Canyon Creek; Gold Creek Mine, Eagle District, Southeast Fairbanks Borough, Alaska, USA

Location: Canyon Creek is a tributary to the Seventymile River; it is about 10 miles west of the Canadian border. Gold Creek is located one-half mile east of Canyon Creek. Many historic references to Canyon Creek are combined with, or may refer to Gold Creek in some cases; the two creeks are combined for this record. The coordinates for this mine are located near the mouth of Gold Creek,in section 10, T. 1 N., R. 29 E., of the Fairbanks Meridian. Canyon Creek is locality 26 of Cobb (1972 [MF-393]), locality 14 of Eberlein and others (1977), and locality 8 of Burleigh and Lear (1994).
Geology: The rocks near the mouths of Canyon Creek and Gold Creek include Paleozoic amphibolite-facies? schist. Upstream, conglomerate and sandstone are present for the first 6,000 feet, and then greenschist-facies metasedimentary rocks underlie the head of the valley (Malone, 1962; Clark and Foster, 1969). The terrigenous sedimentary rocks along Canyon Creek are of Late Cretaceous to Pliocene age (Foster, 1976). The sedimentary rocks are contained within a fault-bounded block. The main trace of the Tintina Fault crosses lower Canyon Creek and Gold Creek, and another strand of the Tintina Fault crosses upper Canyon Creek and Gold Creek (Foster, 1976). There has been placer gold production on the lower part of Gold Creek, and on the Seventymile River (EA025) near the mouth of Gold Creek. Cinnabar was found in sluicebox concentrates mined near the mouth of Canyon Creek; an attempt to find lode cinnabar along Canyon Creek was made around 1907 (Malone, 1962). Ellsworth and Davenport (1913) reported two men mining placer gold on Canyon Creek in 1912. The U.S. Geological Survey examined the Canyon Creek area in 1942, conducting an extensive program of trenching and digging test pits, but in most of the prospect pits the gravel contained little or no cinnabar (Malone, 1962).
Workings: There has been placer gold production on the lower part of Gold Creek and on the Seventymile River (EA025) near the mouth of Gold Creek. Cinnabar was found in sluicebox concentrates mined near the mouth of Canyon Creek; an attempt to find lode cinnabar along Canyon Creek occurred around 1907 (Malone, 1962). Ellsworth and Davenport (1913) reportedtwo men mining placer gold on Canyon Creek in 1912. The U.S. Geological Survey examined the Canyon Creek area in 1942, conducting an extensive program of trenching and digging test pits, but in most of the prospect pits the gravel contained little or no cinnabar (Malone, 1962).
Age: Quaternary.

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

References:
Burleigh, R.E., and Lear, K.G., 1994, Compilation of data for Phase I of the mineral resource evaluation of the Bureau of Land Management Black River and Fortymile subunits: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report 48-94, 116 p. Clark, S.H.B., and Foster, H.L., 1969, Preliminary geologic map of the Eagle D-2 and D-3 quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 69-43, 1 sheet, scale 1:63,360. Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Eagle quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-393, 1:250,000 scale, 1 sheet. Cobb, E.H., 1977, Summary of references to mineral occurrences in the Eagle quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-845, 122 p. Eberlein, G.D., Chapman, R.M., Foster, H.L., and Gassaway, J.S., 1977, Map and table describing known metalliferous and selected nonmetalliferous mineral deposits in central Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-168-D, 132 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:1,000,000. Ellsworth, C.E., and Davenport, R.W., 1913, Placer mining in the Yukon-Tanana region: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 542-F, p. 203-222. Foster, H.L., 1976, Geologic map of the Eagle quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series, Map 922, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000. Malone, Kevin, 1962, Mercury occurrences in Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Circular 8131, 57 p. Saunders, R.H., 1956, Notes on the occurrence of cinnabar at Canyon Creek: Alaska Territorial Department of Mines Mineral Investigations 60-2, 5 p.