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Entered .as'necono-itass matter Au
■jut£ 29th, 1923, at the postoffiee at
Tokptna, Alaska, under the Act of
March 3, 1879.
l'akotna. Alaska. December S, 1931.
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY M \KES
PRELIMINARY REPORT ON
THE ALASKA RAILROAD BELT
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8.—As the
result of intensive studies during the
pasj, summer of the mineral resources
of £he helt tributary to th* Alaska
Railroad, the Geological Survey an
nounces that that region contains im
portant reserves of gold, silver, lead,
aiK^.zinc, large deposits of sub-hitu
mipous and bituminous coal, and pos
sibilities that there may be an an
thracite field' o'* •-ornmereial. import
■meg. Gold lode mining-is -being ac
tively carried on in a number of
eanjps. and several of these show
gre^t promise of increased production
fropi mines already operated and
fropi other lodes so far undeveloped.
The investigations in the railroad
belli, the preliminary results of which
are. here announced, were made under
a special appropriation to the Alaska
Railroad for the purnose -of determin
ing ,the possibilities of the ■ several
districts for furnishing tonnage from
their mineral resources to the rail
road over a period of years, and the
investigations were confined solely to
districts in which lode deposits or
coal were known to exist. Nine sep
arte projects were organize/! under
the .general direction of S. It. Capps,
witb individual geologists assigned to
Fairbanks, Kantishna, Mount Gielson
(Copper Mountain). Valdez Creek
and;, the West Fork of the Chulitna
river, Willow creek, Girdwood, Moose
Pass,, the anthracite field of the 'up
per i Matanuska valley, and a general
survey of the nonmetallic resources
of the region other than coal. In ad
ditipn the Eva creek mine was exam
ined, and other metallic lodes were
visited.
The results here announced must,
howfever, be considered tentative and
subject to modification later, for
muqh office work remains to be done
in dhe preparation of maps, the study
of specimens, thin sections, and assay
returns, and the final preparation of
complete reports. Indeed, the actual
determination of the value of the
many properties must depend on the
results of /Assaying, and the returns
from the assays have not yet all been
received. Nevertheless, certain state
ments are justified from the field ob
servations and the data now at hand.
The scope of the field work includ
ed a careful examination of all acces
sible mines and prospects; the con
struction of mine maps where none
were already available; the detailed
study of geologic structure as it af
fects the distribution of ore bodies;
th (“determination of the mode of oc
currence of metallic minerals in the
lodes, with special attention to the.
presence or absence of surface en
richment; the -sampling of ore bodies
to determine .thej-r size and . value:
and the collection of al information
that /night .help in predicting the
probable depth to which ore might be
expected to extend These studies
required the preparation of special
touographic maps in the Kantishna,
Mount Eielson, Girdwood, and An
thracite Ridge areas.
Fairbanks District.
In the Fairbanks district J. M, Hill
has made a careful study of all the
iodp properties to which he could gain
access. Four gold lode mines are ac
tively milling ore, and several others
are being developed. Although little
ore has been blocked out in a tech
nical sense, there is good reason to
believe that sufficient ore is available
to keep the mills active for several
years. No mine in the district has
yet reached a depth- of more than 300
feet, and the question whether the
gold ore continues to greater deptfc
has vital bearing on the future of lode
mining in this region. Although the
field evidence in places suggests that
there, may have been some enrich
ment of the shallow portions, of the
veins, there i safv definite1 evidence
that the values contain primary .gold
of economic value that should con
tinue to depths considerably below
any that have so far been reached.
. A matter of great importance to
the future of lode mining in the. Fair
banks distriit is to d-etermine whether
or not rertain large mineralized lqdes
such as the Ryan lode,.san be mined
at a profit. It seems, to be definitely
established that the Ryan lgde Ion
tains well over 1,000,000 tons of ore
larrying between £4 and $5 to the ton
in gold. Whether or not this ore can
be profitably extracted is a mining
problem that is receiving careful at
tention.
The Fairbanks district as a whole
affords large possibilities that that
many gold lodes other than those
now known amy be discovered. Mr.
Hill is of the opinion that several
properties not now being operated
are of sufficient merit to warrant act
ive mining, and he believes that with
the necessary capital and intelligently
directed development the lode gold
output of tthe district can be greatly
increased.
Eva Creek Mines.
