Copper Lode Prospect, Kantishna Mining District, Denali Borough, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Copper Lode Prospect	Prospect
Kantishna Mining District	Mining District
Denali Borough	Borough
Alaska	State
USA	Country

The occurrence is in Denali National Park and Preserve.
Location: The Copper Lode prospect (Cobb, 1980, p. 20 [OFR 80-363]) is in the upper west fork of Carlson Creek at an elevation of about 3600 feet (Moffit, 1933, p. 322). The approximate location is about on the section line between sections 17 and 18, T. 19 S., R. 17 W., Fairbanks Meridian. The location appears to match Moffit's description of a prospect on the north bank of this part of the creek. It is probably accurate within 1/2 mile. The prospect is number 33 of Cobb (1972 [MF 366]) and number 42 of MacKevett and Holloway (1977).
Geology: The country rocks at the Copper Lode prospect in upper Carlson Creek are strata of Paleozoic (Devonian?) age. The Paleozoic rocks form a thin wedge north of the mid-Tertiary McGonagall batholith, and south of sedimentary rocks of the Cretaceous or Tertiary Cantwell Formation. The contact between Paleozoic rocks and Cantwell Formation is a fault that strikes NE and is roughly parallel to the Denali fault, which is about 5 1/2 miles to the southeast (Reed, 1961). The Copper Lode deposit consists of irregular masses of pyrrhotite and minor chalcopyrite up to several feet across in mainly dark-colored, fine-grained rock provisionally called altered limy shale (Moffit, 1933, p. 322). The mineralized hostrock strikes NE; it is about 25 feet thick and has been traced for about 250 feet. The mineralized outcrop is pervasively iron stained and locally copper stained (malachite?). Rocks northwest of the mineralized outcrop are bluish-gray limestone locally interbedded with conglomerate. The mineralization is probably middle Tertiary, roughly contemporaneous with the emplacement of the McGonagall pluton (Reed and Lanphere, 1974).
Workings: Some surface cuts. The prospect was staked in about 1930 and probably has been inactive since about 1940.
Age: The deposit is probably Oligocene, roughly contemporaneous with the emplacement of the McGonagall batholith (Reed and Lanphere, 1974).
Alteration: Oxidation of iron and copper minerals.

Commodities (Major) - Cu; (Minor) - Au(?)
Development Status: No
Deposit Model: Fault-controlled, polymetallic replacement lode.

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	MM156

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References