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Alaska

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Gold
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Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10002943
MRDS ID A015437
Record type Site
Current site name Alaska
Alternate or previous names Gladstone, Jupiter-Mars, Grace E#2?

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -147.3949, 65.06857 (WGS84)
Relative position Cobb (1972, MF-413), loc. 42; NE1/4SW1/4 sec. 20, T. 3 N., R. 2 S., of the Fairbanks Meridian. The mine is on the hillside east of Chatham Creek at an elevation of about 1,700 feet. Accuracy is within 2,000 feet.
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Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore

Alteration

  • (Local) Sericite, scorodite, iron oxide and antimony oxide.

Host and associated rocks

  • Host or associated Host
    Rock type Metamorphic Rock > Schist

Nearby scientific data

(1) -147.3949, 65.06857
ListMap

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The Alaska prospect originally was known by the name Jupiter Mars prospect after several claims and fractions bearing that name. The prospect was discovered prior to 1910 by which time the Jupiter Mars claim was being explored by a 70-foot adit and a 50-foot crosscut (Brooks, 1911). Work continued in 1911 and by 1912, seven or eight claims in the area had been purchased by the Jupiter-Mars Consolidated Gold Company (Brooks, 1912; Smith, 1913; B 525). This company owned the Shamrock, Emerald, Gladstone, Richman, Henchman, Chatham, Jupiter, Mars, and Jupiter Mars Extensions Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 (Times Publishing Company, 1912). Work was concentrated in two short adits on the Goldstone claim. These adits intersected a northwest-striking, shallowly south-dipping shear zone from which several tons of custom milled ore returned values of about $30 per ton (1.45 ounces of gold per ton) (Smith, 1913; B 525, p. 175). Sulfides make up only a small proportion of the shear zone. Gold is associated with white-quartz vein material (Smith, 1913; B 525, p 175). The shear zone is cut off in the northern tunnel by frozen fluvial gravels indicating the material in which the tunnel is driven may be part of large slump block. A 66-foot deep shaft had been sunk to the east of the adits by 1912 to prospect along the shear zone (Smith, 1913; B 525). Work continued in 1913 when the shaft was deepened to 125 feet and 112 feet of drift were driven from the shaft (Chapin, 1914, p. 337). ? the area was restaked as the Alaska, Alaska #2 and Alaska #3 claims by Fred M. Wackwitz on July 1, 1931 (Hill, 1933). The prospect subsequently became known as the Alaska group and was first prospected with large ditches cut by ground sluicing to remove surface debris. A scorodite-stained quartz-bearing shear zone oriented east-west with a 30 degree north dip, was exposed in this manner; it measured 3 to 5 feet wide and averaged $0.43 per ton (0.02 ounces of gold per ton). ? In 1979, Placid Oil began surface trenching, diamond core drilling and geochemical sampling of the shear zones which had been discovered previously. Between 1979 and 1986, Placid Oil drilled 5,137 feet of diamond core and cut several thousand feet of dozer trenches on the prospect, primarily on the Christina shear zone north of the adits and shaft previously driven on the prospect (Porterfield and Croff, 1986). ? In 1986, Placid Oil Company dropped its lease on the prospect. The trenches on the Alaska prospect were reclaimed by Placid Oil in 1985; however, sidewall exposures of gold quartz and sulfide shear zones remain and served as sample sites for field work conducted by Fairbanks Exploration Inc. in 1987. Samples collected from the prospect contained anomalous gold (70 to 1600 ppb), silver (5.5 ppm to 179.9 ounces of silver per ton), arsenic (+1000 ppm) and antimony (330 to +10000 ppm) hosted in white quartz and quartz-sericite, rhyolite tuff, stained by scorodite, iron oxide and antimony oxide (Fairbanks Exploration Inc., unpublished report, 1987). The core of the Jupiter Mars shear zone was exposed in trench walls where it contained 1 to 6 inch wide quartz stringers which were broken and recemented by later quartz. The shear strikes N 80 E and dips 55 SE. Host rocks in the trench exposures and on the dumps of one of the old adits were highly oxidized rhyolitic tuff with pervasive scorodite and iron-oxide stains. No other work has been conducted on the Alaska prospect and all underground workings are now inaccessible.

Economic information

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Fairbanks

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Chapin (1914), reported 'some production', however the exact amount is unknown.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = A 70-foot adit tunnel and a 50-foot crosscut were completed in 1910 on the Jupiter-Mars property (Brooks, 1911, p. 34). Two tunnels were dug on a flat-lying vein that dips south and shaft was sunk 125 feet to a vein (Chapin, 1914, p. 337). All of the old workings caved by 1931, and newer workings consisted mainly of trenches and pits (Hill, 1933, p. 99-100).

Reference information

Links to other databases

Agency Database name Acronym Record ID Notes
USGS Mineral Resources Data System MRDS A015437
USGS Alaska Resource Data File ARDF LG141

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Brooks, A.H., 1912, The Alaska mining industry in 1911, in Brooks, A.H., and others, Mineral resources of Alaska, 1911: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 520, p. 17-44.

  • Deposit

    Times Publishing Company, 1912, Tanana Magazine, Quartz Edition: Fairbanks, Alaska 76 p.

  • Deposit

    Smith, P.S., 1913, Lode mining near Fairbanks, in Prindle, L.M., A geologic reconnaissance of the Fairbanks quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 525, p. 153-216.

  • Deposit

    Smith, P.S., 1913, Lode mining near Fairbanks: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 542-F, p. 137-202.

  • Deposit

    Hill, J.M., 1933, Lode deposits of the Fairbanks District, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 849-B, p. 29-163.

  • Deposit

    Forbes, R.B., 1968, Gold gradients and anomalies in the Pedro Dome-Cleary Summit area, Fairbanks District, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 68-108, 43 p.

  • Deposit

    Chapman, R.M., and Foster, R.L., 1969, Lode mines and prospects in the Fairbanks district, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 625-D, 25 p., 1 plate.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1976, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Circle quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 76-633, 72 p.

  • Deposit

    Porterfield, J. and Croff, C., 1986, Summary report for the Cleary Project, Fairbanks district, Alaska - 1985: Placid Oil Company Report, 36 p.

  • Deposit

    Freeman, C.J., 1992, 1991 Golden Summit project final report, volume 2: Historical summary of lode mines and prospects in the Golden Summit project area, Alaska: Avalon Development Corp., 159 p. (Report held by Freegold Recovery Inc. USA, Vancouver, British Columbia.)

  • Deposit

    Brooks, A.H., 1911, The mining industry in 1910, in Brooks, A.K., and others, Mineral resources of Alaska, report on progress of investigations in 1910: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 480-B p. 21-43.

  • Deposit

    Chapin, Theodore, 1914, Lode mining near Fairbanks, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 592-J, p. 321-355.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1976, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Livengood quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 76-819, 241 p.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Cobb, 1976 (OFR 76-633)

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Gold, silver, arsenic and antimony minerals in quartz-bearing shear zones and quartz sericite rhyolite tuff.

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 04-MAY-1999 C.J. Freeman Avalon Development Corporation
Reporter 04-MAY-1999 J.R. Guidetti Schaefer Avalon Development Corporation