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Big Eldorado Creek Mine, Chisana Mining District, Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska, USAi
| Regional Level Types | |
|---|---|
| Big Eldorado Creek Mine | Mine |
| Chisana Mining District | Mining District |
| Valdez-Cordova Census Area | Census Area |
| Alaska | State |
| USA | Country |
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Latitude & Longitude (WGS84):
62° 6' 34'' North , 141° 56' 56'' West
Latitude & Longitude (decimal):
Type:
Köppen climate type:
The mine is in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Preserve.
Location: This placer gold mine is on Big Eldorado Creek, a drainage on the west flank of Gold Hill. The site is the approximate midpoint of the 2,500 feet of placer workings mapped by Richter and Jones (1973 ). It is in the SW1/4 of section 21, T. 4 N., R. 19 E. of the Copper River Meridian. This is locality 64 of Richter and others (1975) and it is included in National Park Service locality WRST-59 (unpublished data). Cobb and Richter (1980) included this mine under the name 'Big Eldorado Cr.' It is accurately located.
Geology: Coarse, bright and rough gold was mined from this placer deposit on the northwest flank of Gold Hill as early as 1915 (Capps, 1915; 1916). The gravels were up to 10 feet thick but two placer workings described by Capps (1915) had dimensions of 600 feet by 12 feet in 6 feet of gravel, and 250 feet by 30 feet in 2 feet of gravel. Placer gold was also mined from the top 2 to 4 feet of fractured bedrock and some of the ground was frozen. This placer is unique in the area because it is probably a primary concentration of placer gold. All other placers in the district are probably derived from reworked Quaternary deposits (Richter and others, 1975). Bedrock in Big Eldorado Creek varies from clinopyroxene diorite to monzonite of the mid-Cretaceous Chisana pluton (Richter and Jones, 1973; Richter, Lanphere, and Matson, 1975).
Workings: Surface placer mine workings are present along about 3,000 feet of Big Eldorado Creek (Richter and Jones, 1973).
Age: Holocene.
Production: Assuming a price of $20.00 per ounce, about 50,000 ounces of gold were produced from placers in the Chisana area (Richter and others, 1975). Most of this production was from the Gold Run (NB077) and Bonanza Creek (NB079) drainages, and about half was produced between 1913 and 1915; some mining continued in the area up to the 1970s.
Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Placer Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)
Select Mineral List Type
Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical ElementsCommodity List
This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.Mineral List
1 valid mineral.
Detailed Mineral List:
| ⓘ Native Gold Formula: Au |
Gallery:
List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification
| Group 1 - Elements | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ⓘ | Native Gold | 1.AA.05 | Au |
List of minerals for each chemical element
| Au | Gold | |
|---|---|---|
| Au | ⓘ Native Gold | Au |
Other Databases
| Link to USGS - Alaska: | NB073 |
|---|
Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality
North AmericaContinent
- Wrangell MountainsMountain Range
North America PlateTectonic Plate
- Wrangellia DomainVolcanic Arc
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