At Eva Creek, 11 miles east of
Ferry on the Alaska Railroad, a prop
erty owned by the Eva Creek Mining
Company is now being actively devel
oped, and a 50-ton mill has been phr
chased for installation this fall. The
ore body, consisting of base gold ore,
lies in schist, and although the re
sults of the Geological Survey’s
sampling have not been received, it
appears probable that there are, re
serves of 25,000 to 50,000 tong -of ore
carrying more than $20 in gold to the
ton. This ore will have to be fconeen
trated, and with the mill oneraeiog at
full capacity about four tons'»ofi con
centrates a day should- be recovered.
This concentrate must then be
i shipped to a smelter for reduction.
FIRE INSURANCE
You should carry a liberal amount of fire insurance,
for the sake of your credit and your peace of mind..
^Needless to say this insurance should be of the very
highest quality.
That’* the Kind Written By
Alaska Insurance Agency
FAIRBANKS, ALASKA
i rf Kusko Times.
The surrounding district has beejt
little prospected and deserves atten
tion in the hope that -other similar
ore bodies will be found. •
Kantishna District..
The lode prospects of ..the ;Kaiv
tishna district have beep e^arnyi.ed, jn
detail by. F. G. Wells, ip sp fgr,gp .the
workings are. now .accessible,; On
many of the properties tfcer adits, and
open cuts are. .caved and could not
therefore be studied. The district inf
eluded in this investigation is about
six miles wide .and twelve miles long
and was mapped ^topographically on
a scale of 1 to -18,000., Some 28 claims
have been patented, And many other
unpatented claims are held.
The country rock is composed of
schist cut by a few small bodies of
intrusive rock. The general trend of
the foliation of the. schist is E. 70*
E., and the veins trend in much the
same direction, 'bough- they cut
across the foliation. . The principal
minerals of economic importance are
free gold, auriferous pyrite and ar
senopyrite, silver-bearing galena,
sphalerite, tetr rpedritp, and stibnite.
The only commercial ore so far ex
tracted consisted ..of about 1,300 tons
that wap- ”alu »t>l*‘ chiefly for its sil
ver content,' though yieldin galso con
siderable amounts of gold and lead.
The workings from which this ore
was taken are flow- inaccessible.
. In addition So the lodes whose ore
runs high in silver, there are many
veins carrying gold and other sul
phides in which the-siPrer concent ir
relatively slight;
. Mr, Wells states - chat1 the area
shows excellent-.indications of mih
aralization, and that there is a high
probability that other veins not yet
mined rontai nore as valuable as that
.so far recovered. He also believes
that other deposits containing similar
ope may be found. The type of min
eralization and character of the ore
ore indicate that the ore extends to
considerably^ greater depths than any
so far reschtsdiihr mining. Whether
oa- not there has been appreciable en
richment of "the surface portions of
the veins his' not yet been deter
mined, but laboratory studies to an
swer this question will be made;
. With tn6 completion of the auto
mobile road-; from Mount McKinley
.National Park to the Kantishna dis
trict, the cost of operating mines
there -.writ be considerably reduced,
and,tt>Ue;.,district is considered to hold
promise for both the mine operator
apd the prospector.
Mount Eielson District.
Th4‘Mount Eielson area, formerly
kno-yn-as Copper Mountain-in Mount
McKjijIey National Park, has been
stud.ied-in, detail by J. C. Reed, and a
topographich may of the mineralized
zone has been made. Although about
twenty., claims are no wheld in the
vicinity of Mount Eielson,. develop
ment- work has been limited to a
large number of small pits and
trenches and three small. adits, the
longest 90 feet long.
Hitherto the lack of transportation
has been a. serious drawback to pros.
pecting, but the new park highway,
at present under construction, will
pass- withi a mile of Mount Eielson,
which is about 70 miles from the
railroad.
I The principal rocks of the region
! include a thick series of thin-bedded
limestone and calcareous shales, all
intimately contorted and folded.
These sediments are cut by a mass of
granitic rock that forms the major
part of Mount Eielson, the main in
trusive having sent a multitude of
dikes and sills into the associated
sediments. The granitic area is ter
j minated on the south by a fault of
\ large displacement. During or just
] after the intrusion of the granite the
! inclosing sediments were permeated
I by material gives off by the granitic
j mass, were silicified, and locally
| were replaced by sulphides of zinc,
lead, iron, and copper.
(Continued Next Issue.)
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