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Sheep Creek

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

Identification information

Deposit ID 10097582
MRDS ID A105322
Record type Site
Current site name Sheep Creek
Related records 10308495

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -147.99796, 64.90577 (WGS84)
Relative position The Sheep Creek mine is located in the NE1/4NE1/4 sec. 20, T. 1 N., R. 2 W., Fairbanks Meridian. The placer mine (open-pit mine) is marked on the Fairbanks (D-2) NW topographic map, approximately 2.7 miles northeast of the top of Ester Dome. Sheep Creek is a tributary of Goldstream Creek that drains the northeast side of Ester Dome, and the mining took place on the lower half-mile of the creek upstream of where it flows onto the flats of Goldstream Creek. The mine is included in locality 47 of Cobb (1972 [MF 410]).
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Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 119
USGS model code 39a
BC deposit profile C01. C02
Deposit model name Placer Au-PGE
Mark3 model number 54

Nearby scientific data

(1) -147.99796, 64.90577
ListMap

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = Sheep Creek is a tributary of Goldstream Creek that drains the northeast side of Ester Dome. Bedrock in the drainage is Fairbanks Schist that consists of quartz-muscovite schist, quartzite, chlorite-quartz schist, and bleached feldspathic quartzose schist (Newberry and others, 1996). The area that has been mined, about a half-mile in the lower part of the creek, consists predominantly of frozen ground with a few scattered, thawed bog holes and a thawed area running the length of the old F.E. Co. stripping drain (May and Bundtzen, 1996). The depth to bedrock ranges from 30 to 100 feet and averages around 70 feet (May and Bundtzen, 1996). Within the mine section, 20-25 feet of frozen muck overlies the gravels (May and Bundtzen, 1996). In the early to mid-1950's, the F.E. Co. began hydraulic stripping of the 80-100 feet of muck overlying the thawed gravels of the Sheep Creek channel (May and Bundtzen, 1996). Dredge no. 6 began working the Sheep Creek channel in 1958 and continued until it was shut down in 1962 (May and Bundtzen, 1996).
  • Age = Quaternary placer.

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 = There is no record on the amount of production, but it was clearly substantial.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = There was probably earlier drift mining and prospecting, but in 1952, the F.E. Co. prepared a half-mile section of lower Sheep Creek channel for dredging after drilling approximately 200 to 300 prospect holes (May and Bundtzen, 1996). In the early to mid-1950's, the F.E. Co. began hydraulic stripping of the 80-100 feet of muck overlying the thawed gravels of the Sheep Creek channel (May and Bundtzen, 1996). In the fall of 1957, Dredge no. 6, which had just finished mining at Gold Hill (FB155) was hauled overland to Sheep Creek. The dredge began working the Sheep Creek channel in 1958 and continued until it was shut down in 1962 (May and Bundtzen, 1996).

Reference information

Links to other databases

Agency Database name Acronym Record ID Notes
USGS Mineral Resources Data System MRDS A105322
USGS Alaska Resource Data File ARDF FB052

Bibliographic references

  • 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., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Fairbanks quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-410, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1976, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Fairbanks quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 76-662, 174 p.

  • Deposit

    Green, C.B., Bundtzen, T.K., Peterson, R.J., Seward, A.F., Deagan, J.R., and Burton, J.E., 1989, Alaska's Mineral Industry, 1988, Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Special Report 43, 79 p.

  • Deposit

    May, D., and Bundtzen, T.K., 1996, Placer mine tour, Little Eldorado Group and Polar Mining Inc. operations, Fairbanks mining district, in brochure for 15th Biennial Conference of Alaska Mining, Fairbanks, Alaska, 12 p.

  • Deposit

    Bundtzen, T. K., Green, C. B., Peterson, R. J., and Seward, A. F., 1988, Alaska's mineral industry 1987: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Special Report 41, 69 p.

  • Deposit

    Newberry, R.J., Bundtzen, T.K., Clautice, K.C., Combellick, R.A., Douglas, T., Laird, G.M., Liss, S.A., Pinney, D.S., Reifenstuhl, R.R., and Solie, D.N., 1996, Preliminary geologic map of the Fairbanks mining district, Alaska: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Public Data File 96-16, 17 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:63,360.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = May and Bundtzen, 1996

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 31-JUL-2001 J.R. Guidetti Schaefer Avalon Development Corporation
Reporter 31-JUL-2001 C.J. Freeman Avalon Development Corporation