Queen Gulch Mine, Iditarod District, Bethel Borough, Alaska, USA
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Geology: Queen Gulch is a 2-mile-long tributary of Crooked Creek. The placer deposit is near the intersection of Queen Gulch and the ancestral 'Donlin Creek' alluvial terrace that developed on the southeast flank of modern Donlin and Crooked Creeks. According to Cady and others (1955) and Bundtzen and Miller (1997), Donlin Creek flowed northeast into the Iditarod River. After regional tilting, the drainage reversed direction and Donlin and Crooked Creeks flowed into the Kuskokwim River. In Queen Gulch, low grade auriferous gravel deposits in the ancestral channel were reworked to form locally rich placer gold deposits. This ancestral bench is probably Late Tertiary in age. The Queen Gulch deposit is about 0.6 mile long. The gravel in it varies from 15 to 65 feet thick. The distribution of the gold in the placer is erratic; some areas were completely barren while other were rich. The source of the placer gold is probably the Donlin Creek lode gold deposit (ID167), which is at the head of Queen Gulch (Miller and Bundtzen, 1994; Bundtzen and Miller, 1997). The principal heavy minerals identified in concentrates of from the mine include cinnabar, stibnite, arsenopyrite, garnet, magnetite, and trace amounts of cassiterite (Cobb, 1967 [OFR 76-576]; Bundtzen, Cox, and Veach, 1987). Production from Queen Gulch was combined with the production from Donlin Creek.
Workings: The Queen Gulch placer deposit was discovered in 1910 (Maddren, 1911; Brooks, 1912). There has been some small scale, open-cut placer mining on Queen Gulch (Cobb, 1973).
Age: The alluvium in modern Queen Gulch is probably Quaternary; the ancestral terrace is probably Late Tertiary.
Production: Production from Queen Gulch was combined with the production from Donlin Creek.
Reserves: None.
Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - Ag, As, Hg, Sn
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Placer Au deposit (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).
Mineral List
7 entries listed. 6 valid minerals.
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References
Brooks, A.H., 1912, The mining industry in 1911, in Brooks, A.H., and others, Mineral resources of Alaska, report on progress of investigations in 1911: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 520-A, p. 17-44. Bundtzen, T.K., and Miller, M.L., 1997, Precious metals associated with Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary igneous rocks of southwestern Alaska, in Goldfarb, R.J., and Miller, L.D., eds., Mineral Deposits of Alaska: Economic Geology Monograph 9, p. 242-286. Bundtzen, T.K., Cox, B.C., and Veach, N.C., 1987, Heavy mineral provenance studies in the Iditarod and Innoko districts, western Alaska: Process Mineralogy VII, The Metallurgical Society, p. 221-246. Cady, W.M., Wallace, R.E., Hoare, J.M., and Webber, E.J., 1955, The central Kuskokwim region, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 268, 132 p. Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Iditarod quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-363, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000. Cobb, E.H., 1974, Placer deposits of Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1374, 213 pages. Cobb, E.H., 1976, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction material) in the Iditarod and Ophir quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 76-576, 101 p. Maddren, A.G., 1911, Gold placer mining developments in the Innoko-Iditarod region: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 480-I, p. 236-270. Miller, M.L., and Bundtzen, T.K., 1994, Generalized geologic map of the Iditarod quadrangle, Alaska showing potassium-argon, major oxide, trace element, fossil, paleocurrent, and archeological sample localities: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2219-A, 48 pages; 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000. Miller, M.L., Bundtzen, T.K., and Gray, J.E., 2005, Mineral resource assessment of the Iditarod quadrangle, west-central Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-2219-B, scale 1:250,000, pamphlet.