The most important placer creeks in the Kantishna district drain an area underlain chiefly by rocks of the Spruce Creek sequence (see DN091) (Bundtzen, 1981). Creeks that mostly drain Birch Creek Schist are, in general, smaller producers (Levell, 1984, fig. K-7 [v. 1]).

Placer deposits in the main part of the Kantishna Hills range from small colluvial-alluvial deposits at the heads of the valleys to medium-size alluvial deposits in relatively narrow tributary valleys. In turn, the narrow valley deposits grade into broad alluvial plain placers at the edge of the hills (Cobb, 1973 [B 1474]; Bundtzen, 1981; Levell, 1984 [v. 1]). At the upstream end, the colluvial and alluvial deposits rest on and grade into lode deposits.

Gravels are thin to almost absent in the alluvial deposits; these deposits mainly consist of angular unsorted bedrock material; gold is angular, locally crystalline and in composite nuggets of gold and quartz. Alluvium in the broad alluvial plain deposits, including lower Caribou Creek (DN035), is mostly composed of rounded to subrounded gravel stained and weakly cemented by groundwater precipitates. Gold tends to be fine and moderately well worn. With the exception of a deposit at the junction of the East and West Forks of Glen Creek, where gravel is at least 35 feet thick, most productive gravels are 15 or less feet thick.

There are two main types of placer deposits. One consists of alluvium in relatively narrow tributary valleys and in broad, low-gradient streams. The other consists of lowland alluvium and fluvio-glacial deposits (Levell, 1984 [v. 1]). The deposit in Eureka Creek (DN122) typifies the tributary valley type. The Caribou Creek deposit (DN035) exemplifies a lowland alluvial deposit, and most of the deposits on Moose Creek (DN132) are of fluvio-glacial origin. Most of the remaining placer resources in the Kantishna Hills area are in the low-gradient streams (Hawley and Associates, 1978; Levell, 1984).

The accessory mineral suite varies widely. In the tributary valley deposits, especially at their upper ends, the placers contain abundant mechanically unstable minerals such as pyrite, galena, and stibnite. Magnetite and garnet are probably the most common accessory minerals, and scheelite is widely distributed. Cassiterite occurs in several creeks. Wolframite was tentatively identified in one placer. Galena occurs in masses several inches across in Friday, Eureka, and other creeks, and boulders of rhodonite occur in Glen Creek. Ernie Mauer reported scheelite boulders as much as a foot across in upper Caribou Creek (Bundtzen, 1981, p. 165).