Wonder Gulch Occurrence, Kougarok Mining District, Nome Census Area, Alaska, USAi

Regional Level Types
Wonder Gulch Occurrence	Occurrence
Kougarok Mining District	Mining District
Nome Census Area	Census Area
Alaska	State
USA	Country

Also see Coffee Creek (BN003).
Location: Wonder Gulch is a tributary on the north side of Coffee Creek. The mouth of Wonder Gulch on Coffee Creek is at the Nome-Taylor road crossing at almost mile 75. This occurrence is on Wonder Gulch about 1,500 feet upstream form the mouth. The lower 1,500 feet of Wonder Gulch has been placer mined and this section of the drainage is included with the Coffee Creek mine (BN003). This is locality 5 of Cobb (1972; MF 417).
Geology: The early descriptions of a residual gold placer on schist bedrock is believed to be at this location. This residual placer contains angular, spongy, and bright gold in 4 to 7 feet of angular schist and quartz and adjacent weathered schist bedrock (Collier and others, 1908). Small amounts of cinnabar, cerussite, and pyromorphite are present in placer concentrate from Wonder Gulch (Anderson, 1947). Sainsbury and others (1969) indicate that an attempt to mine an auriferous quartz ledge here was unsuccessful. Large iron-stained quartz boulders are present in the upper part of the placer on Wonder Gulch (Sainsbury and others, 1969). Bedrock here is part of a low grade Lower Paleozoic metasedimentary assemblage (Till and others, 1986).
Workings: Open-cut mining of a residual placer has exposed weathered schist and angular surface debris of auriferous quartz and schist.
Age: Possibly mid-Cretaceous; this is the age of some lode gold deposits on southern Seward Peninsula. The southern Seward Peninsula lode gold deposits formed as a result of mid-Cretaceous metamorphism (Apodoca, 1994; Ford, 1993, Ford and Snee, 1996; Goldfarb and others, 1997) that accompanied regional extension (Miller and Hudson, 1991) and crustal melting (Hudson, 1994). This higher temperature metamorphism was superimposed on high pressure/low temperature metamorphic rocks of the region.

Commodities (Major) - Au; (Minor) - Hg, Pb
Development Status: None
Deposit Model: Gold-bearing quartz veins and schist

Other Databases

Link to USGS - Alaska:	BN005

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References