Skookum Creek Mine, Port Clarence Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Skookum Creek Mine	Mine
Port Clarence Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: Skookum Creek is a south tributary to the Right Fork Bluestone River, in the central Teller A-3 quadrangle. The confluence of this short, 1.75 long, north-flowing stream with the North Fork Bluestone River is at about 245 feet surface elevation. Cobb and Sainsbury (1972) did not show this as a separate locality but Sainsbury and others (1969) mapped the location of placer mining operations to be on the lower 0.4 miles of the main drainage (between surface elevations of about 245 and 375 feet) and continuing downstream along the main drainage of the North Fork Bluestone River for another 0.4 miles (between surface elevations of about 240 and 245 feet). Cobb (1975) summarized references possibly relevant to Skookum Creek under the name 'Bluestone R., Right Fork'.
Geology: Bedrock in the lower part of Skookum Creek is a metapelitic schist assemblage (Sainsbury, 1972). This assemblage may be in high-angle fault contact with chlorite schist and related rocks that make up bedrock in the upper part of the drainage. Both of these assemblages have local metamorphosed mafic intrusive bodies and both are of unknown but probable Paleozoic age. Sainsbury and others (1969) mapped the location of placer mining operations to be on the lower 0.4 miles of the main drainage (between surface elevations of about 245 and 375 feet) and continuing downstream along the main drainage of the North Fork Bluestone River for another 0.4 miles (between surface elevations of about 240 and 245 feet). Gold is reported to be present on benches as well as on the main drainage of Right Fork Bluestone River (Cobb, 1975). The placer deposits here have not been described. Sainsbury and others (1969) report anomalous mercury contents in stream sediments of North Fork Bluestone River upstream of the confluence with Skookum Creek.
Workings: Sainsbury and others (1969) mapped the location of placer mining operations to be on the lower 0.4 miles of the main drainage (between surface elevations of about 245 and 375 feet) and continuing downstream along the main drainage of the North Fork Bluestone River for another 0.4 miles (between surface elevations of about 240 and 245 feet). These were all probably non-float operations.
Age: Quaternary
Production: Not known
Reserves: Not defined

Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: Yes
Deposit Model: Alluvial Au placer (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	TE093

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References