Big Hurrah Creek Mine, Nome Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Big Hurrah Creek Mine	Mine
Nome Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Location: Big Hurrah Creek is an east tributary to the Solomon River. The mouth of Big Hurrah Creek is 3.4 miles upstream of Lees Camp and 2.8 miles downstream from East Fork. Big Hurrah Creek has been continuously placer mined for about 4 miles upstream from the mouth. This is locality 100 of Cobb (1972, MF 445; 1978, OF 78-181).
Geology: Gold was discovered and placer mining started on Big Hurrah Creek in 1900 (Collier and others, 1908). This was apparently the richest creek in the lower Solomon River area (Smith, 1910). Lu and others (1968) compiled records that indicate at least $120,606 worth of gold or about 6,000 ounces (at $20 per oounce) were produced from Big Hurrah Creek. Dredging took place mostly in the 1920's and open-cut (probably dozer) operations took place in the 1930's (Cobb, 1978, OF 78-181). Stream gravels near mouth were 3 to 5 feet thick and the paystreak was 100 to 500 feet wide. At the upstream limit of mining (at the mouth of Lions Creek), the gravels were 2 to 3 feet thick and the paystreak 10 to 20 feet wide. The active drainage is incised 10 to 30 feet and bench gravels above the active creek were also auriferous. Much of the gold was fine but some nuggets were recovered, including many with attached quartz reflecting proximity to gold-quartz veins in bedrock (such as the Big Hurrah mine, SO022). Garnet was abundant in heavy mineral concentrates. Coats (1944) estimated that there was about 0.87 pounds of scheelite in a 1/4-cubic-yard sample of concentrate. This indicated that the scheelite content of the stream gravels was probably less than 0.1 pound per cubic yard. The bedrock in this drainage is part of a lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage that includes a distinctive black, very fine-grained, graphitic schist (Sainsbury and others, 1972; Till and others, 1986).
Workings: Big Hurrah Creek has been continuously placer mined for about 4 miles upstream from the mouth. Small-scale operations took place in the 1900s, dredging occurred in the 1920s, and open-cut (probably dozer) operations were carried out in the 1930s.
Age: Quaternary; the location and elevation (75 to 250 feet) of this area indicate that it was affected by Quaternary sea level fluctuations; more than one cycle of erosion and deposition is indicated.
Production: Lu and others (1968) compiled records that indicate at least $120,606 worth of gold or about 6,000 ounces (at $20 per oounce) were produced from Big Hurrah Creek.

Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - W
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Placer Au-PGE (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	SO022

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References