ALASKA.
It
is estimated by A. H. Brooks that the total production of gold in
Alaska from earliest mining, in 1880, to the end of 1916 has been
$278,100,656, of which $197,332,992 has come from placers. The total
production of silver has been 6,302,459 fine ounces, of which 3,567,308
ounces was recovered from copper ores and 1,636,823 ounces from the
refining of placer gold.1
Gold.—The
mine production of gold in Alaska in 1916 was $17,241,713, or nearly
$540,000 more than that of 1915. The yield from siliceous ores
decreased from $6,069,023 in 1915 to $5,912,736 in 1916; the yield from
copper ores increased from $153,121 in 1915 to $188,977 in 1916; the
placer output in 1916 was $11,140,000, against $10,480,000 in 1915.
Thirty-four dredges produced $2,679,000 of the placer gold, which was
$349,000 more than the yield from dredging in 1915.
Of
the productive gold lode mines 8 were in southeastern Alaska, 5 on
Prince William Sound, 7 in Kenai Peninsula, 4 in Willow Creek district,
and 8 in Fairbanks district. The 13 deep gold mines in southeastern
Alaska yielded nearly 90 per cent of the gold derived from siliceous
ores.
The
3,548,798 tons of siliceous ores treated in 1916 yielded $1.70 in gold
and silver a ton, and the 617,264 tons of copper ore contained $1.59 in
gold and silver a ton and had a copper content of 9.70 per cent.
About
36 per cent of the total gold output of Alaska came from lode mines in
1916, against 38 per cent in 1915, 32 per cent in 1914,
1 U. S. Geol. Survey Mineral Resources, 1916, pt. 1, p. 173, 1917.
