Dixie; Galena-Gold Prospect, Willow Creek Mining District, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Dixie; Galena-Gold Prospect	Prospect
Willow Creek Mining District	Mining District
Matanuska-Susitna Borough	Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: 2,500 ft southeast of head of Purches Creek, within the Purches Creek drainage. Accurate within 1,000 ft. Locality 8 of Chapin (1914, plate IV), locality 16 of Cobb (1972), and locality 13 of MacKevett and Holloway (1977).
Geology: At least one foot of 'good ore' contains chalcopyrite, pyrite, galena, and free gold on surface (Capps, 1919). An 8.5 ft wide pegmatitic vein strikes N 55 W, and dips 55 SE. The coarse, border material consists of quartz, orthoclase, muscovite, and particles of chalcopyrite along the borders. Central part of vein is milky quartz cut by irregular stringers of chalcopyrite and a little bornite (Chapin, 1921). Country rock is the Late Cretaceous Willow Creek Pluton, a zoned pluton: the outer part consists of hornblende quartz diorite and lesser hornblende tonalite; the core consists of hornblende-biotite granodiorite, and lesser hornblende-biotite quartz monzodiorite and biotite quartz monzonite. Wall-rock alteration within a few inches of the vein is intense, but seldom extends more than 10 to 12 inches beyond the quartz filling. Sericitization and carbonate alteration predominate, but there is some pyritization and in the outer parts of the alteration zone chloritization is present (Ray, 1954).
Workings: Three claims first staked in 1917 on surface expression of 1 ft of 'good ore'. Very little development reported, the prospect was explored in one place by an open-cut across vein Chapin (1921).
Age: Late Cretaceous or younger; the mineralized host is the Late Cretaceous Willow Creek Pluton.
Alteration: Wall-rock alteration within a few inches of the vein is intense, but seldom extends more than 10 to 12 inches beyond the quartz filling. Sericitization and carbonate alteration predominate, but there is some pyritization and in the outer parts of the alteration zone chloritization is present (Ray, 1954).

Commodities (Major) - Au, Cu, Pb
Development Status: None

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Link to USGS - Alaska:	AN023

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References