Location: This site is a beach located between VABM Rocky Point on the west and Uyak Bay on the east, a distance of approximately 4 1/2 miles (Cobb, 1972, MF 459, locality 4; Cobb, 1973, Bulletin 1374, figure 11, locality 3; MacKevett and Holloway, 1977, locality 4).
Geology: Brooks (1912) first reported that a new beach placer had been found near Uyak in the summer of 1911. This is a broad sand and gravel beach, behind which are 60-foot bluffs of glacial gravel and till. Most of the gold was obtained over a distance of 3 3/4 miles, where the best pay occurred near the base of the bluffs on a clay layer which lay 1 to 6 feet below the surface. The pay streak was 12 to 16 inches thick and contained some nuggets valued up to $0.25 (gold price at $20.67). Sluice boxes and rockers were used in the mining and it was said that a person could recover up to $10 worth of gold per day. By 1912 the paystreak was apparently worked out. The immediate source of the gold is thought to be the glacial material eroded from the bluffs. Brooks (1918) reported that a sample collected here contained no detectable platinum.
Workings: The beach deposit was mined by portable sluice boxes and rockers with most of the production taking place in 1911 and 1912.
Age: Quaternary

Commodities (Major) - Au
Development Status: Yes; small
Deposit Model: Gold placer (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 39a).

Select Mineral List Type

Standard Detailed Gallery Strunz Chemical Elements

Commodity List

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

ⓘ Gold

Mineral List

ⓘ Native Gold

1 valid mineral.

Detailed Mineral List:

ⓘ Native Gold

Formula: Au

References:

(2008) Alaska Resource Data File (ARDF) Open-File Report 2008-1225. US Geological Survey

Gallery:

List of minerals arranged by Strunz 10th Edition classification

Group 1 - Elements
ⓘ	Native Gold	1.AA.05	Au

List of minerals for each chemical element

Au	Gold
Au	ⓘ Native Gold	Au

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	KR014

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

North AmericaContinent

North America PlateTectonic Plate

Chugach DomainAccretionary Complex
Peninsular TerraneVolcanic Arc

This page contains all mineral locality references listed on mindat.org. This does not claim to be a complete list. If you know of more minerals from this site, please register so you can add to our database. This locality information is for reference purposes only. You should never attempt to visit any sites listed in mindat.org without first ensuring that you have the permission of the land and/or mineral rights holders for access and that you are aware of all safety precautions necessary.

References

Brooks, A.H., 1912, The mining industry in 1911, in Brooks, A.H., and others, Mineral resources of Alaska, report on progress of investigations in 1911: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 520-A, p. 17-44. Brooks, A.H., 1918, Mineral resources of Alaska, 1916: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 662, 469 p. Capps, S.R., 1937, Kodiak and adjacent islands, in Smith, P.S. and others, Mineral resources of Alaska, report on progress of investiagtions in 1935: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 880-C, p. 111-184, 1 plate, scale 1:250,000. Cobb, E.H., 1972, Metallic mineral resources map of the Karluk quadrangle, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Miscellaneous Field Studies Map MF-459, 1 sheet, scale 1:250,000. Cobb, E.H., 1973, Placer deposits of Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1374, 213 p. Cobb, E.H., 1979, Summary of references to mineral occurrences (other than mineral fuels and construction materials) in the Afognak, Karluk, Kodiak, and Trinity Islands quadrangles, Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 79-860, 49 p. MacKevett, E.M., Jr., and Holloway, C.D., 1977, Map showing metalliferous mineral deposits in the western part of southern Alaska: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-169-F, 38 p., 1 sheet, scale 1:1,000,000. Maddren, A.G., 1919, The beach placers of the west coast of Kodiak Island, Alaska, in Martin, G.C., and others, Mineral resources of Alaska, 1917: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 692-E, p. 299-319. Martin, G.C., 1913, Mineral deposits of Kodiak and the neighboring islands, in Brooks, A.H., and others, Mineral resources of Alaska, 1912: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 542, p. 125-136.

Quick NavTop Commodities Mineral List Other Databases Other Regions References

Mindat.org® is an outreach project of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Mindat® and mindat.org® are registered trademarks of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy.
Copyright © mindat.org and the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy 1993-2026, except where stated. Most political location boundaries are © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mindat.org relies on the contributions of thousands of members and supporters. Founded in 2000 by Jolyon Ralph and Ida Chau.
Content on this site may not be used to train, fine-tune, or otherwise develop artificial intelligence or machine learning models without prior written permission - see our Terms & Conditions.
To cite: Ralph, J., Von Bargen, D., Martynov, P., Zhang, J., Que, X., Prabhu, A., Morrison, S. M., Li, W., Chen, W., & Ma, X. (2025). Mindat.org: The open access mineralogy database to accelerate data-intensive geoscience research. American Mineralogist, 110(6), 833–844. doi:10.2138/am-2024-9486.
Privacy Policy - Terms & Conditions - Contact Us / DMCA issues - Report a bug/vulnerability Current server date and time: September 29, 2026 01:33:08 Page updated: August 11, 2025 06:40:25

Go to top of page