Unnamed Occurrence (ARDF - EA076; near O'Brien Creek), Southeast Fairbanks Borough, Alaska, USA

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Location: This occurrence is located along the Taylor Highway and O'Brien Creek, about 1.2 miles southeast of the mouth of Columbia Creek. The occurrence is in section 3, T. 5 S., R. 32 E., of the Fairbanks Meridian. The location is accurate within 1,000 feet.
Geology: The rocks in the vicinity of this occurrence are predominantly Paleozoic greenschist-facies black carbonaceous quartzite (Dusel-Bacon and others, 1998). Approximately three-quarters of a mile to the south, these rocks are in fault contact with Paleozoic amphibolite-facies metamorphic rocks (Foster, 1976). Sulfides occur within buff-colored, celsian (barium-silicate)-bearing quartzite. The sulfides, in decreasing order of abundance, are sphalerite, pyrite, galena, and chalcopyrite (Dusel-Bacon and others, 1998). Celsian-bearing quartzite from this site and another nearby occurrence (EA076) contain between 1.6 and 3.6 percent barium, 1.8 and 2.7 percent zinc, and 1,040 ppm and 3,980 ppm lead (Dusel-Bacon and others, 1998). Dusel-Bacon and others (1998) interpret this occurrence is interpreted to be a sedimentary-exhalative massive sulfide occurrence.
Age: Paleozoic or younger.

Commodities (Major) - Ba, Pb, Zn
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Sedimentary exhalative massive sulfide (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 31a).

References

Dusel-Bacon, Cynthia, Bressler, J.R., Takaoka, H., Mortensen, J.K., Oliver, D.H., Leventhal, J.S., Newberry, R.J., and Bundtzen, T.K., 1998, Stratiform zinc-lead mineralization in Nasina assemblage rocks of the Yukon-Tanana Upland in east-central Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-340, 26 p. (World Wide Web URL, http://caldera.wr.usgs.gov/syngenms/OF98-340.html). [Link dead. Jul 2011] Foster, H.L., 1976, Geologic map of the Eagle quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series, Map 922, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Mineral List

Celsian

Galena

Pyrite

Sphalerite

4 entries listed. 4 valid minerals.