Anderson reported to the Alaskan Department of Mines in 1943 that the Bendeleben and Darby mountain ranges north and west of the basin of Fish River are among the least prospected areas of Seward Peninsula., Alaska. (Fig. 1). Placer gold discoveries have been few in these mountains and the region remains in a sense remote. Most of it lies within 50 miles of the Bering Sea, and from 70 to 100 miles northeast of None. It is incompletely mapped and the geology is known only in a general way. There are no known residents in the subject area.
The two ranges are composed mainly of schists, gneisses and limestones intruded by numerous large and small bodies of granitic rocks. Associated with the granites in some places are mica-bearing pegmatites. Some of these warrant investigation during the present shortage of strategic mica. A few of the pegmatites were observed by members of an early U.S. Geological. Survey reconnaissance party in the area west of the head of Fish River in the Bendeleben Mountains according to their report.
"Associated with the normal granites are a few rocks of pegmatitic and aplitic phases which seem to have marked the later or closing stages of the intrusive period. In the pegmatites, tourmaline is in places an important accessory mineral. One such pegmatite in particular was noted on Birch Creek near the pass to the head of Niukluk River. Mica, in plates sometimes 6 inches or more in diameter is found in the pegmatite.
A locality where particularly large mica flakes have been reported is near Oregon Creek, a tributary of Fish River heading on the south slope of the Bendeleben Mountains, and some attempts have been made to develop a commercial deposit."
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