducted in Doyon land block 18, which includes the Ninemile Creek prospect area; the work was done, by WGM, Inc. from 1975 to 1977 and in 1979; by Central Alaska Gold Co. in 1989 and 1990; and by North Star Exploration, Inc. in 1998 (North Star Exploration Inc., 1999 [DLR 99-33]). The geology and mineralization of the Ninemile Creek prospect is poorly known. North Star Exploration, Inc., 1999 [DLR 99-33]) reports that it is similar to the Glacier Creek (MZ024) and Montana Creek (MZ028) prospects, which are calc-silicate skarns that consist of garnet, epidote, diopside, and wollastonite withchalcopyrite, pyrite, and wolframite. North Star classifies the Ninemile Creek prospect as a tungsten skarn, with wolframite as the dominant ore mineral. No analytical results are available.
Workings: Geochemical sampling programs were conducted in Doyon land block 18; this includes the Ninemile Creek prospect area, by WGM, Inc. from 1975 to 1977 and in 1979; by Central Alaska Gold Co. in 1989 and 1990; and by North Star Exploration, Inc. in 1998 (North Star Exploration Inc., 1999 [DLR 99-33]). No samples analyses have been published.
Age: Probably roughly coeval with emplacement of the Lower Cretaceous Melozitna pluton, dated at 111+/- 3 Ma (Patton and others, 1977).
Alteration: Metasomatism of carbonate-bearing rocks.

Commodities (Major) - W; (Minor) - Cu, Fe
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: W Skarn (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 14a)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	MZ026

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References