Willow Creek mining district

Last updated
Willow Creek mining district
USA Alaska location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Willow Creek mining district
Coordinates: 61°47′N149°15′W / 61.783°N 149.250°W / 61.783; -149.250

The Willow Creek mining district, also known as the Independence Mine/Hatcher Pass district, is a gold-mining area in the U.S. state of Alaska. Underground hard-rock mining of gold from quartz veins accounts for most of the mineral wealth extracted from the Hatcher Pass area. The first mining efforts were placer mining of stream gravels, and placer mining in the area has continued sporadically to this day. Robert Hatcher discovered gold and staked the first claim in the Willow Creek valley in September 1906. The first lode mill in the area started operating in 1908. Underground mining continued at a variety of locations around the pass until 1951. In the 1980s one of the area's hard-rock mines was briefly re-opened. At least one mining company is actively exploring for gold in the area now. [1] Through 2006 the district produced 667-thousand ounces of hard rock gold and 60-thousand ounces of placer gold. [2]

Contents

The Willow Creek district at Hatcher Pass is historically the third-largest lode-gold producing district in Alaska, having produced 624,000 oz of gold. [3] At Hatcher Pass proper the southwestern margin of the Cretaceous to Tertiary age Talkeetna Mountains batholith is in fault contact with a pelitic schist. The Talkeetna Mountains batholith in this area consists of a pervasively altered zoned 74 Ma (million years old) tonalite body underlying Hatcher Pass and the headwaters of Willow Creek, and a 67 Ma quartz monzonite pluton farther west. The schist to the south consists mainly of metamorphosed and deformed sedimentary rocks, of Late Cretaceous to Paleocene age. The schist may represent subducted Valdez Group that was exhumed in the forearc region from beneath the Peninsular terrane. [4] Both deformed and undeformed small felsic dikes occur in the schist. Several bodies of serpentinite are contained within the schist. Unmetamorphosed Late Cretaceous or Tertiary terrestrial sedimentary rocks of the Arkose Ridge Formations lie to the south of the schist and intrusives, across a low-angle detachment fault. Those bedded rocks are derived from the schists and intrusive rocks to the north. A rock unit variously mapped as intricately intermixed amphibolite and quartz diorite; or as a migmatite, occurs in contact with the Arkose Ridge formation on Government Peak and in contact with the Arkose Ridge Formation and quartz monzonite east of the Little Susitna River. It is not clear if the migmatite is a higher-metamorphic-grade equivalent of the schist. [5] [6]

Gold-bearing (+/- Ag, W, Sb, As, Cu, Mo, Pb, Te, Zn, Hg) veins occur in the tonalite, in small amounts in the schist, and in the Jurassic? migmatite, but not in the western quartz monzonite or in the Tertiary sediments. Most of the mineral deposits are close to the tonalite-schist contact.[ citation needed ]

Independence mine

Independence Mine is now a State Historic Park Hatcherpassmine.JPG
Independence Mine is now a State Historic Park

What is now called Independence Mine was once two mines: The Alaska Free Gold Mine on Skyscraper Mountain, and Independence Mine on Granite Mountain. In 1938 the two were brought together under one company, the Alaska-Pacific Consolidated Mining Company (APC). With a block of 83 mining claims, APC became the largest producer in the Willow Creek Mining District. The claims covered more than 1,350 acres (5.5 km2) and included 27 structures. In its peak year, 1941, APC employed 204 men, blasted nearly a dozen miles of tunnels, and produced about 35,000 ounces of gold.

In 1942, the War Production Board designated gold mining as nonessential to the war effort. Gold mining throughout the United States came to a halt, but Independence Mine was permitted to continue to operate because of the presence of scheelite, an ore of the "strategic mineral" tungsten, which occurs in the quartz lode with the gold. In 1943, Independence Mine was ordered to close. Mining interests returned to Hatchers Pass when gold prices rose in the mid-1970s; this resulted in a short period of production from the Independence Mine in 1982 by Coronado Mining Company. [7]

Today, Independence Mine is a part of the Independence Mine State Historical Park, a popular winter recreation area. Displays of mining artifacts may also be viewed at the Dorothy Page Museum and Old Wasilla Townsite in downtown Wasilla, Alaska.

