Bond Creek Prospect, Chisana Mining District, Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Bond Creek Prospect	Prospect
Chisana Mining District	Mining District
Valdez-Cordova Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

The prospect is in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Preserve.
Location: This prospect is on the ridge between the middle and west forks of Bond Creek. It is at an elevation of about 7,000 feet, 6,000 feet northwest of peak 8485. The prospect is about 0.1 mile west of the center of section 19, T. 5 N., R. 15 E. of the Copper River Meridian. This is locality 3 of Richter (1973), locality 30 of Richter and others (1975), and National Park Service locality WRST-35 (unpublished data). This prospect was included by Cobb and Richter (1980) under the name 'Bond Cr.'. It is located to within a few hundred feet.
Geology: This porphyry copper-molydenum deposit was discovered in the 1960s and explored by some diamond drilling. Pyrite, chalcopyrite, and minor molybdenite occur in quartz veinlets and as disseminations in highly altered volcanic rocks, quartz diorite, and granodiorite intruded by leucocratic, quartz monzonite (Richter and others, 1975). The host rocks are altered over a 2.5 square kilometer area (Hollister and others, 1975; Richter and Matson, 1970 [OFR 70-276]; Richter, 1973). The alteration includes a 600- by 2,000(?)-meter central zone with abundant chlorite, minor biotite and potassium feldspar, spotty sericite, and late anhydrite veins. A 2,000- by 3,000-meter outer zone has minor chlorite, epidote, and anhydrite. The deposit is estimated to contain 500 million tons with an average grade of 0.30 percent copper and 0.02 percent molybdenum; some gold and silver is also likely (Richter and others, 1975). The host rocks include part of the Paleozoic Tetelna Volcanics, granitic rocks of the mid-Cretaceous Nabesna pluton, and leucocratic, quartz monzonite porphyry (Richter, 1973, 1976; Richter and others, 1975). Dikes, irregular intrusions, and stocks of probably Tertiary, hornblende-plagioclase porphyry intrude the volcanic and granitic host rocks in nearby areas (Richter, 1973).
Workings: This porphyry copper-molydenum deposit was discovered in the 1960s and explored by some diamond drilling.
Age: Mid-Cretaceous. The intrusive host rocks to the Bond Creek deposit are considered to be part of the Nabesna pluton. K/Ar ages for the Nabesna pluton range from 105 +/- 4.0 to 114 +/- 3.4 Ma (Richter, Lanphere, and Matson, 1975; Richter and others, 1975). Many varieties of probably Tertiary hornblende-plagioclase porphyry form irregular intrusive bodies into the Nabesna pluton and other regional bedrock units in the area (Richter, 1973).
Alteration: The host rocks are altered over a 2.5 square kilometer area (Richter, 1973). The alteration includes a 600- by 2,000(?)-meter central zone with abundant chlorite, minor biotite and potassium feldspar, spotty sericite, and late anhydrite veins. A 2,000- by 3,000-meter outer zone has minor chlorite, epidote, and anhydrite.
Reserves: The deposit is estimated to contain 500 million tons with an average grade of 0.30 percent copper and 0.02 percent molybdenum; some gold and silver values are also likely (Richter and others, 1975).

Commodities (Major) - Ag, Au, Cu, Mo
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Porphyry Cu-Mo (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 21a)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	NB051

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References