Khantaak Beach Mine, Yakutat District, Yakutat Borough, Alaska, USA

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Glacial gravels derived from metamorphic rocks in the Chugach terrane (Hudson, Plafker, and Turner, 1977).
Location: The auriferous Khantaak beach trends north-northeast (on the northwest shore) of a low island northwest of Yakutat. The location given is the approximate midpoint of the beach, about 0.7 mile southwest of triangulation station Arest. The placer deposit is number 4 of Cobb (1972).
Geology: The Khantaak Island placer is cut into and largely derived from glacial gravel that forms the island. Winnowing from wave action on very low grade glacial gravel has resulted in transient ruby-black sand layers 0.1 to 0.2 feet thick dispersed along the beach. These layers contain trace amounts of gold and subeconomic amounts of magnetite and ilmenite. Locally the heavy sand layers were rich enough to mine (Tarr, 1906; Tarr, 1909, Tarr and Butler, 1909). Brooks (1918) reported the existence of gold, but absence of platinum in placer material from the north part of the island. In addition to the placer gold occurrences on the west facing part of island, Reimnitz and Plafker (1976) reported one sample from the Yakutat side of the island with 0.006 ppm gold.
Workings: Tarr and Butler (1909, p. 165, 167) reported $3000 in gold produced in 1891, and a probable total of a few hundred ounces of gold from this historic beach placer in 1892, and as late as 1905. Thomas and Berryhill (1962) collected some samples from Khantaak beach in a Bureau of Mines beach sand investigation.
Age: Holocene
Production: Total maximum is a few hundred ounces of native gold.

Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - Fe, Ti
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Beach placer: concentration by winnowing of low-grade glacial gravels.

References

Brooks, A.H., 1918, Mineral resources of Alaska, 1916: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 662, 469 p. Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Yakutat quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-408, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000. Hudson, T.L., Plafker, George, and Turner, D.L., 1977, Metamorphic rocks of the Yakutat-St. Elias Area, South-central Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Journal of Research, v. 5, no. 2, p. 173-184. Reimnitz, Erk, and Plafker, George, 1976, Marine gold placers along the Gulf of Alaska margin: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1415, 16 p., 1 plate. Tarr, R.S., 1906, The Yakutat Bay region: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 284, p. 61-64. Tarr, R.S., 1909, Physiography and glacial geology, in Tarr, R.S., and Butler, B.S., The Yakutat Bay region, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 64, p. 11-144. Tarr, R.S., and Butler, B.S., 1909, Area geology, in Tarr, R.S., and Butler, B.S., The Yakutat Bay region, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 64, p. 145-178. Thomas, B.I., and Berryhill, R. V., 1962, Reconnaissance studies of Alaskan beach sands, eastern Gulf of Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 5986, 40 p.

Mineral List

'Garnet'

Gold

Ilmenite

Magnetite

4 entries listed. 3 valid minerals.