The Independence was the largest mine in the Willow Creek District, over a dozen other hard rock mines operated, and may operate again, within a few miles.

Willow Creek mines

Entrance to Lucky Shot Mine Hatcherpassmodern.JPG
Entrance to Lucky Shot Mine

The Willow Creek Mines includes the Lucky Shot mine (Gold, copper, lead, zinc, arsenic) and War Baby mine (Gold, copper) veins, which produced from veins cutting the igneous country rock. Combined production for the two mines between 1919 and 1940 was about 252,000 ounces of gold, with some copper. Grade was about 2.2 ounces of gold per ton.

Other Notable Lode-Gold mines of the District

The Gold Bullion Mine (Gold, copper, mercury), produced about 77,000 ounces of gold, at a grade of 1.7 ounces per ton, from quartz veins in igneous rock.

The Fern Mine (Gold, lead, tungsten, tellurium), produced about 44,000 ounces of gold between 1922 and 1950 from quartz veins in shears in igneous rock.

The Martin Mine (Gold, copper, lead), produced about 28,000 ounces of gold from two veins between 1911 and 1920, at an average grade of 1 ounce per ton.

The Gold Cord Mine (Gold, copper, lead, zinc, tungsten), produced about 16,000 ounces of gold, mainly between 1931 and 1938, from veins with grades ranging for 0.1 to 9 ounces per ton.

See also

Related Research Articles

Hillsboro, New Mexico Unincorporated community & CDP in New Mexico, United States

Hillsboro is an unincorporated community in Sierra County, New Mexico, United States, located in the southwestern part of the state. It was founded in 1877, following the discovery of gold. The community was the county seat of Sierra County from 1884 until 1936, when Hot Springs became the county seat.

Hatcher Pass

Hatcher Pass is a mountain pass through the southwest part of the Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska. It is named after Robert Hatcher, a prospector and miner. The nearest cities are Palmer and Wasilla approximately 12 miles (19 km) to the south, and Willow approximately 26 mi (42 km) to the west. The communities are at an elevation of approximately 250 ft (76 m) in the Mat-Su valley.

Tukgahgo Mountain

Tukgahgo Mountain (TUG-a-ho) is a mountain in the Takshanuk Mountains in the U.S. state of Alaska with a peak elevation of 4,675 feet (1,425 m). It is located in Haines Borough, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) to the southwest of Chilkoot Lake and 16 miles (26 km) to the southwest of Skagway. Geological investigations of the veins in the mountain have revealed silver, gold, platinum, and palladium mineralization, derived from mid-Cretaceous events.

Copper mining in the United States Review of the topic

Copper mining in the United States has been a major industry since the rise of the northern Michigan copper district in the 1840s. In 2017 the United States produced 1.27 million metric tonnes of copper, worth $8 billion, making it the world's fourth largest copper producer, after Chile, China, and Peru. Copper was produced from 23 mines in the US. Top copper producing states in 2014 were Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, and Montana. Minor production also came from Idaho, and Missouri. As of 2014, the US had 45 million tonnes of known remaining reserves of copper, the fifth largest known copper reserves in the world, after Chile, Australia, Peru, and Mexico.

Gold mining in the United States Overview of gold mining in the United States of America

Gold mining in the United States has taken place continually since the discovery of gold at the Reed farm in North Carolina in 1799. The first documented occurrence of gold was in Virginia in 1782. Some minor gold production took place in North Carolina as early as 1793, but created no excitement. The discovery on the Reed farm in 1799 which was identified as gold in 1802 and subsequently mined marked the first commercial production.

