The Cordova daily times., 1923-01-01

T6dCH US UndxlIlulu uuLll lSlO, Wueu it's value was $2,679,OOO. The hard times that followed led not only to }, ready built but to the abandonment of some new projects. The dredges reached their minimum output of gold in 1920, when it's value was $1,130,000 This rise and decline of gold dredging before 1920 was par, alleled by a similar though smaller fluctuation in hydraulic and other mechanical mining .. g.
 The passage from almost strictly manual to mechanical methods of placer mining was we'll under way when it was checked by the war. Had it not been thus interrupted the transition would have been more gradual, and it would not have dealt so severe a blow to the communities supported by the return from placer mining. .r
 | Everyone who is in interested in the prosperity of Alaska, which in the past has been so largely built upon the returns from placer mining, will naturally ask the question whether the gold placer reserves are sufficient to support again large | industry. In 1919 an attempt was made to estimate the value of the placer gold still unmined. Such an estimate could not of course take account of possible new discoveries !; | it must include only those areas of auriferous gravels. that have been more or less prospected. Fine colorS of gold are likely to be found in most Alaska streams, but only a few of these streams contain workable placers. A rough estimate, which includes only the auriferous gravels whose gold content is large enough to be profitably exploited by methods now used, shows that there is still about $350,0O0,000 worth of placer gold in the ground in Alaska. This estimate is based on very incomplete data and it's value should therefore not be overrated, but it at least indicates that magnitude of the true l figures, and it certainly shows that the Alaska placers are by no means approaching exhaustion.
 In this connection an instructive comparison may be made between the placer mining in Alaska and that in the Klondike district, in the Cana dian Yukon. During the eight years of bonanza placer mining ending about 1905 this district produced $1O7, 100000 in gold. It was then generally believed that the days of placer mining there were about over but by use of hydraulic and dredging plants the district has since produced gold worth more than $70,000000 Yet compared with placer mining 1T the Klondike, placer mining in Alas ka is but in it's infancy.
 Though the outlook for large-scal' placer mining in Alaska is very en couraging, yet it can not be denied that in many districts the day o
 profitable small operations is rapidl. passing. Where the rich placer' have been mined out, as they hav'
 been in many camps, the indlvldua
 operator who has little or no capita
 can not profitably exploit the de
 posits of lower grade. If such de
 posits are large enough they will b.
 work by more economical methods
 but if not, the work on them must b
 abandoned It is also clear that tn
 operations of large companies vii
 not support settlements that hay
 been built up on the returns frOr bonanza mining. A dredge employ ing say fifteen men may do tn
 work of several hundred, with COT
 sequent loss to the local community In many districts this loss will b
 more than offset by the business de : veloped through lode mining or othe new industries. Some settlements however, are bound to decline an some will be entirely abandoned. The interests of placer mining ca be best served by affording cheape , transportation and fuel, fact show , by the stimulating effect on place mining of only one years operatio
 of the Alaska Railroad. The life c
 many of the districts in which tn
 operations are small can be muc prolonged by the building of wago roads, which at the same time al tract enterprises requiring large cal
 ital.
 About 560 Alaska placer mines, en 7 ploying 1900 men, were operated dul - ing the summer of 1922, and abou \ i,