Major-oxide and trace-element geochemical data from rocks collected in the Richardson mining district, Big Delta Quadrangle, Alaska

During the 2018 field season, geologists from the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) conducted geologic mapping and sampling of part of the Richardson mining district southeast of Fairbanks, including parts of the Big Delta B-5 and B-6 quadrangles. The project area has produced approximately 122,000 ounces of gold (Singh and others, 2017), mostly from placer mines, and it includes the Richardson, Tower, and Hilltop lode gold exploration properties. Rock outcrop accounts for much less than one percent of the study area, consequently, many of the rock samples were collected from up to 1-meter-deep pits dug with shovels into rocky colluvial deposits below the surficial loess. Highlights of the geochemical results include 43.3 and 9.77 parts per million (ppm) gold sampled from arsenopyrite-bearing quartz veins at the Hilltop prospect. At the Democrat prospect, formerly the site of small-scale mining, a sample of sulfide-rich material returned 3,790 ppm silver and 4.72 ppm gold. Other samples from the Democrat prospect assayed 6.81 and 5.01 ppm gold. The analytical data tables associated with this report are available in digital format as comma-separated value (CSV) files. All files can be downloaded from the DGGS website (http://doi.org/10.14509/30119).