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Jorgensen

Past Producer in Alaska, United States with commodities Gold, Silver, Lead, Tungsten
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Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10308959
MRDS ID A012840
Record type Site
Current site name Jorgensen
Alternate or previous names Mountain Creek, Mary's Gulch
Related records 10112150, 10001996

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -165.42497, 64.58398 (WGS84)
Relative position This site includes lode and placer deposits in the Mountain Creek, Mary Gulch, and Nellie Gulch area. The Jorgensen lode claims appear to underlie part of the Mountain Creek placer deposit at an approximate elevation of 250 feet. The map location is at an elevation of 200 feet in Mary Gulch, in the NW1/4 section 35, T. 10 S., R. 34 W., Kateel River Meridian. This location is probably accurate to within 250 feet. The Mary's Gulch No. 3 placer claim (U.S. Mineral Survey No. 781) appears to be on what is now called Nellie Gulch, about one-half mile farther west and at an elevation of about 50 feet. The Jorgensen lode claims (unpatented) and the Mountain Creek placer (patented, U.S. Mineral Survey No. 710) are essentially the same as locality 8 of Hummel (1962 [MF 243]). The Jorgensen prospect was included in locality 47 of (Cobb, 1972 [MF 463], 1978 [OFR 78-93]).
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Geographic areas

Country State
United States Alaska

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Gold Primary
Silver Secondary
Lead Secondary
Tungsten Secondary

Materials information

Materials Type of material
Arsenopyrite Ore
Galena Ore
Gold Ore
Hematite Ore
Pyrite Ore
Scheelite Ore
Feldspar Gangue
Quartz Gangue

Alteration

  • Albitization; bleaching and silicification of marble; and sulfidization of schist.

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) -165.42497, 64.58398
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Comments on the geologic information

  • Geologic Description = The placer gold deposit in Mountain Creek, discovered in September, 1898, by E.O. Lindblom and his associates, was probably the first important placer discovery in the Nome district. A narrow gulch placer deposit on the creek appears to have been mined by 1905, although there may have been more mining after completion of the Miocene Ditch. Mountain Creek follows a steep, west-northwest-striking fault (C.C. Hawley , unpublished data, 1994). The fault cuts chlorite-rich metaturbidite schist and marble (Bundtzen and others, 1994); on the basis of the displacement of a marble layer, the apparent vertical movement on the fault is about 25 feet. At the Jorgensen prospect, Mertie (1918, p. 434-435) described a steep, N 65 W fault, as well as vertical quartz veins and stringers that cut the schist. Arsenopyrite is especially abundant in the schist along the fault. Panning recovered free gold that was fine, even-grained and heavily iron-stained. Joint planes (N 30 E, 70 N) in sulfidized schist along the fault are conspicuously iron-stained. Mertie (1918) believed that the Jorgensen deposit proved that gold was associated with sulfidized schist and had little to do with the introduced quartz. He found scheelite in an iron-stained quartz vein. The same locality was visited in about 1920 by Cathcart (1922, p. 240-241), who reported mine workings in mineralized schist and bleached marble. He identified the gangue feldspar as oligoclase, rather than albite. Pyrite, arsenopyrite, and galena occur in veins cutting quartz. Quartz veins in marble are nearly concordant but locally cut the layering; they contain less galena than veins in the schist. Like Mertie, Cathcart believed that most of the gold was introduced in a later sulfide-rich event. The structural history of the deposit is complex. It could include an early ductile event, followed by a brittle event marked by opening and reopening of the northeast-striking veins and stringers. Ore paragenesis may include (1) semiconcordant weakly auriferous quartz-feldspar-galena veins, (2) faulting, and (3) auriferous sulfidization of schist and introduction of gold in late veinlets.
  • Age = Mid-Cretaceous; veins cut schist and marble metamorphosed during the mid-Cretaceous; see NM207.

Economic information

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Past Producer
Commodity type Metallic

Comments on exploration

  • Status = Inactive

Mining district

District name Nome

Comments on the production information

  • Production Notes = Gold has been produced from the Mountain Creek placer and from weathered material over the in-situ lode.

Comments on the workings information

  • Workings / Exploration = These placer and lode deposits have been explored by shallow cuts and trenches. The Mountain Creek placer was located on September 9 and 19, 1898, recorded on October 18, 1898, and amended on October 22, 1900. A narrow, linear placer mine had been developed for at least 2,000 feet below the forks in the uppermost creek by the date of patent survey in November 1905 (U.S. Mineral Survey No. 710). The discovery in Mountain Creek was apparently the first made by E.O. Lindblom and his associates, the so-called Lucky Swedes. They must have been skillful and extremely hard-working prospectors because they also discovered Snow Gulch, Glacier Creek, and Rock Creek before they made their important discovery on Anvil Creek on September 22, 1898. The Miocene Ditch was ultimately extended to give a source of hydraulic water for the Mountain Creek mine. In 1916, Mertie (1918 [B 662-I, p. 425-449]) found prospector A.C. Jorgensen prospecting a lode beneath the previously mined placer. The general area was prospected by Newmont Mining Company in 1992.

Reference information

Links to other databases

Agency Database name Acronym Record ID Notes
USGS Alaska Resource Data File ARDF NM229
USGS Mineral Resources Data System MRDS A012840
USGS Mineral Resources Data System MRDS D002586

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

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

  • Deposit

    Hummel, C.L., 1962, Preliminary geologic map of the Nome C-1 quadrangle, Seward Peninsula, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-247, 1 sheet, scale 1:63,360.

  • 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 = Mertie, 1918

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit Model Name = Low-sulfide Au-quartz veins (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a); partly residual gold placer (model 39a).
Deposit Model Number = 36a, 39a

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 10-JUL-00 Hawley, C.C. and Hudson, Travis L. Hawley Resource Group