Latitude: 58°52'22"N
Longitude: 137°29'20"W
The site is in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. A search for the source of the metalliferous boulders would need mountaineering support.
Location: Glacial moraine on a north arm of Fairweather Glacier, about 2.6 miles south-southeast of Mt. Fairweather contains sulfide- and oxide-rich mineral bearing detritus derived from the Mt. Fairweather. The metalliferous detritus is at about 6500-foot elevation and probably is derived from outcrops 0.2-0.4 mile to the west. The location is accurate within 0.25 miles.
Geology: Cobbles of mafic rocks containing concentrations of magnetite-ilmenite or of disseminated sulfides, including chalcopyrite and pentlandite, occur in moraine adjacent to the Mt. Fairweather layered mafic intrusion and must have been derived from mineral deposits within the intrusion. Plafker and MacKevett (1970) found as much as 0.5 percent copper, also 0.5 percent nickel in the first sampling of the moraine occurrence. Kimball and others (1978) found as much as 0.64 percent copper and 0.2 percent nickel in samples collected from the moraine. Gold, platinum or palladium, cobalt, and chromium were also reported in assays from samples from the moraine.
Workings: The mineralized rocks were collected from the moraine. No examination of the probable source area of the detritus was possible because of the extremely rugged terrane. Further investigations would call for trained mountaineers. The sites near Mt. Fairweather were first visited by Plafker and MacKevett (1970), who obtained materials estimated to contain as much as 0.5 percent each of copper and nickel. The sites were then resampled by the U.S. Bureau of Mines (Kimball and others, 1978, p. C108-C119). Samples 7K064 and 065 collected by the Bureau contained 0.03-0.05 ounce/ton gold, trace to 0.008 ounce/ton platinum or palladium, as much as 0.64 percent copper, 0.2 percent nickel, 200-300 ppm cobalt, and 2000-5000 ppm chromium.
Age: Recent morainal accumulation of sulfide- and heavy metallic oxide-bearing detritus derived from the Mt. Fairweather intrusion.
Commodities (Major) - Cu, Ni; (Minor) - Au, Ag, Co, Cr, Fe, PGE, Ti, V
Deposit Model: Unconsolidated glacial moraine containing metalliferous detritus.
References
Kimball, A.L., Still, J.C., and Rataj, J.L., 1978, Mineral resources, in Brew, D. A., and others, Mineral resources of the Glacier Bay National Monument wilderness study area, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-494, p. C1-C375. Plafker, George, and MacKevett, E.M., Jr., 1970, Mafic and ultramafic rocks from a layered pluton at Mount Fairweather, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 700-B, p. B21-B26.
Mineral List
6 entries listed. 6 valid minerals.
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