MINERAL PRODUCTION
OF ALASKA IN 1930
f (Continued from Page 1.)
per cent from the lode mines. During
r the entire period that gold raining
/ • has been in progress in Alaska about
'/ $390,000,000 has been won, of which
almost exactly two-thirds has come
from placer deposits and one-third
from lode.
The bulk of the increase in produc
tion of gold appears to be attributa
ble mainly to the increased operation
of the placer mines, especially those
'■* of the Fairbanks- Exploration Com
pany in the Fairbanks district of Cen
tral Alaska, where the • large mining
, enterprise on which preparatory worli
had been in progress for several
years came into full operation and its
live dredges were continuous.y min
ing throughout the open season
Through practically the entire Terri
tory weather conditions that affert
mining, surh as plentiful water sup
ply and length of wirking season,lb
were favorable.. In fact,, throughout
Central Alaska the rainfall was un
usually heavy during during the mid
dle and latter part of the season, ant
- in a few cases there were rather dis
astrous oods. Most of the placer golc
is now recovered by dredging, and tht
more primitive hand methods or sim
pler mechanical devices have alreadj
disappeared except in the more re
moote mining districts. It appear:
that about 80 per cent of the place:
gold that was rerovered in 1930 wa;
• mined by dredges; in 1929 the rath
was about 71 per cent.
So far as reported, 26 dredges wer<
. in operation during 1930, as agains
30 in 1929. The dredges that hac
been mining in 1929 but were idle ir
1930 were mainly small ones, anc
several of the larger modern dredge:
that were credited as mining in 1921
were new boats that were built ir
1929 and operated only a short tim(
in that year but put in a full seasoi
' in 1930. The dredges that mined ir
1929 but not in 1930 were one in the
Hot Springs district, two in the In
. noko district of the Yukon regioi.
one in the Tuluksak-Akiak district o1
the Kuskokwim, and two in the Sew
ird Peninsula region. Two dredges
that had recently been reconstructec
resumed mining in the Solomon am
Nome regions of Seward Peninsula ir
i9b'.
- No new finds of placer ground thal
yjelded any considerable amount oi
gold were made during the year, ant
inevitably each yeai many of tht
known placer areas are worked out
Prospecting for new deposits, how
ever, appears to. have been somewha
more active than it has been in tin
* recent past. Not only are- there mor<
prospectors and miners in the bill:
searihing for workable deposits,, bu
persons-with funds seem to. be taking
a. growing interest in assisting in th:
development of prospective mining
properties.
The bulk of the lode gold continued
to come from the properties of the
Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Company
n the Juneau region of Southeastern
A aska. Work at this place appears
o have been carried on at essentially
die same scale as heretofore, but the
average tenor of the ore seems to
have been slightly lower than in 1929.
In spite of this the operations were
extremely satisfactory, and during
.he year the bonded indebtedness on
he property was paid up from the
profits. Sma.l amounts of lode gold
were also recovered by* two of the
lode mines on Chiragof Island, but
heir produrtion was small bedause at
both of them most of the year was
spent in development work. The re
ported finds of promising sdlphide
.eads in the Takd region were ex
plored rather fully by both under
ground and surface work, though a
number of prospectors are still in the
region, and there is no reason to be
lieve that the search has yet been
thorough enough to warrant a con
clusion that the possibilities of find
ing ore there are exhausted. In the
\\ iilow Creek district several pros
pecting camps were active. The
'argest constructive operations were
those of the Willow Creek Mines,
where an extensive milling plant and
settlement were built during the year,
i This mill began operations late in
• December, and so its output for 1930
i will be small, but next year it should
, aud materially to the lode gold out
put from Alaska. Lode gold mining
. in the Fairbanks district appears to
; have been especially sucressful in
[ 1930 and to have yielded about 50 per
; cent more gold than in 1929. Several
i other lode gold mines widely scat
; tered throughout the Territory yield
i ed some gold. The most productive
t of these were the Sunny Fox mine, in
the Nuka Bay district; and the old
Pearson & Strand mine, in the Nixon
Fork district of the Kuskokwim val
ley.
Copper.
The value of the copper produced
from Alaska in 193 Oi sestimated to
have been $4,100,000. This marks a
decrease in value of more than $3,
000,000 from the corresponding value
in 1929. Nearly $1,750,000 of this I
decrease may be attributed directly to
the lower average price of copper in
1930 than in 1929. The low price not
only had its direct effect in the value
of th eoutput, but it also acted to re
tard operations so that the quantity
produced also fell og by an amount
estimated as in excess of 7,000,000
- pounds. The average selling price of
i copper during the year as computed
■ by the Bureau of Mines was 12.4
i cents, as against 17.6 cents in 1929.
In 1930, as in former years, practi
: cally all the copper came from two
s ( mines near Kennecott, in the Copper
River region, and from one mine in
the Prince William Sound region.
These mines alone, according to the
published' reports of the- Geological
Survey, have yielded more than $200,
1)00,000 in the twenty years that they
. ave been actively developed.
