Newton Gulch Mine, Nome Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Newton Gulch Mine	Mine
Nome Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: This alluvial gold placer mine is on Newton Gulch, a south-flowing tributary to Dry Creek. The map location is about the midpoint of Newton Gulch, in the NW1/4 section 17, T. 11 S., R. 33 W., Kateel River Meridian. It is locality 127 of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]). The location is accurate within about 500 feet.
Geology: Placer mining was under way on Newton Gulch by 1900 when about 500 ounces of gold were produced (Brooks and others, 1901). Considerable mining, including dredging from 1930 to 1932, took place on lower parts of the creek, where it enters the Nome coastal plain and crosses Third Beach (NM258) and Fourth Beach (NM259). At the edge of the coastal plain, pay was in the lower 2 to 8 feet of 6- to 27-foot-thick stream gravels 30 to 150 feet wide. Upstream, in the steeper parts of the gulch, the pay was on schist bedrock, but on the coastal plain, pay was on clay false bedrock about 10 feet below the surface (Collier and others, 1908). Near the mouth of Newton Gulch, some deposits contained very rich streaks that carried more than 0.7 ounce of gold per cubic yard. About 4,000 feet mile upstream of the mouth, pay ran about 0.1 ounce gold per cubic yard. Some hillside gravels were also placer mined near Newton Gulch. Work by U.S. Smelting, Refining, and Mining Company (Metcalfe and Tuck, 1942, p. 25, figure 4C) indicated that Newton Gulch was a bedrock tributary into the Third Beach sea. Bedrock in Newton Gulch is mostly marble and schist, probably of early Paleozoic protolith age (Hummel, 1962 [MF 247]; Till and Dumoulin, 1994; Bundtzen and others, 1994). The marble and schist unit is in contact with another schist unit in the headwaters of Newton Gulch, the site of a lode gold prospect is present (NM263).
Workings: The Newton Gulch placer was mined by hand, probably using small-scale open cuts and hydraulic operations and by dredge from 1930 to 1932.
Age: Quaternary.
Production: About 500 ounces were produced in 1900, but placer mining, including some dredging, continued intermittently at least to 1932.

Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Alluvial placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	NM262

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References