Alarm Mine, Kasaan Peninsula, Prince of Wales Island, Ketchikan Mining District, Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Alarm Mine	Mine
Kasaan Peninsula	Peninsula
Prince of Wales Island	Island
Ketchikan Mining District	Mining District
Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

The patented claims of the Alarm Mine were purchased by the Sealaska Corporation in 1998.
Location: The Alarm Mine is labeled on the USGS 1:63,360-scale topographic map; it is near the center of section 36, T. 72 S., R. 84 E. The geology and workings of the Alarm Mine are shown on Plates 23 and 24 of Warner and others (1961).
Geology: The Alarm mine is about 800 feet northwest of the much larger and more productive It Mine (CR056). The mines are often described together, they were probably mined together, and they share similar geology. Much of the area of the Alarm Mine is covered by surficial deposits or vegetation. The exposed rocks are mainly marble and garnet-epidote skarn; diorite crops out nearby (Warner and other, 1961; Myers, 1985). A few pods of ore were mined out but some disseminated chalcopyrite in tactite remains. As at the It Mine, the ore was probably in skarn near marble or diorite. Little is known specifically about the history of the Alarm Mine; prior to 1919, it was probably mined in conjunction with the It Mine. The production, if any, was small. It was developed by a few open cuts and trenches and two short adits. Warner and others (1961, plate 23) and Myers (1985) provide detailed maps of the workings and the geology of the deposit. The Alarm Mine is one of many copper-iron deposits on the Kasaan Peninsula having similar geology and origin (Warner and others, 1961; Eberlein and others, 1983; Brew, 1996). The rocks on the peninsula consist mainly of andesite ('greenstone' in much of the older literature) interbedded with about 25 percent sedimentary rocks comprising approximately equal amounts of limestone or marble, calcareous mudstone and sandstone, and graywacke and conglomerate. These units are part of the Luck Creek Breccia of Silurian and Devonian age, but many of the sedimentary units are similar to and probably grade into rocks of the Silurian and Ordovician, Descon Formation. The bedded rocks are intruded by a profusion of Silurian or Ordovician dikes, sills, and irregular masses of porphyritic gabbro, basalt, andesite, diorite, dacite, and granodiorite. Near some of the deposits, these intrusions may make up 20 percent or more of the outcrop and usually are associated with the development of tactite and alteration of the greenstone. The area subsequently was intruded by several large Silurian or Ordovician plutons; they are mainly granodiorite but locally are diorite and gabbro. The ore deposits are typically small and of irregular shape; often the ore bodies form lenses or mantos. Some of the deposits conform to the layering in the greenstone and sedimentary rocks. The principal ore minerals are chalcopyrite, pyrite, and magnetite; hematite is often present and a little molybdenite occurs in some deposits. Most of the deposits are associated with tactite or skarn with varying amounts of actinolite, calcite, chlorite, garnet, diopside, epidote, and hornblende. There was significant by-product silver and gold in the ore that was mined in the past, and the gold values in some deposits are high enough to have encouraged exploration in recent years. Marble is more common in the deposits in the western part of the peninsula, where the gold values are generally higher as well (Wright and Wright, 1908; Wright, 1915; Warner and others, 1961; Myers, 1985; Bond, 1993; Maas and others, 1995). Early interpretations of the ore deposits on the Kasaan Peninsula emphasize their contact metamorphic origin and their probable Mesozoic age (for example, Warner and others, 1961). However, recent radiometric dating and mapping indicate that the deposits formed in a Silurian or Ordovician, arc-related environment characterized by deposition of andesite and submarine sedimentary rocks that were intruded by swarms of dikes of varying composition, mineralized, and then intruded by large granodiorite plutons (Hedderly-Smith, 1999 [Inventory]). The copper deposits of the Kasaan Peninsula were known to the Russians and the first claim was staked in 1867. Most of the production and development occurred from about 1900 to 1918, especially from 1905 to 1907, when copper prices soared and a smelter was built at Hadley on the north side of the Kasaan Peninsula. After World War I, copper supply exceeded demand, prices fell, and there has been no further copper production since 1918 (Wright, 1915; Warner and others, 1961; Roppel, 1991; Maas and others, 1995). However, because of the intense and widespread mineralization on the peninsula, the area has repeatedly been re-examined for copper, iron, and gold, notably during WW II (Warner and others, 1961) and in the last several decades.
Workings: The Alarm Mine was developed by a few open cuts and trenches and two short adits. Warner and others (1961, plate 23 ) and Myers (1985) provide detailed maps of the workings and the geology of the deposit.
Age: The deposit formed in a Silurian or Ordovician, submarine arc-related environment characterized by the deposition of volcanic and sedimentary rocks, the intrusion of swarms of dikes of diverse composition, and the emplacement of several large plutons.
Alteration: Greenstone and marble are replaced by magnetite, garnet, and epidote.
Production: Little is known specifically about the history of the Alarm Mine; prior to 1919, it was probably mined in conjunction with the It Mine. The production, if any, was small.
Reserves: None.

Commodities (Major) - Cu, Fe
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Cu-Fe skarn (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 18d).

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Link to USGS - Alaska:	CR055

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References