Yakataga Mine (east of White River), Yakataga District, Valdez-Cordova Borough, Alaska, USA

Location: This mine area is the first 6-mile long segment of the present Gulf of Alaska beach east of the mouth of White River to Lawrence Creek. The map site is the approximate midpoint of this beach segment. The location is accurate. It is included in locality 5 of Cobb (1972 [MF 373]; 1979 [OF 79-1246]).
Geology: The placer gold in Yakataga-area beaches was discovered in 1897 or 1898, and small-scale mining started in 1899 (Maddren, 1914). Rocker and sluice operations continued to WW II. Drill prospecting of raised beaches occurred after WW II (Thomas and Berryhill, 1962), as did sporadic attempts at small-scale mining. Most of the post-WW II mining was west of Cape Yakataga (see BG005; Miller, 1971). The gold in the Yakataga area, naturally concentrated in heavy-mineral accumulations by storm waves, is fine and flat. Other heavy minerals include amphibole, garnet, chromite, native copper, hematite, magnetite, pyroxene, rutile, sphene, ilmenite, zircon, and probably some monazite (Maddren, 1914, Thomas and Berryhill, 1962; Foley and others, 1995). The iron and titanium oxide contents of reconnaissance samples of beach sand from the Yakataga area were reported by Thomas and Berryhill (1962). These samples contained as much as 6.2 pounds of iron per ton but mostly less than 2 pounds of iron per ton. Their titanium oxide content was less than 2 pounds per ton in the magnetic fraction and as much as 7.3 pounds, but mostly less than 2 pounds, per ton in the non-magnetic fraction. Foley and others (1995) processed 94 samples from 69 locations, including some raised beaches, along this segment of the Yakataga shoreline. Spiral concentrates from these samples contained less than 0.028 gram (72 samples) to 0.790 gram of gold per ton (one outlier sample was reported to contain 12.219 grams of gold per ton), 0.31 to 3.66 percent titanium, and 78 to 6867 ppm zirconium. Heavy-mineral concentrates from six samples (8.42 to 18.20 weight percent of the original samples) contained 0.008 to 0.437 percent magnetite, 0.250 to 2.310 percent ilmenite, 0.631 to 4.780 percent garnet, 0.008 to 0.271 percent rutile, and 7.22 to 12.38 percent other minerals. Flotation concentrate from one sample contained 3.499 grams of gold per ton, less than 0.003 gram of platinum per ton, and 0.102 gram of palladium per ton. The placer gold in the Yakataga beaches may be derived from reworking of marine-glacial deposits of the Cenozoic Yakataga Formation (Reimnitz and Plafker, 1976).
Workings: Small-scale rocker and sluice operations took place from 1899 to WW II. Drill prospecting of raised beaches occurred after WW II (Thomas and Berryhill, 1962), as did sporadic attempts at small-scale mining. Most of the post-WW II mining was west of Cape Yakataga (Miller, 1971).
Age: Quaternary.
Production: A part of the 15,000 to 16,000 total ounces of gold produced in the Yakataga district was recovered from this area.

Commodities (Major) - Au, Ti; (Minor) - Cr
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)

References:
Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Bering Glacier quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-373, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000. Cobb, E.H., 1979, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Bering Glacier, Icy Bay, Middleton Island, and Yakutat quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 79-1246, 41 p. Foley, J.Y., La Berge, R.D., Grosz, A.E., Oliver, F.S., and Hirt, W.C., 1995, Onshore titanium and related heavy-mineral investigations in the eastern Gulf of Alaska region, southern Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report 10-95, 125 p. Maddren, A.G., 1914, Mineral deposits of the Yakataga district: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 592-E, p. 119-153. Miller, D.J., 1971, Geologic map of the Yakataga district, Gulf of Alaska Tertiary Province, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Geologic Investigations Map I-610, 1 sheet, scale 1:125,000. Reimnitz, Erk, and Plafker, George, 1976, Marine gold placers along the Gulf of Alaska margin: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1415, 16 p., 1 plate. Thomas, B.I., and Berryhill, R. V., 1962, Reconnaissance studies of Alaskan beach sands, eastern Gulf of Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 5986, 40 p.