region; the Crow Creek district, near the head of Turnagain Arm; and from the Nixon Fork district of the Kuskokwim region.

A number of smaller prospects recovered some gold in the Tiekel, Valdez Bay, and Valdez Creek districts, and at a few scattered points in other regions, including Seward Peninsula.

GOLD PLACERS

An

Placer gold produced in 1927 had a total value of $2,982,000. unusually short, dry working season was largely responsible for the reduced yield as compared with former years.

The following table shows, by districts, the output of placer gold:

Statistics of placer mining in Alaska in 1926 and 1927

As the above table shows, the largest yield of placer gold was from the Yukon region and Seward Peninsula. The falling off in placer-gold production indicated by the above figures is believed to be only temporary. In the Fairbanks district preparations for largescale dredging operations are nearly completed that should materially increase the yield next year.

DREDGES

The total value of gold recovered by dredges in 1927 was $1,740,000, of which about two-thirds came from dredges in Seward Peninsula, and the balance from 11 dredges in other parts of Alaska. Over 58 per cent of the gold produced from placers in 1927 was mined by dredges. The ratio of the amount of placer gold produced by dredges to that produced by other types of placer mining is constantly increasing. It is estimated that 6,084,000 cubic yards of gravel were handled by dredges during 1927, with an average yield of 28.6 cents a cubic yard.

COPPER

The value of the copper output in 1927, which amounted to $7,250,000, exceeded that of the gold output by more than $1,300,000. Much of this output came from three mines operated by the Kennecott Copper Corporation, two of which mines are in Chitina Valley

and the other on Latouche Island. Small amounts of copper were recovered by smelters in the States from Alaska ores and concentrates valuable chiefly for other metals, notably gold and silver, and which were produced by mines in the Hyder, Ketchikan, and Sitka districts of southeastern Alaska, and the Willow Creek district, in the Susitna-Cook Inlet region.

The total copper ore mined during the year from all producing properties amounted to 645,000 tons, and the copper produced from it was 55,343,000 pounds. In addition to the copper content, silver to the value of $297,800 was extracted from this ore.

SILVER

Only in the vicinity of Hyder were ores mined whose principal value lies in their silver content. These are silver-lead ores, which also carry gold. By far the greater part of the silver produced in Alaska is recovered as a minor constituent of ores that are chiefly valuable for their copper content. Considerable silver is also recovered from gold lodes, notably the low-grade gold ores of southeastern Alaska, and from gold placers.

The total amount of silver produced in 1927 from all sources in Alaska amounted to 627,800 ounces, having a value of $356,000.

LEAD

The lead produced from Alaska ores in 1927 amounted to 2,016,000 pounds. Using the average price for the year as determined by the Bureau of Mines, which was 6.3 cents a pound, the total value of the lead output was $127,000.

By far the largest percentage of the lead produced was recovered in connection with the mining of gold ores at the Alaska Juneau mine in southeastern Alaska. According to published reports of this mine, it produced 1,513,306 pounds of lead. This was a recovery of less than five-sixths of a pound of lead from each ton of ore milled. The remainder of the lead output for the year came principally from the silver-lead ores of the Hyder district.

PLATINUM

For a number of years palladium, one of the platinum group of metals, was produced at the lode mine of the Alaska Palladium Co., on Prince of Wales Island, in the Ketchikan district. This mine was not in operation in 1927, however, and the only platinum metals produced came from placer deposits. The placer platinum that was sold during the year came from deposits on Dime Creek, Seward Peninsula, and from several streams in the Goodnews Bay district, near the mouth of the Kuskokwim River. Reports of new discoveries of platinum in the latter district almost led to a small stampede. This later quieted down and the present indications are that the search for platinum there is well worth while, but the deposits are by no means bonanzas.

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The total value of the platinum metals produced from Alaskan deposits in 1927 was 21 crude ounces, equivalent to 17.5 fine ounces, valued at $1,500.

TIN

Stream tin or cassiterite has been found in concentrates in sluice boxes of placer-mining operations at many places in Alaska. Tin minerals have also been found in veins and in the mineralized country rock of the York or Port Clarence district, Seward Peninsula. Tin minerals were recovered only from two small camps in the York district and at three camps in the Hot Springs district of the Yukon region in 1927. In the York district the cassiterite is mined largely for the tin alone, but in the Hot Springs district it is a byproduct recovered in the course of placer gold mining. The production of cassiterite in 1927 was 37.5 tons, which contained from 65 to 72 per cent of metallic tin. Its total metal content was approximately 26.7 tons of tin. The average price of metallic tin for the year, as computed by the Bureau of Mines, was 63.5 cents a pound. The value of the total Alaska output was, therefore, about $34,000.

COAL

More coal was produced from Alaskan fields in 1927 than in any other year since coal mining began in the Territory, with the single exception of 1923. Practically all the output came from three mines, two in the Matanuska field and one in the Healy River field. The total quantity of coal produced from Alaska mines in 1927 was 104,300 tons, valued at $548,000. The coal mines now operating are well equipped and are being handled in a more efficient and skilled manner than in the past, so that they are in a position to furnish a good product less expensively. In addition to coal mined in Alaska, 35,212 tons were imported from the States, chiefly from Washington, and 27,225 tons from foreign countries, chiefly from British Columbia. The total domestic consumption therefore amounted to about 166,000 tons.

