Michigan Creek Bench Mine, Iditarod Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Michigan Creek Bench Mine	Mine
Iditarod Mining District	Mining District
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: The Michigan Bench placer mine is near the mouth of a minor north-flowing tributary of Michigan Creek. The mine is about 1.3 mile west-northwest of the mouth of Michigan Creek at an elevation of about 500 feet. It is about 0.3 mile southeast of the center of section 24, T. 25 N., R. 44 W., of the Seward Meridian. The location is accurate.
Geology: The Michigan Bench is a small placer mine near the mouth of a small north-flowing, unnamed tributary of Michigan Creek. The deposit is on a terrace that probably represents an ancestral alluvial fan at the base of the small gulch that flows northeast at the mine. The gulch drains an area underlain by a swarm of granite porphyry and granodiorite dikes and sills exposed at the heads of Julian (ID177) and Spruce Creeks (ID176) (Miller and Bundtzen, 1994; Miller, Bundtzen, and Gray, 2005). In addition to gold, the principal heavy minerals in concentrate include cinnabar, garnet, and magnetite (Bundtzen, Cox, and Veach, 1987). The garnets are probably derived from garnetiferous granite-porphyry intrusions identified during geologic mapping southwest of the mine (Miller and Bundtzen, 1994). The Michigan Bench produced 125 ounces of gold during the early 1980s (Miller, Bundtzen, and Gray, 2005).
Workings: Placer gold was located on Michigan Creek in 1911 (Brooks, 1912). Samples were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey and Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys in the 1980s (Bundtzen, Cox, and Veach, 1987).
Alteration: None.
Production: The Michigan Bench produced 125 ounces of gold during the early 1980s (Miller, Bundtzen, and Gray, 2005).

Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - Ag, Hg
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Placer Au deposit (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	ID178

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References