Khantaak Beach (ARDF #YA003) Au

Khantaak Beach

Mine, Inactive

Commodities and mineralogy

Main commodities	Au
Other commodities	Fe; Ti
Ore minerals	ilmenite; magnetite; native gold
Gangue minerals	garnet

Geographic location

Quadrangle map, 1:250,000-scale	YA
Quadrangle map, 1:63,360-scale	C-5
Latitude	59.611
Longitude	-139.759
Nearby scientific data	Find additional scientific data near this location
Location and accuracy	The auriferous Khantaak beach trends north-northeast (on the northwest shore) of a low island northwest of Yakutat. The location given is the approximate midpoint of the beach, about 0.7 mile southwest of triangulation station Arest. The placer deposit is number 4 of Cobb (1972).

Geologic setting

Geologic description The Khantaak Island placer is cut into and largely derived from glacial gravel that forms the island. Winnowing from wave action on very low grade glacial gravel has resulted in transient ruby-black sand layers 0.1 to 0.2 feet thick dispersed along the beach. These layers contain trace amounts of gold and subeconomic amounts of magnetite and ilmenite. Locally the heavy sand layers were rich enough to mine (Tarr, 1906; Tarr, 1909, Tarr and Butler, 1909). Brooks (1918) reported the existence of gold, but absence of platinum in placer material from the north part of the island. In addition to the placer gold occurrences on the west facing part of island, Reimnitz and Plafker (1976) reported one sample from the Yakutat side of the island with 0.006 ppm gold.
Geologic map unit	(-139.760645929388, 59.6107019470362)
Mineral deposit model	Beach placer: concentration by winnowing of low-grade glacial gravels.
Age of mineralization	Holocene

Production and reserves

Workings or exploration	Tarr and Butler (1909, p. 165, 167) reported $3000 in gold produced in 1891, and a probable total of a few hundred ounces of gold from this historic beach placer in 1892, and as late as 1905. Thomas and Berryhill (1962) collected some samples from Khantaak beach in a Bureau of Mines beach sand investigation.
Indication of production	Yes; small
Production notes	Total maximum is a few hundred ounces of native gold.
Additional comments Glacial gravels derived from metamorphic rocks in the Chugach terrane (Hudson, Plafker, and Turner, 1977).

References

MRDS Number	A013399
References Brooks, A.H., 1918, Mineral resources of Alaska, 1916: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 662, 469 p. Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Yakutat quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-408, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000. Hudson, T.L., Plafker, George, and Turner, D.L., 1977, Metamorphic rocks of the Yakutat-St. Elias Area, South-central Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Journal of Research, v. 5, no. 2, p. 173-184. Reimnitz, Erk, and Plafker, George, 1976, Marine gold placers along the Gulf of Alaska margin: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1415, 16 p., 1 plate. Tarr, R.S., 1906, The Yakutat Bay region in Brooks, A.H., Report on Progress of Investigations of Mineral Resources of Alaska in 1905: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 284, p. 61-64. Tarr, R.S., 1909, Physiography and glacial geology, in Tarr, R.S., and Butler, B.S., The Yakutat Bay region, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 64, p. 11-144. Tarr, R.S., and Butler, B.S., 1909, Area geology, in Tarr, R.S., and Butler, B.S., The Yakutat Bay region, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 64, p. 145-178. Thomas, B.I., and Berryhill, R.V., 1962, Reconnaissance studies of Alaskan beach sands, eastern Gulf of Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Report of Investigations 5986, 38 p., 7 sheets.
Reporters	C. C. Hawley (Hawley Resource Group)
Last report date	12/7/1998