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Ronan Copper

Prospect in Alaska, United States with commodities Silver, Gold, Copper
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Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10308523
Record type Site
Current site name Ronan Copper

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -130.05075, 56.00077 (WGS84)
Relative position The Ronan Copper prospect is in Section 2 at an elevation of about 2750 feet on the rounded ridge about 0.1 mile west of Skookum Creek, and about 0.8 mile east-southeast of the Riverside mine adit (Maas and others, 1995, p. 252, 255, and fig. 66). The location is accurate within about 0.1 mile.
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Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Silver Primary
Gold Primary
Copper Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Chalcopyrite Ore
Galena Ore
Pyrrhotite Ore
Sphalerite Ore
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • Volcanic hostrock is impregnated with sulfide minerals.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 85
USGS model code 22c
Deposit model name Polymetallic veins
Mark3 model number 46

Nearby scientific data

(1) -130.05075, 56.00077
ListMap

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The country rocks in the area of the Ronan Copper prospect are pelitic metasedimentary and subordinate andesitic metavolcanic strata of the Jurassic or older Mesozoic Hazelton Group; the Triassic Texas Creek Granodiorite, which underlies and locally intrudes the Hazelton; the Eocene Hyder Quartz Monzonite, which intrudes the Hazelton and Texas Creek rocks; and still-younger Tertiary lamprophyre dikes, which cut all the other rocks (Smith, 1973, 1977; Koch, 1996). Maas and others (1995, p. 252, 260) describe the deposit as one of group of gold-bearing pyrrhotite deposits comprising disseminations and masses of sulfide minerals, accompanied by quartz, in shear zones in Hazelton volcanic rocks. The sulfide minerals in this group of deposits include auriferous pyrrhotite, with associated chalcopyrite and arsenopyrite, and local sphalerite and galena. Maas and others (1995, p. 252) suggest that the Ronan Copper deposit is Jurassic in age, based on similarities in mineralogy, structural setting, and hostrock, to isotopically-dated Jurassic deposits nearby in the Hyder district (see, for example, BC065, 067). If so, the deposit is contemporaneous, at least in part, with island-arc volcanism in Hazelton time (Alldrick, 1993).
  • Age = Maas and others (1995, p. 252) suggest that the Ronan Copper deposit is Jurassic in age, based on similarities in mineralogy, structural setting, and hostrock, to isotopically-dated Jurassic deposits nearby in the Hyder district (see, for example, BC065, BC067). If so, the deposit is contemporaneous, at least in part, with island-arc volcanism in Hazelton time (Alldrick, 1993).

Economic information

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Prospect
Commodity type Metallic

Mining district

District name Hyder

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Prospect has been explored by surface pits and trenches. Channel samples collected in 1992 by the U. S. Bureau of Mines (Maas and others, 1995, p. 260) contain up to 169 ppb Au, 66.51 ppm Ag, and 2.5% Cu.

Reference information

Links to other databases

Agency Database name Acronym Record ID Notes
USGS Alaska Resource Data File ARDF BC089

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Smith, J.G., 1973, A Tertiary lamprophyre dike province in southeastern Alaska: Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 10, p. 408-420.

  • Deposit

    Smith, J.G., 1977, Geology of the Ketchikan D-1 and Bradfield Canal A-1 quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1425, 49 p.

  • Deposit

    Alldrick, D.J., 1993, Geology and metallogeny of the Stewart mining camp, northwestern British Columbia: British Columbia Department of Mines and Petroleum Resources Bulletin 85, 105 p., 2 plates.

  • Deposit

    Maas, K.M., Bittenbender, P E., and Still, J.C., 1995, Mineral investigations in the Ketchikan mining district, southeastern Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report 11-95, 606 p.

  • Deposit

    Koch, R.D., 1996, Reconnaissance geologic map of the Bradfield Canal quadrangle, southeastern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 81-728-A, 35 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Maas and others, 1995

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Polymetallic veins

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 17-MAY-1998 H. C. Berg U.S. Geological Survey