Location: The mine is located on the north side of Falls Creek and 2 miles east of Vagt Lake. The original mill site was located at an elevation of 1,700 feet on a small tributary to Falls Creek. The tributary is not shown on the 1994 USGS Seward B-7 topographic map; the mine site is shown correctly on the map. A 4-wheel drive road leads up to the mine workings, which are located at an elevation of 4,100 to 4,600 feet. This is location 70b of Cobb and Tysdal (1980) and location S-227 of Jansons and others (1984). This location is accurate to within a quarter of a mile.
Geology: The host rock in the mine area is slate and sandstone of the Valdez Group of Late Cretaceous age (Nelson and others, 1985). The mineral deposit consists of a quartz vein along a shear zone that strikes northeast and dips vertically. The zone formed during or after folding of the surrounding slate and graywacke (Hoekzema and Sherman, 1983). On the surface, the vein has been traced for more than 1,500 feet. The width of the zone is from 5 to 48 inches wide, the average width is 25 inches (Johnson, 1915). The zone is terminated on the east side of the workings by a northeast-trending fault (Hoekzema and Sherman,1983). The zone consists of crushed and sheared country rock with numerous lenses and stringers of vuggy quartz that contains gold, arsenopyrite, galena, sphalerite, and calcite (Johnson, 1915). The mine produced 1,273 ounces of gold and 206 ounces of silver from 1935 to 1941 (Hoekzema and Sherman, 1983). Grab and chip samples collected from the workings and surface exposures contained from trace to 65 ppm gold and from 1.6 to 19.5 ppm silver (Hoekzema and Sherman, 1983).
Workings: The workings on the property are on four levels: 4,170, 4,320, 4,450, and 4,550 feet elevation. Extensive stoping has occurred on the upper three levels, and the lowest level was used mainly for haulage (Hoekzema and Sherman, 1983). The deposit was discovered in 190, and development started in 1910-11 with the installation a 5-stamp mill and a 630-foot aerial tram. The mine, owned by Kenai Alaska Gold Company since 1910, produced 1,852 ounces of gold and 428 ounces of silver from 1911 to 1916 (Hoekzema and Sherman, 1983). The mine was reopened in 1935 by the Crown Point Mining Company and produced 1,273 ounces of gold and 206 ounces of silver from 1935 to 1941 (Hoekzema and Sherman, 1983). Grab and chip samples collected from the workings and surface exposures contained from trace to 65 ppm gold and from 1.6 to 19.5 ppm silver (Hoekzema and Sherman, 1983).
Age: Cretaceous or younger; the vein cuts rocks of the Valdez Group of Late Cretaceous age.
Production: The deposit was discovered in 1906, and development started in 1910-11 with the installation a 5-stamp mill and a 630-foot aerial tram. The mine, owned by Kenai Alaska Gold Company since 1910, produced 1,852 ounces of gold and 428 ounces of silver from 1911 to 1916 (Hoekzema and Sherman, 1983). The mine was reopened in 1935 by the Crown Point Mining Company and produced 1,273 ounces of gold and 206 ounces of silver from 1935 to 1941 (Hoekzema and Sherman, 1983). Production totalled 3,145 ounces of gold and 634 ounces of silver (Hoekzema and Sherman, 1983).
Reserves: The U.S. Bureau of Mines estimated a resource of 30,000 tons containing 0.363 ounce of gold per ton and 0.1 ounce of silver per ton (Hoekzema and Sherman, 1983).

Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - Ag
Development Status: Yes
Deposit Model: Low-sulfide Au-quartz vein (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a)

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Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical Elements

Commodity List

This is a list of exploitable or exploited mineral commodities recorded at this locality.

ⓘ Silver

Mineral List

6 valid minerals.