The Daily Alaska empire., 1936-05-05
COPPER IS GREAT PART OF WEALTH IN ERRIT0RY
Contributed Virtually Half as Much as Taken
 Out Tn Gold

Alaska has been known as a gold country so long that few persons are aware that the value of copper mined in the Territory during the last 25 years was almost half as great as Alaska's gold production for fifty years. Figures of the Ter ritorial Department of Mines show the gold production to the end of 1885 to be approximately $45o,- OO0,000, against which copper shows a total value of about $217,000,000.
 The remarkable fact in connec- ton with the copper totals is that the mines near Kennecott, nave contributed perhaps 90 per cent oi the Alaska copper in the words of the United States Geological Sur vey 1883 bulletin on mineral re- sources of Alaska. Unofficial eSti- mates place the value of the Ken necott mines copper output to date at $2O0,O0O,000. The reports to the Department of Mines show pro duction of more than one billion pounds.
 Kennecott while operating, con- Gistently averaged 80 or 90 per cent of all the Territory's output. After reaching war time highs of 1l9,654,839 pounds for 1916 and 88,793, 400 pounds in 1917, Alaska s copper production was fairly steady for nine years, showing an average of about 7O,o00,00O pounds from 1918 to 1926. The 1918 total was 69,224,95l pounds and the 1926 fi- gure 67,778O00 pounds. The high est figure in this period was 1923, 85,920,245 pounds, and the lowest was the postwar slump year of 1919, 47,220,771. With the excep- ton of these two years, the output for this entire period was at prac- tically a constant level.
 Outputs
 Starting in 1927, Alaska, which means Kennecott, showed steady decline down to the present level The 1927 output was 55s343,000 pounds 1928 was Al ,421 ,000; 1929 40,510,O00, 193O, 32,651 ,000, and 1881 practically the same as last year, 22000,O00 pounds. For 1882, 1883 and 1884 Alaska showed negligible copper production, because Ken nicott was closed down entirely, as the extremely low price of copper made it unwise to mine their ore.
 Regardless of whether the ex- haustion of Kennecott is a mat ter of two years or many more, the inevitable depletion forecast in the Geologic Survey report indi- cates the possibility that some where in the near future Alaska may find her copper production shut down until discovery of the additional rich lodes that mining men say must exist AS to the pro- duction from the present known de- posits, outside of Kennecott, this is declared to be possible in some considerable quantity but only if much higher market prices prevail In this line the Geological Sur vey says:
 That there are other places in Alaska where copper minerals oc- cur is well known That some of these deposits contained enough copper to enable them to be work ed at a profit under past conditions is matter of history. For instance, the old Beatson mine, on Latouche Island Kennecott during its per- iod of activity, yielded copper ore worth millions of dollars, and some of the old mines in Southeast AL aska, notably in the Ketchikan district, contributed ore worth a few million dollars.
 Beliepe More Deposits
 Ut is extremely doubtful wheth- CT any of the known copper de- posits that are not now being mined can be worked at profit under present conditions. As a conse- quence, practically all field investi- gation of these properties has been discontinued and doubtless will not be resumed until the price of cop per has. materially advanced. That there may be deposits, as yet un- known, which might repay develop ment is possible, but the incentive to search for them is so small and the probability of failure so great that prospectors are not willing to take the gamble"
 Increased Demand
 An increasing demand for such governmental surveys, not for cop per alone but for all minerals, is evident in mining circles, where the examples of other nations are point ed out. Those who have examined the copper formations in Alaska, and particularly in the Copper river country. insist that there should be vast deposits still to be found, for it seems incredible that the Kennecott lodes would con- tain in a few concentrated depos- it's the bulk of all Alaska copper, when copper ores are found in so many other areas. This contention is given strength by the fact that