PETROLEUM

The only petroleum produced in Alaska comes from wells of the Chilkat Oil Co. in the Katalla field. At that place the company obtains oil from a number of shallow wells, few of which are more than 1,000 feet deep. A small refinery is operated by the company, and the products-gasoline and distillate-find a ready market near at hand, especially in Cordova.

Large quantities of petroleum products are imported to Alaska from the States. According to the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, 17,628,744 gallons of heavy oils, including crude oil, gas oil, residuum, etc.; 8,141,574 gallons of gasoline, including lighter products of distillation; 516,306 gallons of illuminating oil; and 620,450 gallons of lubricating oil were imported into Alaska during

1927.

Search for new oil fields has not been very vigorously carried on during the year. At only two places was drilling in progress, and

at one of these work was suspended before the end of the year, and early in 1928 formal notice was given by the company of intention to abandon the well. This well was on Johnson Creek, in the Yakataga field. The well had reached a depth of 2,005 feet, and in that depth small showings of gas were found at several points from the surface to 232 feet and again at a depth of 1,643 feet. The geologic formations penetrated by the well are said to have been dominantly hard sandstone and sandy shale, with minor amounts of limy beds. The other well is being drilled in the vicinity of Chickaloon, in the Matanuska coal field, where the bedrock of the region consists dominantly of the coal series, which has been described in several publications of the Geological Survey. Drilling at this point was suspended during the winter months, but was resumed in the summer of 1928.

MISCELLANEOUS MINERAL PRODUCTS

Many other minerals have from time to time been exploited in Alaska. The list of these minerals is long, including such metals as antimony, arsenic, bismuth, chromium, iron, manganese, mercury, molybdenum, nickel, tungsten, and zinc, and such nonmetallic minerals as asbestos, barite, clay, garnet, graphite, gypsum, jade, lime, marble, mica, stone, and sulphur. So far as reported to the Geological Survey, however, none of these mineral products were produced and sold except stone, marble, and antimony, though some of them were produced in the course of other mining operations. Practically the entire output of Alaska marble comes from quarries at Tokeen, on Marble Island, near the north end of Prince of Wales Island. These quarries are owned and operated by the Vermont Marble Co. Depletion of these quarries has led the company to open new quarries near Calder and El Capitan. All the stone is shipped in rough blocks, which are dressed in the States for interior decoration. In the past many other marble quarries have been in operation, and it seems strange that deposits so favorably situated to ocean transportation as are many of the southeastern Alaska deposits have not been profitably developed. Many types of marble occur in these deposits, some even approaching statuary grade.

A new industry that is somewhat related to the quarrying of marble was started late in 1927 on Dall Island, in the extreme southwestern part of southeastern Alaska. This is the quarrying of a high-grade lime rock which is to be shipped to Seattle and mixed with the other necessary constituents to make cement. Production of lime rock from this place should be well under way early in the summer of 1928.

The only antimony produced in Alaska in 1927 was a by-product recovered in the concentrates from gold-lode mines in the Fairbanks district. The concentrates were shipped to a smelter in the States and yielded 35,000 pounds of pure antimony, which had a value of $2,200. Deposits containing antimony are known in many parts of Alaska, and in the past some of them have been mined and furnished ore worth more than $200,000. The only place where any recent find of high-grade antimony ore has been reported is on Cleveland Peninsula, near Cape Camano, in the Ketchikan district.

Heretofore, although zinc minerals have been recognized in the ores from many of the mines, no attempt has been made to save them. During 1927, however, the Alaska Juneau Gold Mining Co. installed a flotation apparatus at its mills to recover the zinc minerals in its ore. These concentrates will be shipped to Idaho for the recovery of the zinc at the electrolytic plant at Kellogg. This project will not become effective until 1928, so that the amount of zinc it will produce can not yet be foretold with certainty.

ADMINISTRATIVE ARRANGEMENTS

The work of the Geological Survey in Alaska consists of two main types: Investigations of the mineral resources of the Territory and activities connected with the administration of certain land laws relating to leasing and prospecting of mineral deposits on the public domain. Administrative control of both types of work is vested in the chief Alaskan geologist at Washington. For the conduct of certain phases of both types of work, local offices are maintained by the Geological Survey at Juneau and Anchorage, in charge of a supervising mining engineer. By the appropriation act for 1928-29 separate funds were provided for the two types of work conducted by the personnel of the local Alaska offices, an allotment of $10,000 being made to care for activities under the various mineral leasing acts applicable to the Territory, and an allotment of $4,500 for activities under the authorization for investigation of the mineral resources of Alaska.

In accordance with an informal arrangement with the Department of Commerce, the resident supervising engineer of the Geological Survey directs the work of the United States Bureau of Mines in the Territory.

The Territorial government of Alaska has cooperated in certain phases of the work carried on by the resident personnel of the survey, to the extent of furnishing office facilities and clerical services at Juneau and supplying funds for such traveling expenses as are incurred in the interest of the Territory. This arrangement has worked out especially well, for it eliminates much duplication that would be necessary if the Federal and Territorial Governments each maintained separate organizations to conduct the work desired by them, much of which is identical in character.

INVESTIGATIVE WORK

The investigations of mineral resources embrace a wide variety of activities, including an annual canvass of the mineral production of the Territory, the study of individual mineral deposits, and the preparation of reports and maps covering prospective mineral-bearing areas. In connection with this work, both geologic and topographic surveys are carried on. The following table shows the area that has been mapped topographically and geologically in the course of this work. It will be seen that only a little more than two-fifths of the entire Territory has been surveyed on any of the scales that are used for the two types of mapping.