Silver mining in the United States

Silver mining in the United States began on a major scale with the discovery of the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1858. The industry suffered greatly from the demonetization of silver in 1873 by the Coinage Act of 1873, known pejoratively as the "Crime of 73", but silver mining continues today.

Gold mining in Colorado, a state of the United States, has been an industry since 1858. It also played a key role in the establishment of the state of Colorado.

Silver mining in Nevada, a state of the United States, began in 1858 with the discovery of the Comstock Lode, the first major silver-mining district in the United States. Nevada calls itself the "Silver State." Nevada is the nation's second-largest producer of silver, after Alaska. In 2014 Nevada produced 10.93 million troy ounces of silver, of which 6.74 million ounces were as a byproduct of the mining of gold. The largest byproducers were the Hycroft Mine, the Phoenix Mine, the Midas Mine and Round Mountain.

Gold mining in Alaska, a state of the United States, has been a major industry and impetus for exploration and settlement since a few years after the United States acquired the territory in 1867 from the Russian Empire. Russian explorers discovered placer gold in the Kenai River in 1848, but no gold was produced. Gold mining started in 1870 from placers southeast of Juneau, Alaska.

Gold was discovered in the Yentna-Cache Creek Mining District in the U.S. state of Alaska of the upper Susitna River Valley in 1898, soon followed by claim staking. Placer mining was reported in the Cache Creek drainage of the Dutch Hills by 1906. Quaternary glaciofluvial deposits, alluvial deposits, and Cenozoic conglomeratic white quartz-breccia units have been mined in the Dutch Hills. About 200,000 oz of gold has been produced from these placer deposits. By 1927, a road from Talkeetna was constructed into the mining area, known today as The Petersville Road. The mining camp of Petersville, Alaska served as the area Post Office for several years in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Two areas have been set aside for recreational gold mining, the North and South units of the Petersville State Recreation Mining Areas. Many smaller one-man and family placer mining operations continue today.

The Ruby–Poorman mining district in the U.S. state of Alaska produced nearly a half million ounces of gold, all from placer mines. Some of the largest gold nuggets found in Alaska are from the district, which lies along the Yukon River. The placers are mostly deeply buried, and most were originally worked with shafts and drifts. Dozens of creeks in the district were mined, many more bear gold prospects. Cassiterite, platinum, scheelite, allanite, and native bismuth have been recovered along with gold from placer mines in the district.

Nome mining district Unincorporated mining district

The Nome mining district, also known as the Cape Nome mining district, is a gold mining district in the U.S. state of Alaska. It was discovered in 1898 when Erik Lindblom, Jafet Lindeberg and John Brynteson, the "Three Lucky Swedes", found placer gold deposits on Anvil Creek and on the Snake River few miles from the future site of Nome. Word of the strike caused a major gold rush to Nome in the spring of 1899.

Fairbanks mining district Alaska Mining District

The Fairbanks mining district is a gold-mining area in the U.S. state of Alaska. Placer mining began near Fairbanks in July 1902, after Felix Pedro, an Italian immigrant and Tom Gilmore discovered gold in the hills north of the Tanana and Chena Rivers in 1901. Pedro died exactly eight years after finding the richest gold placer he would ever know. By 1903 a new rush started, and prospectors staked thousands of claims. However, mining results were disappointing during the summer of 1903, with little gold recovered. Then Dennis O'Shea struck it rich on Fairbanks Creek, No. 8 Above. This was one of the richest claims in the Fairbanks Mining District and paid as high as $136 to the pan. Discoveries on Cleary and Ester Creeks followed, and almost two-thirds of the gold mined in the Tanana hills before 1910 came from these three creeks. Total production of gold was more than $30 million. Towns grew on every creek with a combined population of 1,600 residents.

The Admiralty mining district is a mining area in the U.S. state of Alaska which consists of Admiralty Island. Silver and base metals are mined, with gold recovered as a by-product.

