Christmas Creek Mine, Skagway District, Juneau District, Haines Borough, Alaska, USA
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| Latitude & Longitude (WGS84): | 59° 23' 59'' North , 136° 20' 24'' West |
|---|---|
| Latitude & Longitude (decimal): | 59.40000,-136.34000 |
| KΓΆppen climate type: | Dfc : Subarctic climate |
Location: Christmas Creek is an informally named, north flowing creek that intersects Glacier Creek at an elevation of between 1,100 feet and 1,200 feet. The location is shown near the mouth of the creek in the SE1/4, section 35, T28S, R53E of the Copper River Meridian. Mine workings extend to head of Christmas Creek, 1.6 miles to the South. It is shown as locations 15 to 18 in figure 7 of Hoekzema and others (1986).
Geology: According to Hoekzema and others (1978), the lower portions of Christmas Creek were placer mined sporadically in the early 1900's and the late 1970's but the total production has only been about 200 ounces of gold. The creek is a small, steep, north-flowing tributary to Glacier Creek and has a gradient of 1,000 feet per mile. Four reconnaissance samples of alluvial gravels from old mining cuts near the junction with Glacier Creek indicated a relatively equal distribution of gold through 8 feet of gravel that averaged 0.0065 ounces of gold per cubic yard. The placer gold is rough and nuggety and panned-concentrate samples also contained garnet, magnetite, and zircon. Fine-grained, well-worn 'glacial' gold was panned from the lower 6 feet of of glacial till exposed in Christmas Creek and, apparently, contrasts with the placer gold in the alluvial gravels. Christmas Creek is the only locality in the Porcupine area where gold has been recognized in glacial till. Placer gold in the Porcupine area is generally considered to be derived from a northwest-trending zone of auriferous quartz-sulfide veins in metasediments in the Skagway B-4 quadrangle (Wright, 1904 [B 225 and B 236]; Eakin, 1918 and 1919; MacKevett and others, 1974). However, Hoekzema and others (1986) speculate that the placer gold in Christmas Creek may have been derived from stratiform volcanogenic mineral deposits in metavolcanic rocks.
Workings: The lower portion of Christmas Creek was placer mined with a small hydraulic plant in 1910 and this property was patented in 1916. A small heavy equipment operation worked the area in the late 1970's with meager results (Hoekzema and others, 1986).
Age: Quaternary.
Production: Total production is estimated at 200 ounces of gold (Hoekzema and others, 1986).
Reserves: According to Hoekzema and others (1986), the identified resources are largely restricted to the lower 0.5 miles of the creek. The lowermost section of the creek in the vicinity of previous workings is estimated to contain 12,000 cubic yards of gravel that contain 0.0065 ounces of gold per cubic yard. An additional resource of up to 30,000 cubic yards is estimated to occur farther upstream.
Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - W
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Placer Au (Cox and Singer; model 39a).
Commodity List
This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.Mineral List
4 valid minerals.
Rock Types Recorded
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This geological map and associated information on rock units at or nearby to the coordinates given for this locality is based on relatively small scale geological maps provided by various national Geological Surveys. This does not necessarily represent the complete geology at this locality but it gives a background for the region in which it is found.
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| Quaternary 0 - 2.588 Ma ID: 1617174 | Unconsolidated surficial deposits, undivided Age: Pleistocene (0 - 2.588 Ma) Description: Glacial deposits, undifferentiated. Lithology: Unconsolidated Reference: Wilson, F.H., Hults, C.P., Mull, C.G, and Karl, S.M. (compilers). Geologic map of Alaska. doi: 10.3133/sim3340. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Map 3340, pamphlet 196. [21] |
| Triassic - Ordovician 201.3 - 485.4 Ma ID: 3191120 | Paleozoic-Mesozoic sedimentary rocks Age: Phanerozoic (201.3 - 485.4 Ma) Lithology: Sedimentary rocks Reference: Chorlton, L.B. Generalized geology of the world: bedrock domains and major faults in GIS format: a small-scale world geology map with an extended geological attribute database. doi: 10.4095/223767. Geological Survey of Canada, Open File 5529. [154] |
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References
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Eakin, H.M. (1919) The Porcupine gold placer district, Alaska: USGS Bulletin 699, 29 p.
Cobb, E.H. (1978) Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Mt. Fairweather and Skagway quadrangles, Alaska: USGS Open-File Report 78-316, 123 p.
Cobb, E.H. (1981) Summaries of data on and lists of references to metallic and selected nonmetallic mineral occurrences in the Skagway quadrangle, Alaska, Supplement to Open-File Report 78-316; Part A, Summaries of data to January 1, 1980: USGS Open-File Report 81-82-A, 11 p.
Still, J.C., Weir, K.R., Gilbert, W.G., and Redman, E.C. (1984), Stream-sediment, float, and bedrock sampling in the Porcupine mining area, southeast Alaska: U.S. Bureau of Mines Open-File Report 173-84, 16 p., 1 sheet.
Bureau of Mines (1986) Open-File Report 89-86, 49 p., 4 sheets.
Hoekzema, R.B., Fechner, S.A., and Bundtzen, T.K. (1986) Distribution, analysis, and recovery of placer gold from the Porcupine mining area, southeast Alaska: U.S.
Still, J.C. (1991) Bureau of Mines mineral investigations in the Juneau mining district, Alaska, 1984-1988; Volume 2, Detailed mine, prospect, and mineral occurrence descriptions, Section A, Haines-Klukwan-Porcupine subarea: U.S. Bureau of Mines of Mines Special Publication, 214 p.
Still, J.C., Hoekzema, R.B., Bundtzen, T.K., Gilbert, W.G., Wier, K.R., Burns, L.E., and Fechner, S.A. (1991) Economic geology of Haines-Klukwan-Porcupine area, southeastern Alaska: Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys Report of Investigations 91-4, 156 p., 5 sheets, scale 1:63,360.
USGS (2005), Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS): U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia, loc. file ID #10002189 (A013087).
Alaska Resource Data File (ARDF) file ID#SK062.
