Difficult Creek Occurrence, Redoubt Mining District, Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Difficult Creek Occurrence	Occurrence
Redoubt Mining District	Mining District
Kenai Peninsula Borough	Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

This occurrence is owned by Cook Region Native Association.
Location: The occurrence located on a small ridge at an elevation of 1,850 feet overlooking Difficult Creek, it is in NE1/4 of section 26, T. 1 N., R. 20 W., of the Seward Meridian. Difficult Creek drains into Tuxedni Bay which is on the west side of Cook Inlet. This location is accurate to within 300 feet.
Geology: The Difficult Creek occurrence is within the lower Jurassic Talkeetna Formation, an approximately 2,575 meter thick sequence of volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks (Determan and Hartsock, 1966). The volcanic section near the prospect is structurally bounded on the west by the Bruin Bay Fault, a major fault system traceable for over 500 kilometers. On the east, the volcanics are unconformably overlain by upper Jurassic marine sediments (Determan and Hartsock, 1965). The Talkeetna Formation is intruded by rocks of the Aleutian range -Talkeetna Mountain plutonic belt approximately 23 km southwest of the prospect. These intrusives which consist dominantly of coarse-grained quartz diorites and quartz monzonites have been dated between 175 and 145 m.y. ( Steefel, 1987). At Difficult Creek, the Talkeetna Formation has been divided into three major groups (Steefel, 1987). The lowest group consist of purple and green andesite flows and breccia which locally show well-developed pillows. The middle group that host the mineralization, consists of coarse-grain felsic breccias, reworked volcaniclastic rocks, crystal tuffs, and dacite flows. The upper group consists of polymitic andesitic breccias and conglomerates with minor amounts of andesitic flows. The mineralization consists of strataform massive sulfides layers and lens which contain pyrite, chalcopyrite and sphalerite. There are no published assay results for this occurrence. William Ellis (personal communication, 1999) speculates that this occurrence is a Kuroko type massive sulfide deposit.
Workings: The occurrence was discovered by Anaconda Minerals in 1982 as part of a exploration program at the Johnson River prospect. To date there has been detailed mapping, stream and soil geochemical surveys, and surface trenching and sampling. No assay results are available.
Age: Jurassic massive sulfide.
Alteration: The Difficult Creek occurrence has alteration characteristics of a Kuroko type massive sulfide deposit that includes sulfate alteration, and silification.

Commodities (Major) - Au, Cu, Zn
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Kuroko massive sulfide (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 28a)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	KN008

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References