Unnamed Occurrence (ARDF - NT006; southwest of Asik Mountain); Sours Creek, Noatak District, Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska, USA

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The occurrence is now within the Noatak National Preserve which is closed to exploration and mining. This occurrence has been called 'Sours Creek' although this name is not currently shown on the USGS topographic map. This is MAS/MILS number 0020260001.
Location: The coordinates of this occurrence are at a location about 4.6 miles southwest of Asik Mountain near hill 840, and about 0.5 miles east of the center of Section 5, T. 23 N., R. 17 W., of the Kateel River Meridian. However the location was derived from a small-scale sketch map in Saunders (1955) and is probably only accurate to within 2 miles. Sanders described this locality as 'at about 1,000 feet altitude on the east side of the ridge,' and mentioned a similar exposure about 0.5 mile to the southwest. These occurrences may overlap or be the same as the occurrences nearby at ARDF NT008 on Asik Mountain; both have similar mineralization and are in the same mafic-ultramafic complex.
Geology: This site consists of two locations on Asik Mountain, each with two and perhaps more chromite bands, 2 to 5 cm thick, in dark-colored mafic rock of the Asik Mountain mafic-ultramafic complex (Sanders, 1955). The bands are well defined and have the appearance of narrow veins. The chromite bands are in blocks of rock that are probably not in place. Sanders noted that the chromite-bearing material at this locality is too narrow and too low-grade to be mined profitably. Two samples from the northeast most of the two localities contained 6.64 percent chromium and 10.19 percent iron and 5.56 percent chromium and 12.25 percent iron. Foley and others (1985) reported 8.2 percent and 9.6 percent chromic oxide in two samples.
Workings: Only limited surface sampling.
Reserves: None.

Commodities (Major) - Cr
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Podiform chromite (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 8a).

References

Foley, Y.F., Barker, J.C., and Brown, L.L., 1985, Critical and strategic minerals investigations in Alaska: Chromium: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open File Report 97-85, 54 p. Saunders, R.H., 1955, Report on the examination of the Sours chromium prospect, Noatak quadrangle: Territory of Alaska, Department of Mines Prospect Examination PE 26-1, 3 p.

Mineral List

Chromite

1 entry listed. 1 valid mineral.