Dan Creek Mine, Nizina Mining District, Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Dan Creek Mine	Mine
Nizina Mining District	Mining District
Valdez-Cordova Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

The locality is in the Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve.
Location: Dan Creek is an east tributary to the Nizina River. About 2.2 miles of Dan Creek above an elevation of 1,800 feet and extending into the McCarthy B-4 quadrangle, have been placer mined (MacKevett, 1976). For this record, the site is at the mouth of Boulder Creek in the SW1/4 of section 3, T. 6 S., R. 16 E. of the Copper River Meridian. This is locality 57 of MacKevett (1976) and it is accurately located. Cobb and MacKevett (1980) included this mine under the name 'Dan Cr.'.
Geology: About 2.2 miles of Dan Creek above an elevation of 1,800 feet and extending into the McCarthy B-4 quadrangle, have been placer mined (MacKevett, 1976). Stream gravels in the active drainage are 8 to 12 feet thick but the gold is concentrated in the lower 2 feet and in the underlying fractured bedrock (Moffit and Capps, 1911). Very little of the gold is fine-grained; most is coarse, smooth, and accompanied by abundant native copper. A native copper nugget weighing 3 tons was recovered in 1939 (Miller, 1946). Native silver and some stibnite were also recovered and some of the native silver is intergrown with native copper. A large part of the gold and other heavy minerals in Dan Creek were reconcentrated from glaciofluvial deposits in benches along the valley of Dan Creek. The bench deposits are auriferous and some have been mined. Some mining occurred in Dan Creek as late as the 1970s (MacKevett, 1976). Slightly less than half of the estimated 143,500 ounces of gold produced from the Nizina district were recovered from Dan Creek (MacKevett, 1976). About 40 tons of native copper were also recovered and sold (Cobb and MacKevett, 1980). The bedrock in Dan Creek is Cretaceous siliciclastic sedimentary rocks locally intruded by felsic hypabyssal dikes (MacKevett, 1974).
Workings: Placer mining in Dan Creek was mostly done by small-scale opencut and hydraulic methods. Some drift mining or exploration occurred in the bench deposits.
Age: Quaternary.
Production: Slightly less than half of the estimated 143,500 ounces of gold produced from the Nizina district were recovered from Dan Creek (MacKevett, 1976). About 40 tons of native copper were also recovered and sold (Cobb and MacKevett, 1980).

Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - Ag, Cu, Pb, Sb
Development Status: Yes; medium
Deposit Model: Placer Cu-Au (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	MC141

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References