Slate Creek

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Gold

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10308673
Record type Site
Current site name Slate Creek

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.6252, 64.74138 (WGS84)
Relative position Slate Creek is a west tributary to Cripple River near its head. The mouth of Slate Creek is about 6 miles upstream from where the Nome-Teller road crosses Cripple River. Slate Creek has been mined for placer gold on a small scale about one-half mile above its confluence with Cripple River. The location is accurate within about 500 feet.
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Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Gold Ore
Pyrite 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) -165.6252, 64.74138

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The lower part of Slate Creek has been placer mined for gold on a small scale. Pans taken near the head of Slate Creek and on Cripple River 2,000 feet below the mouth of Slate Creek contained more than 10,000 ppm of gold. A stream sediment sample collected in Slate Creek above the placer mine workings contained 1,600 ppm arsenic (C.C. Hawley, unpublished data). The upper part of Slate Creek flows through calc- and chloritic-schist. Near its mouth, Slate Creek crosses a fault and is within a graphitic quartz schist unit (C.C. Hawley, Cindy Buxton, and D.L. Olson, written communication, 1992). The fault strikes northeast; it continues southwest to the Oregon Camp area and is called the Charlie Creek fault by Bundtzen and others (1994). This fault is known to be locally mineralized with stibnite and probably small amounts of gold.
  • Age = The placer gold deposits are Quaternary. The mineralization along the Charlie Creek fault is probably Late Cretaceous or early Tertiary (post-mid-Cretaceous regional metamorphism).

Economic information

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Probably inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Small-scale placer workings are present on Slate Creek.

Reference information

Links to other databases

Agency Database name Acronym Record ID Notes
USGS Alaska Resource Data File ARDF NM139

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Bundtzen, T.K., Reger, R.D., Laird, G.M., Pinney, D.S., Clautice, K.H., Liss, S.A., and Cruse, G.R., 1994, Progress report on the geology and mineral resources of the Nome mining district: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, Public Data-File 94-39, 21 p., 2 sheets, scale 1:63,360.

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 12-MAR-00 Hawley, C.C. and Hudson, Travis L. Hawley Resource Group