Independence Creek Mine, Circle Mining District, Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Independence Creek Mine	Mine
Circle Mining District	Mining District
Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

See also Mammoth Creek, ARDF no. CI036, Mastodon Creek, ARDF no. CI037 and Miller Creek, ARDF no. CI039.
Location: Independence Creek was mined from just above Harrison Fork to the confluence with Mastodon Creek. The placered areas extend from about 3,000 ft to 6,000 ft upstream of, to about 7,500 ft downstream of, the intersection of the coordinates. Independence Creek is a major fork of Mammoth Creek.
Geology: Independence Creek is about 6.5 km long. Below the junction of Independence and Mastodon Creeks, the drainage is known as Mastodon Creek. Bedrock in the Independence Creek drainage is the Lower Schist unit described by Wiltse and others (1995) as a slightly calcareous quartz-muscovite schist and porphyroblastic albite-quartz-chlorite-muscovite schist. The bedrock is cut by numerous quartz veins. Pay gravel was as much as 425 ft wide but generally no more than 325 ft wide. Gravels are 4 ot 5 ft thick and overlain by 0 to 10 ft of muck. The gold is fine-grained and lies mainly within 3 ft of the gravel-bedrock contact. In one part of the creek, weighted mean fineness (eight assays) was 787 Au and 201 Ag. In another part it was 810 Au and 175 Ag (five assays representing 1500 oz of gold) (Mertie, 1938, p. 219-222). Gold fineness increases progressively downstream. The source of gold, according to miners, is localized in the area around Mastodon Dome. Heavy mineral concentrates contain wolframite, xenotime, zircon, garnet, and hematite (Nelson and others, 1954). Drift mining occurred in the early days. A dredge operated near the mouth of Independence Creek for a short time in the 1920's (Mertie, 1938). Most mining was by hydraulic methods. This early mining yielded values of 0.05 to 0.4 ounces per cubic yard (Mertie, 1938). Much of the gravel has been washed at least three times during multiple mining operations spanning 90 years. Recent mining has focused on the margins of the creek under old mine tailings (Yeend, 1991, p. 23).
Workings: Drift mining occurred in the early days. A dredge operated near the mouth of Independence Creek for a short time in the 1920's (Mertie, 1938). Most mining was by hydraulic methods. Much of the gravel has been washed at least three times during multiple mining operations spanning 90 years. Recent mining has focused on the margins of the creek under old mine tailings (Yeend, 1991, p. 23).
Production: Early mining yielded values of 0.05 to 0.4 ounces per cubic yard (Mertie, 1938).

Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - Pb, Sn, W
Development Status: Yes; medium
Deposit Model: Placer gold deposit (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	CI029

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References