Gold King; East Gold King; Blue Bell Prospect, Kantishna District, Denali Borough, Alaska, USA

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These patented claims are in Denali National Park and Preserve.
Location: A block of three contiguous patented claims--the Gold King (Cobb, 1980 [OFR 80-363]), East Gold King, and Blue Bell--is at the head of Iron Creek near the top of Quigley Ridge. The average elevation of the claims is about 2800 feet. The location is the common corner of the three claims: East Gold King abuts the east end line of Gold King, and Blue Bell adjoins East Gold King on its north sideline (Hawley and Associates, 1978). The Gold King is included with other nearby claims in location 11 of Cobb (1972 [MF 366]); it is location 28 of Bundtzen, Smith and Tosdal (1976) and of Bundtzen (1981). All three claims are occurrence 40 of Thornsberry, McKee, and Salisbury (1984). The location is accurate within about 300 feet.
Geology: The country rocks in the area of these claims are mostly metafelsite, graphitic phyllite, and chloritic phyllite of the Spruce Creek sequence, although the Blue Bell claim may be underlain by Birch Creek Schist. A steep fault that strikes NW may displace rock units on the Gold King claim, but mapping is insufficient to determine the exact bedrock relations (Bundtzen, 1981; Thornsberry, McKee, and Salisbury, 1984, fig. A-2). Each of the three claims is reported to contain a vein. On the Gold King claim, a 4- to 6-foot-thick quartz vein strikes N 70 E and dips vertically. It was explored by two adits (Capps, 1919, p. 103). Davis (1923, p. 129) reported that the vein was traced across the Gold King claim by prospect pits that were sloughed at the time of his visit. The distribution and orientation of sloughed trenches on the Blue Bell claim suggest a parallel vein (Thornsberry, McKee, and Salisbury, 1984, v. 2, occurrence 40). The Gold King vein contains arsenopyrite, galena, and sphalerite. Gold could be panned from the outcrop of the vein (Capps, 1919). A dump sample assayed 0.19 ounce of gold per ton, 7.88 ounces of silver per ton, and 0.12 percent zinc, along with low arsenic and antimony values (Thornsberry, McKee, and Salisbury, 1984, v. 2, occurrence 40). There is no information information about the mineralogy of the East Gold King and Blue Bell veins. Rocks at the west end of the Blue Bell claim are visibly altered and the alteration extends west of the claim line. Soils in this area contain as much as 900 ppm copper (Hawley and Associates, 1978, samples 145-146, fig. 4.1-1(A)).
Workings: The Gold King prospect was explored by two short adits driven before 1919; the East Gold King and Blue Bell claims were explored by pits. In 1983, the U.S. Bureau of Mines drilled one diamond core hole (K-11) on the Gold King. The hole did not intersect significant mineralization, but it appears to have drilled away from the most likely vein structure.
Age: The deposit is assumed to be Eocene (see record MM091).
Alteration: Bleaching and sulfidization of schist on, and west of, the Blue Blue claim.

Commodities (Major) - Ag, Au; (Minor) - Cu, Pb, Sb, Zn
Development Status: Undetermined.
Deposit Model: Polymetallic vein (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 22c).

Mineral List

Arsenopyrite Galena

Gold Quartz

Sphalerite

5 entries listed. 5 valid minerals.

References