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Squirrel Creek

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Gold
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Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10308864
MRDS ID A013211
Record type Site
Current site name Squirrel Creek
Related records 10002305, 10257268

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -161.73268, 58.92925 (WGS84)
Relative position Squirrel Creek is a northern tributary to Platinum Creek on the west side of Salmon River valley. The headwaters of Squirrel Creek are on the southeast flank of Red Mountain. It is included in locality 12 of Cobb (1972 [MF 362]; 1980 [OF 80-909]).
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Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Chromite Ore
Gold Ore
Ilmenite Ore
Magnetite Ore

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 120
USGS model code 39b
BC deposit profile C01. C02
Deposit model name Placer PGE-Au

Nearby scientific data

(1) -161.73268, 58.92925
ListMap

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The headwaters of Squirrel Creek are on the southeast flank of Red Mountain. About the upper 1/3 of the drainage is in dunite of the Jurassic Red Mountain ultramafic pluton. Bedrock in the lower 2/3 of the creek is sheared argillite, graywacke, and mafic to intermediate, fine-grained igneous rocks that are difficult to identify because of their extensively decomposed character where exposed in mining cuts (Mertie, 1940). These country rocks to the Red Mountain pluton are included in a regional sedimentary and volcanic assemblage that ranges in age from Paleozoic to Mesozoic (Hoare and Coonrad, 1978). Gravels in Squirrel Creek are commonly 13 feet thick but are locally up to 20 feet thick. In the lower part of the creek the gravels are subrounded to subangular but in the upper creek the cobbles and boulders are more angular; all the alluvial material is locally derived. The gravels are covered by 2 to 3 feet of vegetation-rich materials. The gravels have been mined from the confluence of Squirrel and Platinum Creeks upstream to an elevation of 350 feet, a distance of about 3/4 mile. In the 150- to 500-foot-wide paystreak, platinum is concentrated on bedrock, in the overlying 2 to 3 feet of gravel, and in fractures in bedrock. PGM grades were locally up to 0.1 ounce per cubic yard, but averaged about 0.03 ounce per cubic yard. The recovered platinum-bearing grains are generally coarser than on other nearby creeks and nuggets up to 1.5 ounces have been found (Mertie, 1940). The mean precious metal content of 22 samples (recomputed free of impurities) is 77.21% Pt, 15.68% Ir, 3.92% Os, 0.72% Ru, 1.58% Rh, 0.34% Pd, and 0.55% Au (Mertie, 1976). Three samples of Squirrel Creek tailings contained 0.0006 to 0.0033 ounce of PGM per cubic yard. Platinum-bearing grains from these samples contained 0.5 to 1.9 percent Rh, 0.3 to 0.9 percent Ru, 47 to 88.4 percent Pt, 0.7 to 37.4 percent Ir, 0.5 to 9.2 percent Os, and 4.1 to 9.0 percent Fe (Fechner, 1988). Platinum-bearing phases that were identified in these grains included iron-platinum alloy containing 8 to 30 percent Fe; iron-platinum alloy with minor osmiridium inclusions; osmiridium; and osmiridium with subordinate iron-platinum alloy. There are an estimated 50,000 cubic yards of tailings on Squirrel Creek with an average grade of 0.002 ounce of PGM per cubic yard. In the area of the Goodnews Bay Mining Company camp, there are an estimated 37,000 cubic yards of unmined alluvium grading 0.0135 ounce of PGM per cubic yard (Fechner, 1988, p. 81).
  • Age = Quaternary.

Economic information

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Active?

Mining district

District name Goodnews Bay

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = About 50,000 yards of alluvial material has been worked on this creek. If this material contained an average of 0.03 ounce of PGM per cubic yard and mining recovered 60 percent, then about 900 ounces of PGM have been produced from Squirrel Creek.

Comments on the reserve resource information

  • Reserves = There are an estimated 50,000 cubic yards of tailings on Squirrel Creek with an average grade of 0.002 ounce of PGM per cubic yard. In the area of the Goodnews Bay Mining Company camp, there are an estimated 37,000 cubic yards of unmined alluvium grading 0.0135 ounce PGM per cubic yard (Fechner, 1988, p. 81).

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Platinum was discovered on Squirrel Creek in 1928 and small-scale mining took place intermittently until WWII. Much of the mining was by dragline, which worked the paystreak in four parallel cuts.

Reference information

Links to other databases

Agency Database name Acronym Record ID Notes
USGS Alaska Resource Data File ARDF HG013
USGS Mineral Resources Data System MRDS A013211
USGS Mineral Resources Data System MRDS M045381

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Mertie, J.B., Jr., 1940, The Goodnews platinum deposits, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 918, 97 p.

  • Deposit

    Mertie, J.B., Jr., 1976, Platinum deposits in the Goodnews Bay district, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 938, 42 p.

  • Deposit

    Hoare, J.M., and Coonrad, W.L., 1978, Geologic map of the Goodnews and Hagemeister Island quadrangles region, southwestern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-9-B, two sheets, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1980, Summaries of data and lists of references to metallic and selected nonmetallic mineral deposits in fifteen quadrangles in southwestern and west-central Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 80-909, 103 p.

  • Deposit

    Fechner, S.A., 1988, Bureau of Mines mineral investigation of the Goodnews Bay mining district, Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report 1-88, 230 p.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Hagemeister Island quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-362, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000.

Comments on the references

  • Primary Reference = Mertie, 1940

General comments

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

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 18-MAR-2001 Travis L. Hudson Applied Geology