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Dry Gulch

Producer in Alaska, United States with commodity Gold
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Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10308866
MRDS ID A013212
Record type Site
Current site name Dry Gulch
Related records 10107535

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -161.74268, 58.91925 (WGS84)
Relative position Dry Gulch is a small north tributary to Platinum Creek (HG014). Dry Gulch is between Fox Gulch and Squirrel Creek and its confluence with Platinum Creek is about 1 mile upstream of the mouth of Platinum Creek. The map site is at the approximate midpoint of placer tailings in the drainage. 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) -161.74268, 58.91925
ListMap

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The headwaters of Dry Gulch are in the southeast border zone of the Red Mountain ultramafic pluton, where clinopyroxenite and hornblende-bearing rocks are dominant (Alaska Earth Sciences, 2000). Dry Gulch is only about 1/2 mile long, and placer tailings are present along about 1/4 mile of its lower length. Small-scale mining took place as early as 1927 or 1928, and continued intermittently until 1934, when the Goodnews Bay Mining Company started larger-scale dragline operations in the area (Mertie, 1940; 1976). The placer deposit probably has general characteristics like those on nearby Platinum Creek (HG014) and Fox Gulch (HG028). Locally derived gravels were coarse and bouldery, up to 12 feet thick but thinning upstream; PGMs were concentrated on or near bedrock. Bedrock along the mined part of Dry Gulch is part of an assemblage that includes sheared argillite, graywacke, and mafic to intermediate, fine-grained igneous rocks that are difficult to identify because of their decomposed character where exposed in mining cuts (Mertie, 1940). These rocks are included in a regional sedimentary and volcanic assemblage that ranges in age from Paleozoic to Mesozoic (Hoare and Coonrad, 1978). Platinum in Dry Gulch was probably discovered at about the same time that mining started on Platinum Creek (1928, Mertie, 1940). Dry Gulch was probably worked out by 1941.
  • 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 workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = Placer tailings are present along about 1/4 mile of lower Dry Gulch. Small-scale mining took place as early as 1927 or 1928 and continued intermittently until 1934, when the Goodnews Bay Mining Company started larger-scale dragline operations in the area (Mertie, 1940). Dry Gulch was probably worked out by 1941.

Reference information

Links to other databases

Agency Database name Acronym Record ID Notes
USGS Alaska Resource Data File ARDF HG027
USGS Mineral Resources Data System MRDS A013212
USGS Mineral Resources Data System MRDS M045376

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

    Alaska Earth Sciences, 2000, The Goodnews Bay ultramafic complexes: Unpublished data, http://aes.alaska.com/UMAF/FIGURES/page4.html

  • 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