The Nome mining district, also known as the

Cape Nome Cape Nome is a headland on the Seward Peninsula in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is situated on the northern shore of Norton Sound, to the east of Nome, Alaska, Nome also on Norton Sound. It is delimited by the Norton Sound to the south, Hastings ...

mining district, is a

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold by mining. Historically, mining gold from Alluvium, alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. The expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface has led to mor ...

district in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. It was discovered in 1898 when

Erik Lindblom Erik Lindblom (1857-1928) was a Swedish-American gold prospector. He was one of the "Three Lucky Swedes" who founded and developed the Nome mining district. Early life Erik Olof Lindblom was born on June 27, 1857, in Härjedalen, Sweden, the ...

Jafet Lindeberg Jafet Lindeberg (September 12, 1874 – November 5, 1962) was a gold prospector and co-founder of the city of Nome, Alaska. Background Jafet Isaksen Lindeberg was born in Kvænangen Municipality in Troms county in Norway. In his youth, he tried ...

and

John Brynteson John Brynteson (1871 – 1959) was one of the "Three Lucky Swedes" who founded and developed the Nome mining district. Johan Bryntesson was born in the parish of Ärtemark in the traditional province of Dalsland, Sweden. Career A gold-seeking ...

, the "Three Lucky Swedes", found placer

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

deposits on Anvil Creek and on the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river in the interior Pacific Northwest region of the United States. About long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, which is the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. Begin ...

few miles from the future site of

Nome Nome may refer to: Country subdivision * Nome (Egypt), an administrative division within ancient Egypt * Nome (Greece), the administrative division immediately below the ''peripheries of Greece'' (, pl. ) Places United States * Nome, Alaska ...

. Word of the strike caused a major gold rush to Nome in the spring of 1899. Nome Beach map

This was one of the first and was the biggest Alaskan

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, ...

in North America, only the

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and Klondike gold rushes were larger. A chaotic and lawless scene ensued, with rampant claim-jumping, crooked judges, and not enough gold found for the 20,000 prospectors, gamblers, shop and saloon-keepers, and prostitutes living in the tent city on the beachfront tundra, at least not at first. Then someone thought to pan the red-and-black streaked beach sands. Within days, gold was found for tens of miles up and down the beach from Nome. More than a million dollars' worth of gold was taken from the beach in 1899. Subsequently the second and third beach lines were discovered and mined. Anvil Creek produced the second-largest gold nugget found in Alaska (182 troy ounces), as well as the 6th, 7th, 9th, and 10th-largest. Except while prohibited by law during WWII, placer mining near Nome has continued to this day. Over 3.6 million troy ounces of gold have been recovered from the creeks of the Nome District. A myriad of small hard-rock gold deposits were exploited near Nome, but production was very small, compared to the placer deposits, and none of the hard rock mines operated for more than a few years. In 1908, the Alaska Road Commission began constructing a trail from Seward to Nome, and in 1911, one year after the trail was completed, thousands of prospectors mushed or hiked to the

Iditarod The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, more commonly known as The Iditarod (), is an annual long-distance sled dog race held in Alaska in early March. It travels from Anchorage to Nome. Mushers and a team of between 12 and 16 dogs, of which at leas ...

gold fields, a population boom that helped lead to Alaska becoming a territory. That trail is known as the

Iditarod Trail The Iditarod Trail, also known historically as the Seward-to-Nome Trail, is a thousand-plus mile (1,600 km) historic and contemporary trail system in the US state of Alaska. The trail began as a composite of trails established by Alaska n ...

, and is about 900 miles long.

Rock Creek mine

A new hardrock gold mine, Rock Creek, has been built. Start-up procedures began in September 2008. Production efforts were suspended in November, due to design inadequacies in the mill and complications meeting regulatory requirements. NovaGold's Rock Creek project has two planned components; the Rock Creek mine and mill complex seven miles north of Nome and the historic underground Big Hurrah mine site 42 miles east. Both sites are on the road net. The gold deposit at Rock Creek consists of sheeted gold and sulfide-bearing quartz veins in metamorphosed and deformed pelitic sediments. A placer gold deposit exploited in the early and late 1900s overlies the hardrock deposit. Early miners sunk workings to explore for hardrock gold, but did not find the large and high-grade gold-in-quartz veins necessary to be economic at that time. A prescient

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), founded as the Geological Survey, is an government agency, agency of the United States Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of the Interior whose work spans the disciplines of biology, geograp ...

geologist in 1908 identified the cluster of small veins as essentially a "large low grade gold deposit". Underlying land is patented land owned by NovaGold and by the Sitnasauk Native village (surface) and Bering Sea regional (subsurface) Alaska Native Corporations. Plans include additional ore from the Big Hurrah mine, 42 miles west in the Solomon River watershed, to be trucked to the mill at Rock Creek. Big Hurrah originally opened in 1908, an underground mine exploiting large quartz veins cutting black slates. The mine closed after only a few years; it was reopened for a few years in the 1950s and again in the 1970s. Big Hurrah was the largest underground mine on the Seward Peninsula. Both sites will be mined from open pits and ore recovery will use a combination of gravity methods and vat cyanide leach procedures. Rock Creek and Big Hurrah have combined probable reserves of 510,000 ounces of gold, with 32,000 additional indicated and inferred ounces of gold. Ore grade is about 1.75 g/t gold (0.05 ounces per ton gold).NovaGold Resources Inc
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nome Mining District Gold mining in Alaska Geography of Nome Census Area, Alaska Alaskan gold rushes Mining districts in Alaska

Rock Creek mine

See also

References