The Cordova daily times., 1922-07-25
DIRECTOR F. \. BAIN REVIEWS
 THE ALASKA COAL SITUATION

l Alaska has plenty of coal suitable for all industrial and domestic uses for which there is requirement. but there is no indication that it's coaI 1 deposits can be mined at cost which will permit the product to be placed on outside markets in competition with cOals of similar quality, is the view taken by H. Foster Baih Direc, tor of the Bureau of Mines. He has recently completed study of the three main Alaskan coal fields, Mata- nuska, Hea1y River and Boring River, and is now here en route to the States. planning to leave next Tuesday on the Princess Alice.
 EXPENSE IS PRoHlBITlVE
 MT Bain, when interviewed by a rep resentative of the Empire, gave out the following statement with refer ence to the coal possibilities of the Ter. ritory: .,' # si
 Tile no immediate prospect ex- ists for the shipment of Alaskan coal to the outside markets, this fact should not be interpreted to mean that there Is no coal in Alaska. The coal, which is of suffiently high grade nor mally to stand the cost of transport, can, under present conditions and ac- cording to present knowledge, only be mined at prohibitive expense; while that which can be mined cheaply is of too low grade to sell in competition with coals already in the market.
 ''Coal suitable for local industries and domestic consumption is present in abundant quantities and can be mined and transported to points along the Government Railway cheaply enough to afford a most important assurance that the Territory can and will be developed"
 In the Matanuska field, MT. Bain explained, development work has been done by the government and by pri- vate interests. The Navy Department has been undertaking the development of supply of navy standard coal at the Chickaloon and Coal Creek mines and the Alaska Engineering Commis- sion has opened up the Eska mine to assure a supply of coal for the Gov ernment Railway. Privately owned mines are being developed in the west ern portion of the Matanuska field along Eska Creek and Moose Creek.
 RESULTS OF EXPLORATIONS
 "A limited amount of high grade coal has been developed at the Chick aloon and Coal Creek mines," MT. Bain said. "In the exploration of these fields, the Navy Alaska Coal Commission has painstakingly pieced out the stratigraphy of these fields until there is now little doubt as to the facts in the ground explored, These facts are extremely discourag- ing so far as finding workable coal on the pitching limb of the syncline is concerned. Not only does the fault ing interfere, but the intrusion of igne- ous rocks has destroyed much of the coal. As an example to illustrate the situation. it will serve to mention that the thick No 8 bed, on which re- liance was mainly placed in opening the mine, is of workable quality and thickness through about one-third only of the distance explored along the strike. In order to get out any ton mage, it would be necessary to mine discontinuous patches on several diff ferent beds of coal in badly broken ground and to do a most unusual amount of dead work in rock. These conditions combine to make, it yirtu- ally impossible to mine this coal at a profit and causes any consideration as to what constitutes the actual re- serve to become wholly theoretical, In the unexplored ground north of the present workings there are good rea- sons to hope for better mining condi- tions, but it will be necessary to do more work before this can be deter mined
 "The ground in the western portion of the field, where private capital has been interested, is less broken than in the area which contains the high grade coal, but the solution of the faulting problems still constitutes the main diffic11ltu n,hn crrnrnl alrnadV nnnn nd