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Boulder Creek

Prospect in Alaska, United States with commodities Arsenic, Antimony, Gold, Lead, Tungsten
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Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10308939
MRDS ID D002583
Record type Site
Current site name Boulder Creek
Alternate or previous names Claus Rodine
Related records 10009542

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.52128, 64.64978 (WGS84)
Relative position Boulder Creek is a west tributary to Snake River; it flows east from headwaters in the eastern Nome C-2 quadrangle. The prospect is on the south side of Boulder Creek, approximately at the elevation of a prominent ditch and about 1,100 feet above the confluence of Twin Mountain Creek (shown as Twin Mtn Ck on the map) and Boulder Creek (Mertie, 1918 [B 662-I, p. 425-449]). The location is within a mineralized area mostly above the Boulder Creek prospect. It is accurate within about 1,000 feet. Locality 37 (Boulder lode) of Cobb (1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]), is nearly coincident with some quartz veins but it is about one-half mile downstream from this prospect.
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Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Arsenic Primary
Antimony Primary
Gold Secondary
Lead Secondary
Tungsten Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Galena Ore
Gold Ore
Scheelite Ore
Stibnite Ore
Ankerite Gangue
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • Sulfidation of schist and ankeritization of marble.

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 273
USGS model code 36a
Deposit model name Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein
Mark3 model number 27

Nearby scientific data

(1) -165.52128, 64.64978
ListMap

Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The Boulder Creek or Claus Rodine prospect is a complex deposit related generally to the Rodine fault (Bundtzen and others, 1994). The prospect was first reported by Mertie (1918 [B 662-I, p. 427-429]), who noted that a 50-pound pod of stibnite had been mined from a pit near the adit and that quartz in the adit locally contained crystalline scheelite. Cathcart (1922, p. 252) also visited the prospect and reported quartz veins with pyrite and arsenopyrite associated with extensive sulfidation of schist. The deposit was relocated by Kennecott Exploration Company in about 1991, and although the adit was reopened, it was too dangerous for underground work. The prospect was within the area of a large Kennecott soil geochemistry survey, and two trenches were cut above and parallel to a placer ditch, at right angles to the Rodine fault. The soil geochemistry survey shows that the Boulder Creek area is highly anomalous in arsenic and antimony, but only moderately anomalous in gold. Values in soil approaching the Rodine fault are as much as 3,100 ppm arsenic and 190 ppm antimony. The maximum amount of gold in a soil was 76 ppb. Rock samples collected along the trench system locally exceed 10,000 ppm arsenic and contain as much as 0.03 ounce of gold per ton. At the prospect, the Rodine fault juxtaposes marble to the west against mica-schist; most of the mineralization, extending for as much as 100 feet east of the fault, is in schist. Rubble above the prospect is locally composed of ankeritic marble with some quartz. The country rock schist on the east side of the Rodine fault was mapped by Bundtzen and others (1994) as calcareous metaturbidite schist, a unit inferred to be relatively old and to lie near the base of the section along the Twin Mountain antiform.
  • Age = Mid-Cretaceous; postdates regional metmorphism and is probably similar in age to other low-sulfide Au-quartz veins of the Nome district (see, for example, the Divide prospect, NM058).

Economic information

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Prospect
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = A small amout of high-grade stibnite ore may have been mined.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = An adit had been driven about 87 feet when the prospect was visited by Mertie in 1916; it was subsequently extended a few more feet. The prospect had power from a small Pelton wheel that was still at the site in 1995. A large soil geochemistry survey was completed and about 600 feet of trenches were cut in 1992 or 1993 by Kennecott Exploration Company.

Reference information

Links to other databases

Agency Database name Acronym Record ID Notes
USGS Alaska Resource Data File ARDF NM165
USGS Mineral Resources Data System MRDS A012823
USGS Mineral Resources Data System MRDS D002583

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    Cathcart, S.H., 1922, Metalliferous lodes in southern Seward Peninsula: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 722, p. 163-261.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Nome quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-463, 2 sheets, scale 1:250,000.

  • Deposit

    Cobb, E.H., 1978, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Nome quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File report 78-93, 213 p.

  • 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 = Low-sulfide Au-quartz veins (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a).

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 12-MAR-00 Hawley, C.C. and Hudson, Travis L. Hawley Resource Group