The Nenana daily news., 1920-07-13
Continued from Yesterday.)

1 Alaska gold lode mining In the past has been chiefly based on large l ] low-grade deposits of the Juneau district, whose profitable exflcita- l tion has been possible only by very : large operations. The enormously increased cost of mining, owing to : the piesent economic conditions, has gleatl. curtailed mining at Jueau.
 The most promising field for Alas ka gold lode mining is in the ex- ploitation on a small scale of the auriferous lodes of higher gold ten for which have been found in many localities, notably in the Willow Greek and Fairbanks districts Geo. logic information indicates a wide distribution of auriferous deposits, and there is every reason to believe that other workable deposits of gold bearing quartz will be developed when the country is opened up by railroads and wagon roads.
 Alaska copper mines, first oper- ated in 1901, have produced total, of 545,OO0,O0O pounds of copper, valued at $114.526.OOO. Stimulated by the war price of copper, the Alaska mines made their maximum output in 1916, amounting to 119,- S85,000 pounds of copper, valued lat $29,484,OO0. Owing to the fall in price of metal and to uncertain :ty of market, the Alaska copper production fell in 1919 to 47,220,- 900 pounds, valued at $s,7s3,0O0.
 Copper deposits are widely dis tributed in Alaska, and there is every reason to believe that their exploitation will increase under bet ter transportation conditions. Much
 
 the larger part of the present cop per output has come from the high grade ores of the Chitina district. Larger bodies of low-grade ore have been found in several districts, not ably on Prince William sound, and the exploitation of these should give a greater stability to the Alaska icopper-mining industry.
 Owing to the withdrawal of all Alaska coal lands from entry in 1906, there was no development of the coal fields until the leasing law went into effect in 1914. Since then some advances have been made, but operations have been hampered by economic conditions imposed by the war, and by certain restrictions in the easing law. As conse- quence, Alaska has produced in all only 233,OOO tons of coal, and her output in 1919 was only 60,O0O tons. Meanwhile, she is importing annually about 100000 tons of coal from Washington and British Co., ilumbia .-~
 Much the larger part of the coal reserves of Alaska are lignitic, which, under present methods of utilization, are not available for ex. port. The Boring River and Mat januska fields contain, however, very high grade bituminous coals of a better grade than any found on the Pacific seaboard, as we'll as some anthracite. These coals are for the most part closely folded and much broken, making them expensive to mine and rendering them in part unavailable for present profitable exploitation. There are, however, in both fields high-grade coals that can be mined, and these will find an export market. Until these fields have been more thoroughly pros pected by underground exploration, lit is impossible to predict how large Ian annual tonnage can be produced from them.
 The Alaska oil lands were with idrawn from entry in 1910, and thereby practically all petroleum de-