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Olive Creek Placer

Livengood, Alaska

65.4905°N 148.5074°W

Mine Overview

The Olive Creek Placer is in Livengood, Alaska. Historically the site has been part of the Tolovana Mining District. The Olive Creek Placer is a placer mining operation. Initial production took place in 1914 and overall output was considered to be small size. The ore mined is composed of chromite, scheelite and cinnabar with waste material consisting primarily of ilmenite, zircon and magnetite. The host rock in this area is gravel.

Site identification and general characteristics. Learn about USGS mines.

  • Gold Primary Commodity
  • Chromium, Mercury, and Tungsten Secondary Commodity
  • Silver Secondary Commodity
  • Site Record Type?
  • Mine Development Status?
  • Placer Operation Type?
  • 1914 First Year Of Production?
  • Small Production Size?
  • Metallic Site Commodity Type?
  • Small Mine Size?
Olive Creek Placer In Livengood, Alaska

Olive Creek Placer In Livengood, Alaska

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Mine Names

  1. Name? Status?
  2. Olive Creek Current
  3. Olive Creek Placer Current

Owner Name and Address

Edwin Hudson

Alaska
Type
Owner-Operator

John Millhouse

Alaska
Type
Owner

Old Smokey Prospecting & Mining Company

Alaska
Type
Owner-Operator

Commodities

Additional textual information about a site or mine.

  1. Commodity Type Importance
  2. Gold Metallic Primary
  3. Chromium Metallic Secondary
  4. Mercury Metallic Secondary
  5. Tungsten Metallic Secondary
  6. Silver Metallic Tertiary

Deposit

FINE GOLD IN LOWER 7-15 FEET OF GRAVEL; A LITTLE COARSE GOLD ON SANDSTONE BEDROCK. GOLD IN STREAM AND BENCH PLACERS. ON DISCOVERY CLAIM FINE GOLD IS IN LOWER 7 FEET OF 10 FEET OF ANGULAR SLIDE GRAVEL ON SANDSTONE BEDROCK; PAYSTREAK KNOWN TO BE 300 FEET WIDE. ON CLAIM NO. 2 BELOW DISCOVERY 14 FEET OF GRAVEL ABOVE CLAY FALSE BEDROCK IS AURIFEROUS; PAYSTREAK AT LEAST 350 FEET WIDE. SOME GOLD ON SANDSTONE BEDROCK AND SOME ON FALSE BEDROCK 80 FEET ABOVE TRUE BEDROCK.

STREAM GRADIENT IS ABOUT 200 FEET PER MILE.; INFORMATION SOURCE: 1 PUBLIC LITERATURE; 2 UNPUBLISHED REPORTS.

THIS SITE NAME WAS CREATED BY THE REPORTER OR OTHER USGS EMPLOYEE BASED ON PROXIMITY TO SOME MAJOR GEOGRAPHIC FEATURE.

MODEL NAME = PLACER GOLD DEPOSIT (COX AND SINGER, 1986; MODEL 39A).

Location Info

  1. Continent Country State County
  2. North America The United States Alaska n/a

Notes

USGS MF-413, LOC. 72. TAILINGS MARKED ALONG OLIVE CREEK IN THE EXTREME NE CORNER OF LIVENGOOD (B-4 ). COORDINATES GIVEN FOR BUILDINGS ADJACENT TO TAILINGS. LAND STATUS VALUE CALCULATED 6-94 USING GIS OVERLAY ANALYSIS WITH BLM 1:2, 500, 000 SCALE OWNERSHIP STATUS MAP (1991).

Meridian / Township / Range Description

  1. Meridian? Township? Section? Aliquot?
  2. Fairbanks Meridian T.8N R.5W Sec. 1 -
  3. Fairbanks Meridian T.8N R.5W Sec. 26 -

Mining Districts

Formal or informal mining district names.

  1. District
  2. Tolovana Mining District

Development

OLIVE CREEK WAS A MAJOR PLACER-GOLD PRODUCER 1914-63; PROBABLY A LITTLE PRODUCTION 1964-77. MOST OF MINING BY OPEN-CUT HYDRAULIC METHODS. MINING IN 1975 BY NON-FLOAT METHODS AND BULLDOZER.

Workings

MINING WAS REPORTED IN 1915, 1916, 1918, 1922, 1926, 1928-34, AND 1936-40 (COBB, 1976; OFR 76-633 ). GOLD PRODUCTION WAS ALSO REPORTED IN THE 1980'S BY A SMALL-SCALE SLUICING OPERTATION (GREEN AND OTHERS, 1989).

Geology

CREEK DRAINS SE FLANK OF MONEY DOME.; BEDROCK IS LARGELY SLATY SHALE AND SANDSTONE; CHERT, ARGILLITE, AND SERPENTINITE NEAR HEAD; INTRUDED BY NOW HIGHLY ALTERED FELSIC ROCKS.; SOURSE OF GOLD AND HEAVY MINERALS IS MONEY DOME GRANITIC INTRUSIVE TO NORTH.

