The Nenana daily news. (Nenana, Alaska) 1918-1921, 1918-05-21
MARKET OPENED
BY HIGH PRICES;
ORE AVAILABLE

Deposits of chromite have been
known in Alaska for a number of
years, but they became of economic
interest only in 1917, when the rela-
lively high price of the ore recallo
them to the attention of the mining
men, with the result that ore is
commercially mined at one property.
The chromite deposits of present
economic interest, according to lie
United States geological survey, de-
partment of the interior, are at the
southwest end of the Kenai PENN
sula, in two areas, one along the
north shore of Port Chatham and
the other at Red Mountain, about
16 miles to the northeast. Both de-
posts occur in bodies of altered
peridotite, and, so far as known,
these are the only bodies of peri
dotite in this vicinity, but exploita-
ton farther from the coast, in the
mountains may reveal others.
Pridotite of the same kind also
occurs in large and small masses at
several other places in the area be-
tween Yukon and Tanana rivers,
and at Livengood, in that area, there
is a deposit of chramite, but the ore
in the Interior Alaska could not be
mined profitably except when prices
are very high.
The chromite of southwestern Ke-
mai peninsula occurs in lens-shaped
bodies that range in thickness from
few inches to 20 feet and that lie
in attitudes ranging from horizontal
to vertical. None of the lenses ap-
pear to be more than $50 feet long,
and most of them measure consider
ably less. The ore is not of uni
form grade. Some of it averages
so per cent of chronic oxide, and
some is a mixture of chromite and
peridotite, the leanest part of which
may yield only 5 to 10 per cent of
chronic oxide. All graduations be-
tween these extremes are found.
The deposit now being mined is
on a spit at the southeast end of
a peninsula known as Claim point,
which projects southeastward into
Port Chatham. This peninsula meas
ures about 1000 feet from east 10
west and about 1920 feet from.
north to south, and is joined to tha
mainland by neck of land abou..
200 feet wide. The rock of Claim:
point is entirely peridotite, which
crops out also on the mainland to
the north and continues southwark
into Port Chatham for an unknown
distance. The known area of peri
dodite here covers about thre-fifths
of square mile.
The ore body is almost completely
covered by water at high tide, so
that mining must be done between
low and half tide. The deposit is
in vertically PLACED lens, which has
a length of about 100 feet and {.
maximum width of 200 feet.
About 800 tons of ore containing
from 46 to 40 per cent of chronic
oxide was mined in 1917, and about
as much more remains in sight above
half tide. Ultimately it will be nee
essary to work from a shaft or
cofferdam and hoist ore to the sur
face, a method that will increase
materially the cost of mining
Probably the upper half of the
deposit has been remover by erosion.
If so, and if the deposit becomes
thinner downward for so feet and
the ore has a specific gravity of 80
only 1000 or at most 500 tons re-
mains below the level of half tide.
At one place on the north side
of Claim point, near the crest of
the peninsula, there are four lodes
that stand vertical, and the owners
are considering the feasibility of
driving a tunnel from a lower point
on the hillside to crosscut them.
These four bodies should produce,
when concentrated, about 5000
tons of so per cent ore, but it is
likely that the tunnel contemplated
might also reveal other deposits.