Unnamed Prospect (ARDF - WI130; in Smith Creek), Koyukuk Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Unnamed Prospect (ARDF - WI130; in Smith Creek)	- not defined -
Koyukuk Mining District	Mining District
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: This prospect is at an elevation of about 1,950 feet in Smith Creek, about 1 mile east of Nolan Creek. The location is accurate.
Geology: Eden (2000) describes quartz-stibnite-gold veins at three locations in the vicinity of Smith Creek. Two of the three locations described by Eden (2000, locations 266 & 359) appear to correspond to the Wanemaker & Wortman (WI115) and the Jones & Boyle (WI114) prospects described by Ebbley and Wright (1948). The location described in this record is about a mile further upstream and was not described by Ebbley & Wright (1948). Reports of production of antimony from placer operations on Smith Creek may have covered one or more of these three locations. The veins here consist of coarse-grained, white quartz with stibnite and arsenopyrite. The gold is mostly in the margins of the quartz veins but rare in the stibnite. Calcite, ankerite and minor dolomite also occur along the margins of the veins. The veins do not exhibit alteration envelopes. Thin quartz-carbonate veins, which represent a later stage of the mineralizing event, cut the quartz-stibnite-gold veins. The mineralized veins are 0.5 to 1.5 centimeters thick, strike N 55 E, and dip steeply (Eden, 2000). Two samples of sulfide-bearing quartz veins contain 1,532 and 1,958 ppb gold, 5,772 ppm and 3,933 ppm arsenic and more than 2,000 ppm antimony (Eden, 2000, samples 11165 and 11166). The veins are near a fault contact between Devonian chloritic schist and a unit of Devonian gray-black phyllite, black slate, and black metasiltstone.
Workings: The veins were exposed by during placer mining. Apparently there is no other work on the veins beyond sampling.
Production: Five tons of stibnite was recovered from sluice operations in the vicinity of the veins and shipped during World War II (Joesting, 1943).

Commodities (Major) - Au, Sb
Development Status: Yes
Deposit Model: Sb-Au vein deposit (Nokleberg and others, 1987); or simple stibnite vein (Cox a

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	WI130

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References