Kael Pit Prospect, Prince of Wales Island, Ketchikan Mining District, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Kael Pit Prospect	Prospect
Prince of Wales Island	Island
Ketchikan Mining District	Mining District
Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: This deposit is probably the initial discovery in a mineralized belt called the 'Kael-7 Mile Trend' (CR188). The deposit was first described by Hedderly-Smith (1999 [Inventory]), although he does not specifically use the name Kael Pit in his description. 'Kael Pit' is the name applied by Maas and others (1991, 1995) to a borrow pit along a Forest Service road, about 0.5 mile northwest of the center of section 18, T. 77 S., R. 89 E. This site is near, or the same as, the old Park View prospect (CR187).
Geology: The Kael Pit deposit is one of several in a mineral belt called the Kael-7 Mile Trend (CR188). The rocks in the area consist mainly of marble with minor chlorite schist, cut by greenstone dikes and sills. The metamorphic rocks are part of the Wales Group of Late Proterozoic and Cambrian age (Eberlein and others, 1983; Brew, 1996). The mineralization is stratiform and and consists of breccia veins or zones (Hedderly-Smith, 1999 [Inventory]). The clasts in the breccia vary from fresh marble to ferroan(?) dolomite to silicified marble. The matrix is mainly quartz; locally the matrix contains up to 50 percent pyrite and chalcopyrite, but generally contains only a few percent of sulfides. The mineralization in the Kael Trend was discovered in 1988 by a Sealaska geologist. The discovery, presumably at or near this site, was soon leased to the American Copper and Nickel Company, who mapped and sampled the the mineralization along the belt, and drilled 26 shallow holes in 1990 and 1991, mainly on geochemical anomalies. Three holes totaling 2,837 feet were drilled in 1994: one at the Roy Creek prospect (CR191) at the east end of the belt; and two at the west end, one or both of which may be at or near or the Kael pit. As described by Maas and others (1991,1995), the Kael Pit deposit consists of two silicified marble-breccia zones 15 feet thick separated by 50 feet of marble with interbedded greenstone. The breccia zones contain clots of pyrite and chalcopyrite. Samples 1.2 to 9.5 feet long contained 12 to 1,938 parts per billion gold and 23 to 2,800 parts per million (ppm) copper. A sample of massive pyrite contained 0.360 ounce of gold per ton and 4,809 ppm copper.
Workings: This site is in a belt of mineralization about 4 miles long and 0.5 mile wide that is called the Kael-7 Mile Trend (CR188). The mineralization was discovered in 1988 by a Sealaska geologist. The property was soon leased to the American Copper and Nickel Company, who mapped and sampled the belt, and drilled 26 shallow holes in 1990 and 1991, mainly on geochemical anomalies. Three holes totaling 2,837 feet were drilled in 1994: one at the Roy Creek prospect (CR191) at the east end of the belt, and two at the west end, one or both of which may be at or near the Kael pit.
Age: Vein is younger than the Late Proterozoic or Cambrian host rocks.
Alteration: Marble is silicified and dolomitized in the mineralized breccia zones.

Commodities (Major) - Au, Cu
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Stratiform Au-Cu breccia zones in marble.

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	CR186

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References