Columbia Creek Prospect, Aniak District, Bethel Borough, Alaska, USA

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Location: Columbia Creek flows northwest to the lower Kisaralik River. This approximately located placer prospect is in the headwaters of Columbia Creek, at an elevation of about 225 feet, and 1.75 mile southwest of USGS Benchmark Naomi (1,658 feet elevation). The map site is in the northern 1/2 of section 18, T 6 N, R 65 W, of the Seward Meridian. It is locality 6 of Cobb (1972 [MF 455]) and of Hoare and Cobb (1977).
Geology: A placer gold deposit was staked and prospected by churn drilling in 1949 or 1950 along this part of Columbia Creek, but mining apparently has not occurred (Hoare and Cobb, 1977, p. 8). Bedrock in the headwaters of the creek includes Jurassic volcanic rocks intruded by a mid-Cretaceous granitic pluton to the west, and an undated diorite and gabbro pluton to the south (Box and others, 1993). Hoare and Cobb (1977) report that hydrothermally altered bedrock in the low divide at the head of the creek (where Box and others, 1993, map diorite or gabbro) was prospected by pits and trenches before 1949. Frost (1990, fig. 1, loc. 4) reports that a quartz vein in sandstone or quartz porphyry from this general area contains 0.40 ppm Au.
Workings: Claims were staked and prospected in 1949 or 1950 using a churn drill. Hydrothermally altered bedrock at head of valley was prospected by pits and trenches before 1949.
Age: Quaternary.

Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

References

Box, S.E, Moll-Stalcup, E.J., Frost, T.P., and Murphy, J.M., 1993, Preliminary geologic map of the Bethel and southern Russian Mission quadrangles, southwestern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2226-A, 20 p., scale 1:250,000. Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Bethel quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-455, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000. Frost, T.P., 1990, Geology and geochemistry of mineralization in the Bethel quadrangle, southwestern Alaska, in Goldfarb, R.J., Nash, J.T., and Stoeser, J.W., eds., Geochemical studies in Alaska by the U.S. Geological Survey, 1989: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1950, p. C1-C9. Hoare, J.M., and Cobb, E.H., 1977, Mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bethel, Goodnews, and Russian Mission quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-156, 98 p.

Mineral List

Gold

1 entry listed. 1 valid mineral.