The Cordova daily times., 1915-05-14
DEPOSITS
 RETAINER RIVER

on October II. Placer mining has been carried on there every year since during which time most of the differ ent holdings on the stream have been consolidated and are now controlled by two men. In 1911 the Golconda Mining Company secured an option on eighteen claims and installed hydrulic plant which completed in the latter part of the summer, too late for more than a short seasons run.
 Golconda Creek produced most of the gold mined in the district up to the present 0914. Little Bremner River has only small production. The main Bremner River has only a small production. The main Bremener and Fern creek. a southern tributary of the Bremner, have yielded not more than a few hundred dollars. Gold has not been found in commercial auanti- ties in the Hanagita Valley nor in the mountains east of Taral. Consider able prospecting was lone on Mona han Creek in 1902 most of the stream was staked but the claims were later abandoned.
 In early years of the conditions af- fecting mining in the district were highly unfavorable and greatly retard- ed development. Since 1910 a change for the better has come with the com letion of the railroad up Copper River. Improved transportation facilities, lower freight rates, and easier com munication with the coast have al ready stimulated prospecting.
 The known mineral resources of this district, as has been pointed out, include only gold and copper. The two metals appear to be almost re- stricted to certain rock formations and to areas that are fairly well de- l fined by the distribution of those for nations. knowledge of the areal geology of the district should there fore be of much aid prospects seeking either of these metals.
 The belt of interbedded states and from the head of Bremner River to i Kenia Peninsula is aurlferous in many places if not throughout its known length. This belt of sedimentary beds is intruded by light-colored dioritic dikes and is cut by numerous veins of quartz. Most of the quartz veins are short, pinching out within a few feet along the strike. but some of them can be traced for considerable distances and are evidently connected with ex- tensive Assures. By far the greater number are small, ranging in thick ness from an inch or less to rare maximum of several feet. Many such veins contain gold in amounts ranging from trace to quantities large enough to make the veins com mercially valuable as mining property. and in them is believed to be the source of the placer gold of this dis trict, The veins commonly contain a small proportion of metallic sulphides, among which pyrite is predominant and galena and molybdenite are found. 1 Gold can be banned from practically all the streams of the Hanagita and Bremner River valleys that traverse areas of slate and graywacke Out is found in only few of them, such as Golconda Creek. Little Bremner River and parts of the main Bremner. in sufficient amount to encourage mining
 Here, as in many other sections oi Alaska, the most promising gravel. are those which represent a reconcen
 tration of the bench deposits. Tn,
 gold in the bench gravels has alread, :. received a first concentration durin. the processes of erosion and depos, ton to which Is has been subiected