PLACER GOLD ON THE DISCOVERY CLAIM IS IN THE LOWER 7 FEET OF 10 FEET OF ANGULAR SLIDE GRAVEL, AND A LITTLE COARSE GOLD IS FOUND ON BEDROCK (MERTIE, 1918 ). BEDROCK IS SLATE AND SANDSTONE INTRUDED BY NOW HIGHLY ALTERED GRANITIC ROCK. CONCENTRATES CONTAIN GOLD, MAGNETITE, ILMENITE, PICOTITE, SCHEELITE, CHROMITE, PYRITE, ARSENOPYRITE, ZIRCON, LIMONITE AND PLENTIFUL CINNABAR (MERTIE, 1918; OVERBECK, 1920).

Materials

Minerals or other materials present in the mine.

  1. Role? Material?
  2. Gangue/Waste Ilmenite
  3. Gangue/Waste Limonite
  4. Gangue/Waste Magnetite
  5. Gangue/Waste Picotite
  6. Gangue/Waste Pyrite
  7. Gangue/Waste Zircon
  8. Ore Chromite
  9. Ore Cinnabar
  10. Ore Gold
  11. Ore Scheelite

Rocks

Geological materials at the site.

  1. Class? 1st Order Name? 2nd Order Name? 3rd Order Name? 4th Order Name? Most Specific Name? Begin Time End Time Description?
  2. Host Rock Unconsolidated Deposit Gravel - - Gravel - - -

Exploration

STATUS IS INACTIVE

Holdings

Mineral rights ownership information.

  1. Type?
  2. Located Claim

Model

Mineral deposit model of the site.

  1. Name? USGS Model Code? BC Model Code? Mark 3 model code?
  2. PLACER GOLD-PLATINUM GROUP ELEMENTS 39A C01. C02 -

Production

Production information

  1. Production Year? Amount Mined? Material? Comment
  2. 1915 6718.35 grams Gold 748 yards processed; 216 troy ounces gold
  3. 1916 11632.7 grams Gold 4,000 yards processed; 374 troy ounces gold
  4. 1917 37168.65 grams Gold 14,815 yards processed; 1195 troy ounces gold; 211 troy ounces silver
  5. 1918 44229.14 grams Gold 11,111 yards processed; 1422 troy ounces gold; 118 troy ounces silver
  6. 1919 19035.33 grams Gold 3,555 yards processed; 612 troy ounces gold; 50 troy ounces silver
  7. 1920 11539.39 grams Gold 2,222 yards processed; 371 troy ounces gold
  8. 1921 28646.3 grams Gold 12,704 yards processed; 921 troy ounces gold
  9. 1922 45908.73 grams Gold 12,111 yards processed; 1476 troy ounces gold
  10. 1923 7153.8 grams Gold 1,481 yards processed; 230 troy ounces gold
  11. 1924 21057.05 grams Gold 677 troy ounces gold
  12. 1925 21057.05 grams Gold 677 troy ounces gold
  13. 1929 2301.65 grams Gold 600 yards processed; 74 troy ounces gold; 7 troy ounces silver
  14. 1934 2457.17 grams Gold 5,000 yards processed; 79 troy ounces gold; 8 troy ounces silver
  15. 1935 13747.73 grams Gold 442 troy ounces gold
  16. 1936 15862.77 grams Gold 510 troy ounces gold
  17. 1941 85161.33 grams Gold 2738 troy ounces gold; 276 troy ounces silver
  18. 1942 342.13 grams Gold 11 troy ounces gold; 1 troy ounces silver
  19. 1946 60340.75 grams Gold 1940 troy ounces gold; 238 troy ounces silver
  20. 1947 40558.93 grams Gold 1304 troy ounces gold; 165 troy ounces silver
  21. 1949 53031.43 grams Gold 178 troy ounces silver; 70,000 yards processed; 1705 troy ounces gold
  22. 1950 42207.42 grams Gold 1357 troy ounces gold; 170 troy ounces silver
  23. 1951 51476.26 grams Gold 1655 troy ounces gold; 170 troy ounces silver
  24. 1952 46437.49 grams Gold 1493 troy ounces gold; 152 troy ounces silver
  25. 1953 60589.58 grams Gold 1948 troy ounces gold; 198 troy ounces silver

Notes

USGS CRIB D002626 OLIVE CREEK PRODUCTION PRIOR TO 1970: 33, 392 OZ GOLD, 3, 429 OZ SILVER (USBM-AFOC FILES).

MINING WAS REPORTED IN 1915, 1916, 1918, 1922, 1926, 1928-34, 1936-40, AND AS RECENTLY AS 1988, BUT NO RECORD OF AMOUNT OF PRODUCTION (COBB, 1976; OFR 76-633; GREEN AND OTHERS, 1989).

Reference

COBB, 1976 (OFR 76-633)

Nearby Deposits

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  5. Satellite Gold Mine

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  6. Ruth Creek Gold Prospect

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  7. Lillian Creek Gold Prospect

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  8. Gertrude Creek Gold Site

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  9. Lillian Creek Gold Mine

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  10. Lillian Creek Gold Occurrence

    • Antimony commodity Site type Occurrence status
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Nearby Places

Nearby Mining Districts

Footnotes

* Mine bounds on map indicate the general area that a mine occupies. For an detailed map, refer to the overseeing BLM field office.

** The mine central point is based on an average of the mine's bounding box(es) and does not necessarily fall on the claim itself.

1 World-class significance is determined by total endowment of the contained commodity. This includes all past production and remaining reserves. Each commodity is considered separately and commodities cannot be combined to arrive at a significant size. The tonnage thresholds are from the mine model grade-tonnage studies. As of June 2008, many entries were classified as significant under less strict rules.

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