Rock Creek Mine, Nome District, Nome Borough, Alaska, USA

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Location: Rock Creek is a one-mile-long, east tributary to the lower Solomon River. The mouth of Rock Creek is 4,500 feet downstream from Lees Camp. This is locality 103 of Cobb (1972, MF 445; 1978, OF 78-181). It is probably located within 0.5 mile.
Geology: Some small-scale mining took place as early as 1903 and between 1932 and 1934 (Cobb, 1978, OF 78-181). Bedrock is schist but the gravels include much greenstone, slate fragments, and quartz pebbles Both fine and coarse gold was recovered. The gold could have partly been reworked from coastal plain deposits (Smith, 1910). Most of Rock Creek is below 200 feet elevation. Bedrock here is part of a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage that includes a distinctive black, very fine-grained, graphitic schist in this area (Sainsbury and others, 1972 (OFR 511); Till and others, 1986).
Workings: Small-scale open-cut placer mining operations took place locally on this creek between 1903 and 1934.
Age: Quaternary; the location and elevation of this area indicate that it was probably affected by Quaternary sea level fluctuations.

Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a); possibly reworked coastal plai

References

Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-445, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000. Cobb, E.H., 1978, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Solomon quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-181, 185 p. Sainsbury, C.L., Hudson, T.L., Ewing, R., and Marsh, W.R., 1972, Reconnaissance geologic maps of the Solomon D-5 and C-5 quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 511, 12 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:63,360. Smith, P.S., 1910, Geology and mineral resources of the Solomon and Casadepaga quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 433, 234 p. Till, A.B., Dumoulin, J.A., Gamble, B. ., Kaufman, D.S., and Carroll, P.I., 1986, Preliminary geologic map and fossil data, Soloman, Bendeleben, and southern Kotzebue quadrangles, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 86-276, 10 p., 3 plates, scale 1:250,000.

Mineral List

Gold

1 entry listed. 1 valid mineral.