Geologic descriptionThe divide between Lynx and Eagle Creeks is underlain by the California Creek Member of the Totatlanika Schist. It consists of gray quartz-orthoclase-sericite schist and augen gneiss (Wahrhaftig, 1970 [GQ 810]). In a report of antimony deposits in the Fairbanks area, Brooks (1916 [B 642-A]), states that where the lode has been opened, the limits of ore deposition appear to be within walls 3 to 4 feet apart, widening to as much as 10 feet in some places. The richest ore occurs in shoots, which appear to be pod or lens shaped. The largest of these shoots measured 40 feet in its longest dimension. The shoots are separated by an aggregate of quartz intergrown with stibnite and kidneys of stibnite, together with iron-stained fragments of the schist that form the country rock . Stibnite is the only important metallic mineral in the lode, but a little free gold and galena are also present, as well as possibly pyrite. The surface of the masses of stibnite shows considerable oxidation; secondary minerals form an incrustation half an inch or more in thickness. The larger ore shoots are composed of almost entirely stibnite with some quartz (Brooks, 1916 [B 642-A]). Antimony ore in float on the divide between Lynx Creek and Eagle Creeks was examined in 1942 by the Alaska Department of Mines (Joesting, 1942 [ATDM MR 194-11, p. 10-11]). High-grade, coarse, bladed stibnite float is scattered for 100 feet along the ridge (Joesting, 1943 [ATDM Pamph. 2]). |
