Stampede Creek Mine, Kantishna Mining District, Denali Borough, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Stampede Creek Mine	Mine
Kantishna Mining District	Mining District
Denali Borough	Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Stampede Creek is in Denali National Park and Preserve.
Location: Stampede Creek (Cobb, 1980 [OFR 80-366]) is auriferous just above and below the Stampede antimony lode mine (MM144). For this record, the location is at the approximate midpoint of 1800 feet of placer workings, in the SE 1/4 of section 36, T. 13 S., R. 15 W., Fairbanks Meridian. The location is accurate within about 500 feet. The mine is number 57 of Cobb (1972 [MF 366]) and 60 of MacKevett and Holloway (1977). Four placer claims were patented: the relation of these claims to patented lode claims is shown by Hawley and Associates (1978).
Geology: Stampede Creek flows through a moderately steep canyon. Its gravels are not extensive, but they are locally auriferous and have been mined about a half-mile below the Stampede lode mine (MM144). The mined section appears to coincide in part with the mineralized Stampede fault, which cuts the creek at a high angle. In Stampede Creek, the fault places light-colored quartzite of the Birch Creek Schist against dark-colored carbonaceous quartzite of the Keevy Peak Formation (Bundtzen,1981). In addition to gold, the placer gravels contain scheelite and grains and small cobbles of stibnite (Joesting, 1942; White, 1942; Cobb, 1975 [MR 66]). In 1941, a small placer mine operated on upper Stampede Creek, a half-mile or so above the main workings, in 1941 (White, 1942, p. 335). Placer gold from Stampede Creek was very rich in silver; fineness ranged between 544 and 567 (Bundtzen, 1981, table 19). Of all the creeks in the Kantishna area, only the gold on Little Moose Creek is similar in fineness.
Workings: The deposit was worked in an open cut.
Age: Holocene.
Production: Reported production is 183 ounces of gold (Levell, 1984, table A-6).
Reserves: About 15,000 cubic yards of placer alluvium remain in upper Stampede Creek; about 200,000 cubic yards remain at the main mine site; and there are about 500,000 cubic yards in an unevaluated fan deposit at the mouth of the creek (Levell, 1984, v. 2, table A-6). Sluice samples collected at the main mine site contained 0.2925 and 0.0418 ounce of gold per cubic yard. Using the lower sample value, there is a possible resource of about 8400 ounces of placer gold in the 200,000 cubic yard alluvial deposit. There is additional resource potential in the untested fan deposit. The alluvium in upper Stampede Creek is bouldery and difficult to mine; the 200,000 cubic yard resource can be mined with conventional placer equipment (Levell, 1984, v. 2).

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

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	MM142

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References