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Ruby and Golconda

Prospect in Alaska, United States with commodity Copper
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Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10001978
MRDS ID A012822
Record type Site
Current site name Ruby and Golconda

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.48662, 64.68067 (WGS84)
Relative position This prospect is at an elevation of about 900 feet on the divide between the headwaters of Twin Mountains Creek and Butterfield Canyon. The prospect is about one-quarter mile northwest of the Lilly prospect (NM189). The location is near the center of section 28, T. 9 S., R. 34 W., Kateel River Meridian.
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Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Copper Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Azurite Ore
Chalcopyrite Ore
Limonite Ore
Malachite Ore
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • (Local) Oxidation.

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Associated
    Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Schist
  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Sedimentary Rock > Carbonate > Limestone

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.48662, 64.68067
ListMap

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Mertie (1918 [B 622-I, p. 442]) reported azurite and malachite in fractured quartz on the Ruby and Golconda claims at the head of Twin Mountains Creek. A copper-bearing quartz vein located by Kennecott Exploration Company at the head of Twin Mountain Creek in 1993 is assumed to be the vein described by Mertie. Hummel (1962 [MF 247, locality 9]) reported copper at the nearby Lilly prospect (NM189) but he may have confused the Lilly and Ruby and Golconda prospects because the Lilly deposit apparently does not contain copper (C.C. Hawley, unpub. data, 1993).? the Ruby and Golconda deposit is a concordant quartz vein about 2 feet thick. The vein is coated with limonite and contains less than 2 percent malachite and azurite as fracture coatings and about 1 percent disseminated chalcopyrite in grains less than 0.2 inch across. The quartz strongly resembles limonite-stained sugary quartz boulders found throughout the western part of the Nome district, most commonly in stream float. Such boulders contain sparsely disseminated chalcopyrite and few other sulfide minerals. The concordant nature of the quartz vein at Ruby and Golconda and similar occurrences elsewhere suggests that these copper-bearing quartz veins are very early, having formed essentially by metamorphic processes prior to the main gold-mineralizing events at Nome. This early quartz could correlate with the weakly metallized quartz rods at the upper Butterfield Creek deposit (NM164).
  • Age = Pre-Late Cretaceous; possibly as old as early Paleozoic, the protolith age of the enclosing metamorphic rocks.

Economic information

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Prospect
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = A short tunnel was reported but was not found by Mertie (1918) or by C.C. Hawley in 1993.

Reference information

Links to other databases

Agency Database name Acronym Record ID Notes
USGS Mineral Resources Data System MRDS A012822
USGS Alaska Resource Data File ARDF NM188

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Hummel, C.L., 1962, Preliminary geologic map of the Nome C-1 quadrangle, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-247, 1 sheet, scale 1:63,360.

  • Deposit

    Mertie, J.B., Jr., 1918, Lode mining and prospecting on Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 662, p. 425-449.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Mertie, 1918

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Concordant copper-bearing quartz vein in schist.
Deposit Other Comments = Sometimes confused with the nearby Lilly prospect (NM189).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-JUL-00 Hawley, C.C. Hawley Resource Group
Reporter 10-JUL-00 Travis L. Hudson Hawley Resource Group