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Rock Creek (bench placer)

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Tungsten
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Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10307995
Record type Site
Current site name Rock Creek (bench placer)

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.42598, 64.61258 (WGS84)
Relative position This locality is a bench placer on the crest of a low knoll locally called Arsenic Hill on the west side of Rock Creek at an elevation of about 230 feet. It is 3,000 feet due east of the Snake River road. The deposit is accurately located in the NW1/4 section 23, T. 10 S., R. 34 W., Kateel River Meridian.
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Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Secondary
Tungsten Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Gold Ore
Scheelite 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) -165.42598, 64.61258
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Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = An elevated alluvial (bench) placer is partly preserved west of Rock Creek on the south part of Arsenic Hill. The base of the channel is at an elevation of about 220 feet, or about 20 feet higher than the base of the alluvium in modern Rock Creek to the east. At the time of the formation of the elevated channel, an ancestral Rock Creek left the modern drainage and flowed southwest and then west-southwest. It can be traced for about 700 feet to a linear swale developed along the Brynteson fault; possibly the channel turned more southerly at that point. The channel ranges from about 100 to 120 feet across. Its southeast limit above Rock Creek was mined hydraulically in a pit that was about 120 feet long. The rest of the channel was developed from a series of at least six shallow shafts, which probably follow the deepest part of the channel. The channel is subparallel to the Arsenic Gulch fault, a strong fault that may have partly controlled the course of the old channel (Kennecott Exploration Company, unpublished data). The fault nearly coincides with the north limit of the channel where it leaves modern Rock Creek. Probably only a small amount of gold was recovered from the area of the shafts. This part of the channel may be the location of the small reserve suitable for dragline mining that was noted by Metcalfe and Tuck (1942).
  • Age = Pleistocene.

Economic information

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = A small reserve is probably present.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = The elevated channel was mined hydraulically and from shallow underground workings, probably before 1920.

Reference information

Links to other databases

Agency Database name Acronym Record ID Notes
USGS Alaska Resource Data File ARDF NM210

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Metcalfe, J.B., and Tuck, Ralph, 1942, Placer gold deposits of the Nome district, Alaska: Report for U.S. Smelting, Refining, and Mining Co., 175 p.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = This report

General comments

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

Reporter information

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