Bonanza Creek Mine, Aniak Mining District, Bethel Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Bonanza Creek Mine	Mine
Aniak Mining District	Mining District
Bethel Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: Bonanza Creek is a southeast-flowing. tributary to upper Bear Creek. The coordinates are at about the center of the tailings on lower Bonanza Creek in about the center of section 4, T. 11 N., R. 59 W., of the Seward Meridian.
Geology: Most of the early placer mining on Bonanza Creek was near the mouth of the creek where it cuts through bench and flood-plain deposits of Bear Creek (Maddren, (1915). It is not well documented but there was some mechanized mining for about a half mile up from the mouth of the creek in the 1980's or 1990's (?) based on the presence of tailings, the abandoned heavy equipment, and a small camp in the NW1/4 of section 4 ( D.J. Grybeck, field work, 2006). There does not appear to be any significant dredging on Bonanza Creek above its mouth. In 2006, the local miners considered upper Bonanza Creek as too deep and wet to placer mine (personal communications to D.J. Grybeck, 2006). The bedrock on Bonanza Creek includes granitic rock with malchite-bearing quartz stringers (Maddren, 1915), but most of the bedrock in the Bonanza Creek drainage is Jurassic volcanic rocks locally intruded and thermally metamorphosed by mid-Cretaceous granitic rocks (Box and others, 1993; Wenz, 2005).
Workings: There was at least some mining near the mouth of Bonanza Creek prior to 1915. There was also considerable mechanized mining for about a half mile above its mouth in the 1980's or 1990's (?) but apparently there has been no significant dredging on Bonanza Creek.
Age: Quaternary.
Production: Some unrecorded production into the 1990's but probably not large.

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

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	RM031

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References