The Alaska daily empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1912-1926, 1922-12-09

1kA AAAA ~
! the line and determined effort is
I being organized to bring about tlieir
| explOitation. There is dis
( tinct prospect of a revival of work
/ in the older districts, such as Fair
/ banks. as we'll as the finding Of fur
! Their new ones, such as Kantishna.
Development within the last two
years of valuable lead-slver 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 CT 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
a number of points between. The
geologic structure turns to the south
west near the Yukon-Alaska boundary
and the formations, in part at least,
continue. 1t may be legitimately
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. 1t 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 various 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 Balm goes into the de
vel0rment of the oil fields briefly,
describing the nature of the districts,
and summarizing the developments
which has been done so far.
Regarding the Yakataga district
he quotes from the report made by
Il we'll qualified engineer. who re
Gently examined the district, as given
by H. c. George, oil recovery en-
gineer of the bureau, who visited
Alaska during the summer
although the structure of the
Yakataga anticline has many objec
tlonsIble features. such as steep dips,
cracking and faulting along the axis
and frequent overturns of the south
limb, it is certainly worthy of be-
ing 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 CT the Yakataga an
tAciine. but whether in commercial
quantities. or not only the drill can
tell Wells d1lled in the hard frac-
tured sh4le5 would undoubtedly be
small producers, but should a sand
stone, such as that on Hamilton
Creek be encountered, a good yield
should be obtained
'Dev alopment of the Yakataga
field has been so lar prevented by
u. 1 : oh,
Of roads, the especially poor harbor
facilities and the large cost that will
necessarily be Faced by the pioneer
in exploration. These difficulties
are none of them such as cannot be
overcome whenever any experienced
profits to he 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 antci-
pate the finding Of important oil
fields along the southern and south
western coast of Alaska and prob |
ably, when legal and economic con-
dtions permit, on the Arctic coast. |
The actual field conditions are not |
worse than those that American oil
men have repeat edly overcome at
home and abroad. Aside |
from the limitation on acreage, |
which should probably be modified |
at least in the Arctic fields, it is be-
Heved that the terms Offered by the
government are sufficiently liberal.
Problems With Land Holders
what the industry cannot stand,
however, is any large margin OF
profit for claim stakers and promot-
ers. Many of the claims are held by
Alaskans genuinely interested in de-