Snow Bird Prospect, Nizina Mining District, Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Snow Bird Prospect	Prospect
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: This prospect is on the west valley wall of Boulder Creek, a north tributary to Dan Creek (MacKevett, 1974). It is at an elevation of about 4,000 feet, 2,500 feet north-northwest of elevation 4480 in the NE1/4 of section 34, T. 5 S., R. 16 E. of the Copper River Meridian. This is locality 71 of MacKevett (1976); the location is accurate to within a few hundred feet. Cobb and MacKevett (1980) included this prospect under the name 'Snow Bird'.
Geology: The deposit at this prospect consists of a 1.5- to 5-foot-wide quartz-calcite vein that contains bornite, chalcocite, chalcopyrite, and pyrite; the vein is localized along a shear zone in Triassic Nikolai Greenstone (MacKevett and Smith, 1968; MacKevett, 1976). Samples of the vein material contained up to 50 parts per million (ppm) silver, 0.1 ppm gold, 1,000 ppm manganese, and more than 20,000 ppm copper (MacKevett and Smith, 1968, samples 9-12). The prospect was explored by two short adits. Copper mineralization is common in Nikolai Greenstone and is thought to have accompanied regional deformation and low-grade metamorphism in the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (MacKevett and others, 1997).
Workings: The prospect was explored by two short adits.
Age: Cretaceous? Copper mineralization is common in Nikolai Greenstone and is thought to have accompanied regional deformation and low-grade metamorphism in the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (MacKevett and others, 1997).

Commodities (Major) - Ag, Au, Cu
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Basaltic Cu (Cox and Singer, 1986; model 23)

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	MC139

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References