Search for new ere bodies and for
extensions of the known ore bodies
has been continued at all the produc
ing mines, but the general business
depression and the low price of all
the base metals or the failure to ob
tain encouraging returns have caused
the abandonment of several new pros
pecting projects that had been start
ed in the preceding year. Among
these discontinued projects may be
mentioned work on the copper show
n0s on Glacier creek, a tributary of
the Ch'ttistone, where the Kenneeott
Copper Corporation had maintained a
large crew for several months tu
carry on exploratory work; at the de
posits on Knight Island, where an ur
te.sive drilling program had been un
dertaken by the Solar Development.
Company, and at the deposits on Kas
san Peninsula, where the same com
pany had already opened up some of
the old workings of certain of the
mines that were formerly productive
but have laid idle for many years.
Doubtess some of these enterprises
wiil be revived when better prices for
copper prevail, but their cessation at
tnis time is a =evere setback to the
. ci.eral copper mining activities in
the Territo-y. That there are in
Alaska copper deposits which are not
now producing but w'.ucn hold prom
ise of profitable development under
normal conditions seer.--, certain, but
their successful development is an
expensive ar.d time-cousuming task,
and no new deposits appear Pkely to
become producers in the rear future.
Silver.
Mcf of the silver produced in
Alaska during recent years has been
TABLE OF DISTANCES BE
TWEEN NGNANA AND FLAT
Miles
Nenana . 00
Tavern Roadhouse _ 17%
Knight's Roadhouse _ 28%
Nineteen-Mile Roadhouse _ 58
Diamond Roadhouse . 76
Roosevelt _ 89
Lake Minchumina__ 115
Trappers’ Cabin ... 132
Lone Star Roadhouse _ 159
Telida Roadhouse _ 169%
Slow Fork Roadhouse _ 187
East Fork Roadhouse _) 206
Berry’s Landing Roadhouse. 227%
Big River Roadhouse_241
McGrath __ 268
Takotna ....280
Bill Goss' Roadhouse.. 291
Ophir ... 300
McCatferty ... 306
. rjvvn Creek shelter cabin_318
hr its shelter cabin . 338
First Chance shelter cabin _ 346
Schermeyer R. H. _ 360
lditared___876
Flat _____ 384
Bonansza sheler cabin, 12 miles
from Flat
Crooked Creek shelter cabin, 19
miles from Bonansa.
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organs.
i * | for centuries the world has recognized the value of health
springs, and medical officers now attribut the value of the fam
■ ous springs to the natural radio-activity of their waters. This
radio-activity is one of nature’s ways of dissolving and elimin
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I
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Blacksmith,
Machine and
all kinds of
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Safetys
Stoves
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Proprietor
recovered from the copper ores—n
fact, during 1929, the latest year for
which complete reports are available,
over three-quarters of thesilver came
from that source. With the reduc
tion in the output of copper ore in
1930 the quantity of silver naturally
shows a corresponding decrease. Fur
thermore, the average selling price of
silver was only 38.5 cents an ounce,
against 53.3 cents in 1929. Owing to
the greater output of gold from
placers there was some increase in
the output of silver associated with
the gold. The quantity of silver con
tained in ordinary placer gold, how
ever, is relatively so small, and silver
Is so low in price, that the increase
in the output of gold in 1930 means
an increase of only a few thousand
dollars in the value of the silver re
covered from that source. All the
gold lode mines also yield some silver
in addition to the other metals that
they contain, and they are estimated
to have produced about 20 per cent of
the total amount of silver produced
during 1930 from Alaska ore
Coal.
The production of coal from Alaska
mines in 1930 is estimated to have
been 116,000 tons, or somewhat more
than 1929 and within a few thousand
tons of the high record of all time
. that was established in 1928. As usual
practically all of the output came
from the Matanuska and Healy River
lelds. The principal producing mines
were those of the Alaska Matanuska
Coal Company, the Evan Jones Coal
Company in the Moose Creek district
of the Matanuska leld, and the Sun
trana mine of the Healy River Coal
Corporation in the Healy River field.
No notable new developments were
reported to have taken place during
the year in the Matanuska field, but
^ in the Healy River field extreme high
water and floods in September seri
ously damaged the plant of the Healy
| River Coal Corporation and washed
i out long stretches of the spur track
| that connects the mine with the main
l
track of the Alaska Railroad. Repairs
were rushed so that deliveries of coal
were back to normal within a month,
and no serious hardship was caused
to the company or its customers. The
contract for most of the coal used by
the Alaska Railroad during the year
was held by the Alaska Matanuska
Coal Company, and consequently that
company’s mine was operated to
about the capacity of its equipment,
but the contract for 1931 was award
ed to the Evan Jones Coal Company,
and during December increased ac
tivities were in progress at that com
pany’s mine to furnish a larger out
put.
Petroleum.
All the petroleum produced in Alas
ka during 1930 continued to come
from wells of the Chilkat Oil Com
pany near Katalla, where, in addition
to the oil wells, the company operates
a small refinery. The gasoline and
distillate produced from this petrol
eum are much in demand in the local
market, as they are said to be of bet
ter quality than the usual commer
cial brands. This company is report
ed to have continued operations in
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Write or wire to
P. W. CARLSON,
Ophir, Alaska.
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All Kinds of Nice Fresh Groceries and Fruite
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1
The Kusko
Times
$1 Per Month