Geology and Mineral Deposits of Freegold Mountain, Carmacks District, Yukon.
Memoir 214 Johnston, J.R. Ottawa, Ontario: Geological Survey of Canada, 1937.

The area, owing to its proximity to Dawson range, has a considerably higher rainfall during summer months than the plateau region to the east. Run-off is rapid, however, due to the steep slopes and to the frozen condition of the subsoil, and water is, therefore, scarce on the higher parts of the mountain. The many attempts to utilize water in surface prospecting have, as a rule, been unsuccessful. An adequate supply of water for milling purposes exists in Seymour Creek which flows around the west base of the mountain. Snowfall in winter is reported to be moderate, but as the area is mantled with snow during all but four months of the year, the season for surface prospecting is short. With adequate camp facilities, however, mining could be conducted throughout the year.
Timber-line is at approximately 4200 feet above sea-level on the south side of Freegold Mountain and 3700 feet on the north side. Good stands of timber, suitable for camp buildings, mine timbers, and firewood, are available on the slopes of Seymour Creek and in many of the valley bottoms surrounding the area.
It is improbable that sufficient hydroelectric power for mining could be obtained locally owing to the small size of the streams and to the fact that they freeze in winter. For an extensive operation such power might be obtained in larger, more distant streams. It has also been suggested that the coal deposits at Carmacks might be utilized.

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE MOUNTAIN

Freegold Mountain is a northwest-trending ridge lying to the east of, and forming an outlying part of the Dawson Range, one of the interior mountain groups that rise above the level of the Yukon Plateau. The summit of the mountain is 4, 772 feet above sea-level. The mountain is separated from the main range by the valley of Seymour Creek, and from the plateau country to the east by Stoddart Creek.
The topography is the result of erosion without glacial modification, the topographic forms being characteristic of the unglaciated region within which the mountain lies. Stream gulches are “V”-shaped in cross-section and steepen rapidly in profile towards the crest of the mountain, from which they radiate. Northeast-southwest profiles across the Freegold ridge are symmetrical in shape. The mountain sides rise steeply out of Seymour and Stoddart Creeks, flatten to gentle intermediate slopes, and steepen again on the uppermost surfaces. The latter, like the intermediate slopes, are long and smooth in profile, their continuity being broken only by occasional castellated outcrops. The intermediate slopes, lying between elevations of 3,500 and 4300 feet above sea-level, are believed to be part of the mature erosion surface of the Yukon Plateau. The summit of the mountain, standing several hundred feet above this surface, probably owes its higher elevation to the presence of numerous finely textures, erosion-resistant dyke rocks.
The valley walls of Seymour and Stoddart Creek are precipitous and a marked topographic unconformity exists between the normal slopes of the mountain and these lower valley slopes. In cross-section the valleys appear as deep troughs in the centre of a more widely flaring “V”-shaped depressions.
Rock outcrops are usually scarce. Within the area examined less than 6 per cent of the bedrock surface is exposed. The rest of the area is covered by a layer of varying thickness, composed of angular rock fragments and soil. Both components are residuals of erosion and are of local or near-local origin. Where transportation by running water has been adequate to remove the finer debris, such as on the more prominent features of relief and on southward-facing slopes (where the thawing action of the sun is most pronounced), well-defined areas of coarse detritus occur. These flat upper surfaces of the mountain are covered by a complex agglomeration of such fragmental material. Individual lithographical types, however, are fairly well confined to distinct patches and little scattering appears to have taken place. Furthermore, trenching has proved rock float to lie close to its point of origin. In mapping it was assumed, therefore, that variations in lithography of this coarse detritus represent like variations in the underlying bedrock. On the steeper south-facing slopes, where more appreciable movement of the detritus has occurred, estimates of the point of origin of the fragments were made by comparison with the movement of talus that had obviously come from nearby outcrops. Blank areas on the map are those in which the finer products of decomposition have accumulated and predominate. These areas are on north-facing slopes and at the heads of stream gulches and completely mask the underlying bedrock.