The Daily Alaska empire., 1938-07-18

gold-lode mines and about S42,00O | from the placer mines. The total output of silver C495,000 ouncesl [ thus had value of S384, ,000 The . quantity of silver from both the gold-lode mines and the placers ' a marked increase. The special price paid by the Govern ment in 1887 for silver that quail fled under the law as being newly mined from domestic deposits was 7757 cents an ounce. As it appear ed that all the silver from Alaska conformed to those requirements the foregoing statistics are based on that price rather than on 45 cents an ounce, which was the current selling price of silver that did not so qualify.
 Copper Shows Increase
 The output of copper from Alaska mines in l937 was 36,007, ,000 pounds as contrasted with 39,267 900 pounds in 1886 However. the much higher average price for copper that pre- vailed in l937 about 2f3 cents pound higher) made the total value of the lesser output in that year about $1,000,000 more than the total value of the output in 1886. The present high rate of output Of cop per from Alaska is apparently doomed to very drastic reduction soon. Already the arrangements Of the principal copper mines have announced in the annual reports of their companies that the potential ore reserves at their mines are so nearly exhausted that the mines will probably be closed own by the end of 1888. This situation, serious as it is to the Alaska mineral in- dustry. is of minor significance to the companies, as their mines out side the Territory have for many years furnished the bulk of the copper they produced. The Alaska copper production in 1887 came ] from large mines near Kennecott in the Copper River region, together with smaller mines from whose ores copper is recovered as a by-product. 1 Among the districts whose lode mines yield principally gold but which furnish concentrates from which some copper was obtained are the Nabesna district, of the Yukon region, and the Ketchikan district. of Southeast Alaska.
 Lead Production
 The lead produced from Alaska ores in 1937 amounted to 2,004,20O pounds, which at the average sell ing price for the year was worth S120 400. Most of it was recovered as a by-product in connection with the mining of gold ores in South east Alaska. The quantity of lead was about 112,000 pounds less than in 1886, but the average price Of lead was slightly more than 6 cents a pound, or about 1.3 cents higher than in that year, so that the total value of the lesser quantity of the output in 1887 was considerable greater.
 Platinum
 The foregoing table lists as a single item the complex of metals known by the general term plat mum metals" Several different met als make up this group, including platinum iridium, osmium, ruther- ium, and palladium. The total quantities of this composite material produced from Alaska mines in 1937 was 8,13l ounces, valued at $397, 600. By far the greater part of the production came from placers in the Goodnews district and a lode mine in the Kasaan Peninsula of Southeast Alaska. The mining of platinum metals in the Good news district showed very great increase, which was in part brought about by the coming into produc- tion of the dredges that was built during 1887 and ran few weeks late in the season to supplement the normal production from the dragline plants. Palladium is the principal metal of the platinum group recovered from the lode mine mentioned.
 Tin Ore
 The tin ore recorded came entire ly from placers, the most productive of which are in the extreme west ern part of Seward Peninsula These and other Alaska deposits in 1937 yielded more tin than during any year since tin mining started in the Territory in 1902. The tirl ore recovered in 1887 is estimated to have contained 372,400 pounds of metallic tin, worth $202,300. The tin mining industry in Alaska has been increasing rapidly during the last few years but has not yet reached anywhere near the limit tc which it could probably be success fully expanded.
 Coal Valued at $552,700
 Coal to the value of $552,700 was produced in 1897 from Alaska mines, principally in the Matanusks and Healy River fields. In quantity the output of coal was 13l,600 tons which, except for a production o1