Johnson; Northern Lights Mine, Juneau Mining District, Juneau, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Johnson; Northern Lights Mine	Mine
Juneau Mining District	Mining District
Juneau	City Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: The Johnson Mine is at an elevation of approximately 3,000 feet in the cirque at the head of Johnson Creek, about 3 miles northeast of Pt. Sherman on Lynn Canal and 3/4 mile southwest of Lions Head Mountain. It is in the NW1/4 section 3, T. 35 S., R. 62 E. of the Copper River Meridian. The location is accurate.
Geology: The Johnson mine was discovered in 1886. It was developed by a 75-foot adit and 1,360 feet of workings from the Kensington (JU029) adit, which cut the Johnson vein in 1913. There was minor gold production from the Johnson mine in 1887 (Redman and others, 1989). The Johnson deposit is similar to the Kensington deposit; it consists of a principal vein and associated stockworks of quartz stringers in a shear zone. The stockworks occurs along the contact between Jualin Diorite and metabasalt, with quartz veining both in diorite and metabasalt (Redman and others, 1989). The vein and stockworks can be traced for over 1,500 feet and is up to 70 feet thick. The Johnson vein system was drilled by Placid Oil Co. in 1984 (Kucinski and others, 1985). It was also drilled in the early 1990's by the Echo Bay Mines - Coeur Alaska joint venture. The Johnson Mine is in the Berners Bay district at the north end of the Juneau Gold Belt. The district is characterized by a series of structurally-controlled, mesothermal, gold-bearing quartz veins. Most of the veins are in Early Cretaceous (105 Ma) Jualin Diorite, which intrudes Upper Triassic metabasalt. The Jualin Diorite is generally massive, jointed, blocky, quartz monzonite to quartz monzodiorite. Gold occurs in low-sulfide, quartz-carbonate veins that contain pyrite and tellurides; the veins are marked by distinctive ankeritic alteration zones. There are both extensional and shear veins that generally strike north to northwest and dip east. Discrete vein systems are defined by one or more through-going quartz veins, many of which are in shear zones. Levielle (1991) and Knopf (1911) describe other gangue minerals near vein margins including albite, chlorite, muscovite, and lesser tourmaline, rutile, and apatite. Hydrothermal alteration adjacent to the veins is characterized by reddish-brown ferroan dolomite (Miller and others, 1995). Other alteration includes sericitization of plagioclase, chloritization, sulfidization of mafic minerals, and albitization of feldspars (Leveille, 1991). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral, with lesser amounts of chalcopyrite, galena, sphalerite, arsenopyrite, and tetrahedrite. Gold occurs in the native state, in pyrite, and in various telluride minerals such as calaverite, hessite, and petzite (Leveille, 1991; Redman and others, 1989). The vein paragenesis consists of early quartz, carbonates, albite and pyrite, followed by deposition of base and precious metals. Gold, galena and the tellurides were the last to be deposited (Leveille, 1991). The age of hydrothermal muscovite from veins at Kensington Mine (JU029) varies from 53.4 Ma to 56.5 Ma (Miller and others, 1994). This coincides with the 55 Ma age of the other mesothermal gold vein deposits in the Juneau Gold Belt (Goldfarb and others, 1997).
Workings: The Johnson deposit was discovered in 1886. It was developed by a 75-foot adit and 1,360 feet of workings from the Kensington (JU029) adit, which cut the Johnson vein in 1913. The Johnson vein system was drilled by Placid Oil Co. in 1984 (Kucinski and others, 1985). It was also drilled in the early 1990's by the Echo Bay Mines - Coeur Alaska joint venture.
Age: The age of mineralization in the Berners Bay district is about 55 Ma, the same as the other mesothermal gold-quartz-vein deposits in the Juneau Gold Belt (Goldfarb and others, 1997).
Alteration: Hydrothermal alteration adjacent to the veins is characterized by reddish-brown ferroan dolomite alteration (Miller and others, 1995). Other alteration includes sericitization of plagioclase, chloritization and sulfidization of mafic minerals, and albitization of feldspars (Leveille, 1991).
Production: There was minor production from the Johnson mine in 1887 (Redman and others, 1989).
Reserves: The Johnson vein is in part of the Kensington area (see JU029), which, as defined by Coeur, includes the Kensington, Ophir, Mexican (JU028), Horrible (JU027), and other veins that collectively contain over 1.96 million ounces of proven and probable gold (Bundtzen and others, 1996).

Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - Ag, Cu
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	JU030

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References