The Cordova daily times., 1922-12-19
Development Necessary

'The Government railroad must look to development of mines of other minerals than coal if it is to be q successful business venture. There are numerous mining districts in being, or in prospect, tributary to the line and determined effort is being organized to bring about their exploitation. There is dis tinct prospect of revival of work in the older districts, such as Fair banks, as we'll as the finding of fur ther new ones, such as Kantishna Development within the last two years of valuable lead-silver mines at Mayo in Yukon Territory, coupled with the finding of similar ores at Kantishna, leads to the hope of prov ing up the extension of the great belt of naturalization that occurs along the inner front of the Rocky Mountains and marks that range from Colorado north. But few years ago this naturalization was picked up in the Premier mine just outside the Alaska boundary, and now sulphide ores are being mined at Mayo, and less valuable deposits are known at number of points between. The geologic structure turns to the south west near the Yukon-AIaska boundary and the formations, in part at least, continue. It may be Iegitimately hoped that prospecting along the inner slope of the mountains will in time bring in districts comparable to those of the northern Rocky Noun tains in the United States and Can ada. It is this which makes the kantishna discoveries so significant, and hence development of the Kan tishna mines is being carefully watched. The Geological Survey has pointed out svarious areas known to be or probably mineralized, and with the lower costs possible as a result of completing the railway, opening the coal mines, and gradually extend ing the system of public roads, actual development is to be anticipated in an increasing amount. In assisting that development in every proper manner it will be the business of the Bureau of Mines to cooperate.
 Oil Fields
 Director Bain goes into the de- velopment of the oil fields briefly, describing the nature of the districts, and summarizing the development which has been done so far.
 Regarding the Yakataga district, he quotes from the report made by a well qualified engineer, who re- gently examined the district, as given by Il. c. George, oil recovery engi neer Of the bureau, who visited Alaska during the summer:
 Although the structure of the Yakataga anticlire has many objec- tionable features, such as steep dips, cracking and faulting along the axis and frequent overturns of the south limb, it is certainly worthy of being tested. The favorable features are the presence of seepages of high grade along the crest of the fold and the presence of sandstone in the western part of the fold, capable, of acting as reservoirs for oil.
 There can be little doubt that oil may be found at almost any place along the crest of the Yakataga an ticline, but whether in commercial qualities or not only the drill can tell. Wells drilled in the hard frac- tured shaIes would undoubtedly be small producers, but should a sand stone, such as that on Hamilton Creek be encountered, a good yield should be obtained
 Development of the Yakataga field has been so far prevented by difficult ties incident to the absence of roads, the especially poor harbor facili- ties and the large cost that will ne- cessarily be faced by the pioneer in exploration. These difficulties are none of them such as cannot be overcome whenever any experienced persons become convinced that the profits to be expected warrant the effort.
 Oil In South
 "Mr. George visited the Nugshik Creek and Bear Creek-Salmon Creek structures and is of the opinion that there are very good possibilities of obtaining large production in these anticlines.
 From the evidence at hand it seems entirely reasonable to antici- pate the finding of important oil