The South Pass greenstone belt is located within the Wyoming craton in the US. The region was the site of Wyoming's initial gold discovery in 1842.

The Fort Knox Gold Mine is an open pit gold mine, 9 mi (14 km) east of Fox in the Fairbanks mining district of Alaska. It is owned and operated by Toronto-based Kinross Gold. Originally staked in 1913, after very minor mining at the location the property sat idle until being restaked in 1980. Following the initial exploration discovery in 1987, in 1992 the project was purchased by Amax Gold, which brought the mine to production. Amax Gold merged with Kinross Gold in 1998.

Juneau gold belt Juneau gold belt buried deep underground mystery

The Juneau gold belt is located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska. This belt is approximately 100 miles (160 km) in length, north/northwest-trending, and extends from Berners Bay southeastward to Windham Bay, 60 miles (97 km) southeast of Juneau, and includes Douglas Island. The belt contains over 200 gold-quartz-vein deposits with production nearing 7,000,000 ounces (200,000,000 g) of gold. More than three-quarters of Alaska's lode gold was mined from the Juneau gold belt.

Independence Mines United States historic place

The Independence Mines, now Independence Mine State Historic Park, is the site of a former gold mining operation in the Talkeetna Mountains, across Hatcher Pass from Palmer, Alaska. The area's mining history dates to at least 1897, when active claims were reported in the vicinity of Fishook Creek. These early mining efforts were eventually joined to form the Wasilla Mining Company, which worked the mines from 1934 to 1943, and again from 1948 to 1950. The mining operation at Independence was the second-largest hard-rock gold mining operation in the state, after a larger site near Juneau. The company and the miners that preceded it built a substantial mining camp, with as many as sixteen wood-frame buildings, which were originally connected to each other by sheltered wooden "tunnels". When the company ended operations in 1950, it had expected to eventually resume operations, but never did; this resulted in a particularly well-preserved collection of mining equipment and buildings, although the weather has since taken a significant toll on the latter.

Geology of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The geology of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is extremely old, on the order of several billion years for many rocks. The country spans the Congo Craton: a stable section of ancient continental crust, deformed and influenced by several different mountain building orogeny events, sedimentation, volcanism and the geologically recent effects of the East Africa Rift System in the east. The country's complicated tectonic past have yielded large deposits of gold, diamonds, coltan and other valuable minerals.

Geology of Ivory Coast

The geology of Ivory Coast is almost entirely extremely ancient metamorphic and igneous crystalline basement rock between 2.1 and more than 3.5 billion years old, comprising part of the stable continental crust of the West African Craton. Near the surface, these ancient rocks have weathered into sediments and soils 20 to 45 meters thick on average, which holds much of Ivory Coast's groundwater. More recent sedimentary rocks are found along the coast. The country has extensive mineral resources such as gold, diamonds, nickel and bauxite as well as offshore oil and gas.

References

  1. http://ardf.wr.usgs.gov/ardf_data/Anchorage.pdf Alaska Resource Data File, USGS Open File 98-599
  2. "Alaskas Mineral Industry 2006, Zumigal and Hughes, DGGS Special Report 61" (PDF).
  3. "Age and Cooling History of Gold Deposits and Host Rocks in the Willow Creek Mining District, Talkeetna Mountains, South-Central Alaska". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  4. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-12-24. Retrieved 2017-09-18.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Madden et al., Ages and Geologic relationships in the Willow Creek gold mining district, southwestern Talkeetna Mts., southern Alaska, USGS Open File 87-143, 1987
  6. Public-data File 83-9 RECONNAISSANCE GEOLOGY AND GEOCHEMISTRY OF THE WILLOW CREEK-HATCHER PASS AREA, ALASKA M. Albanese, J.T. Kline, T.K. Bundtzen, and K. Kline Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys May 1983
  7. Anchorage quad ARDF, USGS. Anchorage.pdf. ardf.wr.usgs.gov.