The locations of the Old Glory and Last Chance sites in Elliott and others (1978, locs. 34 and 35) have been revised in this report to agree with the locations of the sites in Maas and others (1995, figs. 46 and 48). However, there is much uncertainty about the names and locations of the mines northwest of the head of Smuggler Cover.

Location: The Old Glory mine and adjacent Last Chance prospect are on the southwest foot of Gold Mountain at an elevation of 400-500 feet, and about 1.2 miles northwest of the mouth of Falls Creek. The site is in section 24, T. 72 S., R. 88 E., of the Copper River Meridian. It corresponds to locs. 254-2 to 254-28 and 255 in Maas and others (1995, fig. 46). The location is accurate within 0.1 mile. Figure 48 in Mass and others (1995) is a recent detailed map of the underground workings of the Old Glory Mine. Also see Additional comments.

Geology: The mines and prospects at the head of Smuggler Cove are an almost bewildering succession of companies, names for the mines, personalities, and financial plans if not schemes to fund the work on the deposits. Roppel (1905) has sorted out much of the detail but it is still unclear exactly what deposits were being controlled by which company at any given time in the area. Much of the knowledge of the mines she deciphered is centered on the companies rather than individual mines and prospects and it is not unlikely that the companies controlled different mines, claims, and prospects at various times. The Old Glory mine is probably the centerpiece of most of what Roppel has described in her chapter on 'Smuggler Cove Mines'. Gold was discovered beyond the head of Smuggler Cove in 1899 and by 1901 the workings consisted of a 120-foot shaft with drifts and crosscuts from it. A 2-stamp mill was set in operation and produced a small amount of gold. Beginning in 1912, there were several companies active in the area but chiefly the Alaska Venture Syndicate and an Australian affiliate that controlled the operations, largely with capital raised on the London Stock Exchange. By 1914, there was about 1,500 feet of underground workings, a powerhouse had been constructed, and a compressor was in operation. In 1916, the Alaska Ventures Syndicate disbanded after spending more than about $150,000 on the property, and the deposits were largely dormant until the the late 1930's. A new company--the Alaska Gold Mountain Mines, Ltd.-- was formed then and began work financed by the sale of stock. They did considerable work underground, built a camp, cleared a road to the mine, and built a mill building to house the mill machinery which supposedly had been purchased. However the mill equipment never reached Alaska. The Security and Exchange Commission was soon investigating the company, and it was liquidated by 1940. After spending several hundred thousand dollars on the property from 1912 to 1940, the only production above the head of Smuggler Cove was the small amount of gold that was produced at the original 2-stamp mill in 1901. Figure 48 in Maas and others (1995) is a detailed map of the underground workings of the Old Glory Mine. The country rocks in the area are andesitic and basaltic metavolcanic rocks that gradationally intertongue with subordinate pelitic metasedimentary rocks (Berg and others, 1988, p. 17-19). The strata were regionally metamorphosed to greenschist-grade phyllite and semischist in Late Cretaceous time (Brew, 1996, p. 27). Their pre-metamorphic age is uncertain. Berg and others (1988, p. 17) state that they closely resemble Upper Jurassic to mid-Cretaceous marine flysch and volcanic rocks nearby on Gravina Island. The Old Glory and Last Chance deposits consist of quartz fissure veins and stringer lodes in massive to schistose metavolcanic rocks (greenstone) (Maas and others, 1995, p. 183-184). Brooks (1902, p. 57) described two systems of quartz veins on the Last Chance claim: one strikes N-S, parallel to the foliation of the schist; the other strikes N60E. The veins contain pyrite and free gold, and the schistose country rocks adjacent to some of the veins are bleached and pyritic for a distance of up to 4.5 feet from the veins. Brooks also reported small amounts of chalcopyrite and bornite in the Last Chance veins, in addition to the pyrite and gold. Maas and others (1995, table 25) report the following average metal contents in their samples from the main workings of the Old Glory mine: 2.29 parts per million gold, 0.30 ppm silver, 143 ppm copper, 14.0 ppm lead, and 83 ppm zinc. Samples from the Last Chance prospect contain: 6.73 ppm gold, 1.26 ppm silver, 1,338 ppm copper, 13.5 ppm lead, and 43 ppm zinc. The high copper content in the Last Chance deposit supports the early reports of copper minerals in the veins there. Maas and others (1995, table 24) also compare average gold values of the quartz veins with those of the pyritic schist at the Old Glory mine. Their results show 1.7 ppm gold in the quartz and 17.6 ppm gold in the altered schist next to the veins. Fluid inclusion studies of quartz vein material from several of the Helm Bay lodes suggest that the veins formed at temperatures and pressures consistent with conditions during Late Cretaceous greenschist-grade regional metamorphism (Maas and others, 1995, p. 184).

Workings: The mines and prospects at the head of Smuggler Cove are an almost bewildering succession of companies, names for the mines, personalities, and financial plans if not schemes to fund the work on the deposits. Roppel (1905) has sorted out much of the detail but it is still unclear exactly what deposits were being controlled by which company at any given time in the area. Much of the knowledge of the mines she deciphered is centered on the companies rather than individual mines and prospects and it is not unlikely that the companies controlled different mines, claims, and prospects at various times. The Old Glory mine is probably the centerpiece of most of what Roppel has described in her chapter on 'Smuggler Cove Mines'. Gold was discovered beyond the head of Smuggler Cove in 1899 and by 1901 the workings consisted of a 120-foot shaft with drifts and crosscuts from it. A 2-stamp mill was set in operation and produced a small amount of gold. Beginning in 1912, there were several companies active in the area but chiefly the Alaska Venture Syndicate and an Australian affiliate that controlled the operations, largely with capital raised on the London Stock Exchange. By 1914, there was about 1,500 feet of underground workings, a powerhouse had been constructed, and a compressor was in operation. In 1916, the Alaska Ventures Syndicate disbanded after spending more than about $150,000 on the property, and the deposits were largely dormant until the the late 1930's. A new company--the Alaska Gold Mountain Mines, Ltd.-- was formed then and began work financed by the sale of stock. They did considerable work underground, built a camp, cleared a road to the mine, and built a mill building to house the mill machinery which supposedly had been purchased. However the mill equipment never reached Alaska. The Security and Exchange Commission was soon investigating the company, and it was liquidated by 1940. After spending several hundred thousand dollars on the property from 1912 to 1940, the only production above the head of Smuggler Cove was the small amount of gold that was produced at the original 2-stamp mill in 1901. Figure 48 in Maas and others (1995) is a detailed map of the underground workings of the Old Glory Mine.

Age: Late Cretaceous.

Alteration: The wallrocks adjacent to some of the veins are bleached and pyritic.

Production: Maas and others (1995, table 26) report production of 0.3 kilograms of gold and 0.8 kilograms of silver from the Old Glory mine.

Reserves: None.

Commodities (Major) - Au

Development Status: Yes; small

Deposit Model: Low-sulfide gold-quartz veins (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 36a).

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	KC033

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References