King and Queen; Golddigger Prospect, Yentna Mining District, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
King and Queen; Golddigger Prospect	Prospect
Yentna Mining District	Mining District
Matanuska-Susitna Borough	Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: The King and Queen prospect is at an elevation of about 3,400 feet on northwest end of a ridge; it is about 2 miles south of the Talkeetna River in the SW1/4 sec. 30, T. 28 N., R. 4 E., Seward Meridian. The location is accurate to within 1/4 mile.
Geology: The rocks in the vicinity of this prospect are interbedded felsic and mafic volcanic rocks (Ben Porterfield, written commun., 2001). In part, the felsic rocks form a dome that consists of flow-banded rhyodacite, volcanic breccia, and possibly hot-springs sinter. Hydrobreccia occurs in float. Argillic alteration is dominant, with some propylitic alteration and silicification. Minor fine-grained pyrite and silver tellurides(?) occur in the matrix of the volcanic breccia, which weathers to conspicuous iron oxides. Based on air photos, the dome appears to be 2,000 feet long by 1,600 feet wide. The following data are provided by Ben Porterfield (written commun., 2001), who owned the property in 2002. The prospect was discovered in 1918 by Sinclair and Foster. An old shaft is on top of the volcanic dome. The prospect was explored by Kennecott in 1919, when L.W. Storm reported that gold could be panned from almost any material selected at random. Trench samples contained 0.24 ounce of gold per ton from 'seams'; a 25-foot channel sample had 0.08 ounce of gold per ton and 1.76 ounces of silver per ton. A 6-inch-wide seam in an outcrop of felsic rock assayed 6.8 ounces of gold per ton and 15.9 ounces of silver per ton. Samples across 58 feet of trench averaged 1.82 parts per million gold. Grab samples every three feet along 190 feet of an old dump averaged 490 parts per billion gold. A grab sample of typical volcanic breccia from the shaft dump contained 1 part per million gold. Samples from the margins of the dome contained 12 parts per million mercury. Seven samples collected from a 38-foot-long northern trench contained 1 to 5.7 parts per million gold, and averaged 2.2 parts per million gold. Stream-sediment samples contained up to 870 parts per billion gold, 1.4 parts per million silver, and 5 parts per million mercury. In 2006, Full Metal Minerals acquired the King and Queen prospect under an agreement with Ben Porterfield (Full Metal, 2007, Gold Digger). They reported that in recent years samples over a felsic dome contained 1.8 grams of gold per ton across 17.7 meters and samples from a trench vary from 0.7 to 5.7 grams of gold per ton. Full Metals also staked several other prospects nearby(?), the Toklat and Talkeetna prospects. (One or both of these may be among the unnamed prospects that have been listed in ARDF as TK049 to TK058, TK089 to TK092, and TK125). The Toklat prospect was explored by Anaconda Exploration in the 1980's and consists of silicified material with visible cinnabar in altered volcanic rocks and limestone. Samples contained 0.3 to 2.2 grams of gold per ton, 10 to 30 grams of silver per ton and 0.5 percent mercury. The Talkeetna prospect is associated with a shear zone and a 2.3-meter-long chip sample averaged 2.5 percent copper and 5.4 grams of silver per ton.
Workings: An old shaft is on top of the dome. The prospect was explored by Kennecott in 1919, when L.W. Storm reported that gold could be panned from almost any material selected at random. As of January 1, 2000, a block of 4 prospecting sites covered this prospect (Northern Associates Inc., written commun., 2001). In 2006, Full Metal Minerals acquired the property and did some surface sampling and mapping.
Age: A preliminary whole-rock age date on the basalt is 45
Alteration: Float samples on the rhyodacite dome show strong argillic alteration, mainly illite and smectite. Local propylitic alteration, with calcite veining and opaline silica is associated with mafic agglomerate north of the dome (Ben Porterfield, written commun., 2001). Conspicuous iron staining.
Reserves: None.

Commodities (Major) - Ag, Au; (Minor) - Hg
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Hot spring Au-Ag (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 25a).

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	TK088

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References