Buckner Creek Occurrence (tributary to Anikovik River); Buhner Creek, Port Clarence Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Buckner Creek Occurrence (tributary to Anikovik River); Buhner Creek	Creek
Port Clarence Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: This locality is at the mouth of Buckner Creek and just upstream on the Anikovik River, about 3.5 miles from its mouth at York on the Bering Sea. The elevation here is about 125 feet. This is locality 40 of Cobb and Sainsbury (1972). Cobb (1975) summarized relevant references under the name 'Buhner Cr.', an old spelling for Buckner Creek. Buckner Creek is a short (1 mile long) west tributary to the Anikovik River. It has some historical significance in that it is the first location where coarse gold and cassiterite were reported from western Seward Peninsula (Cobb, 1975).
Geology: Bedrock of the Anikovik River drainage includes two major assemblages (Sainsbury, 1972). Throughout most of the drainage, bedrock is a slaty metapelitic and metasandstone sequence of unknown but probable Paleozoic age locally intruded by altered mafic bodies. Ordovician limestone of the York Mountains makes up bedrock in the headwaters of the eastern tributaries. The USBM reported results from three churn-drill holes in this part of Anikovik River (Mulligan, 1959, p. 18-19); there was no overburden and only 3 to 4 feet of gravel over bedrock in these holes. The two upstream a short distance from the mouth of Buckner Creek had a trace of tin detected in the heavy mineral concentrates but only pyrite, limonite psuedomorphs after pyrite, augite, zircon, and garnet were identified minerals. The one churn-drill hole from the mouth of Buckner Creek contained heavy mineral concentrate with pyrite, limonite psuedomorphs after pyrite, hematite, augite, zircon, and cassiterite. Gold was not identified in any of these churn-drill holes.
Workings: Some early hand mining was attempted on Buckner Creek. The USBM completed 3 churn-drill holes in this area (Mulligan, 1959, p. 8).
Age: Quaternary

Commodities (Major) - Sn, Au (?)
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Alluvial tin placer (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39e)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	TE027

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References