The Daily Alaska empire., 1942-10-07
GOLD MINING IN
 STATES PROBABLY
 BE HALTED SOON
Order Expected 10 Be Is. sued by WPB-BeIieve
 Alaska Is Exempt

Mining for gold in the United States, with the probability that Alaska will be exempt, may be halted within the next couple of months.
 The Empire has received the fol- lowing Associated Press dispatch with a Washington date line rela- l tive to the proposed action:
 "The War Production Board has decided to order all gold mining halted in the United States to make miners and some equipment available to non-ferrous metal mines for more vital war produc tion
 ''The order is to be issued within day or so and will direct all gold mines to cease production at some date in the near future, prob ably some months in the future"
 Anchorage C.C. Busy
 Shortly after receipt of the Washington dispatch, the Empire received the following from An- chorage:
 Anchorage Chamber of Com merce studying contemplated order by WIPE to close all gold mines at an early date. Walter W. Stoll, manager of the Independence Mine, said that he has been advised by the American Mining Congress that the order may be issued"
 Local Viewpoint
 Locally, until definite word is received that Alaska will be ex- empt on the halting of gold min- i ing, the concensus is that gold mining will continue in the north land. Dismantling of any part of plants in Alaska would entail tremendous cost and shipment of needed equipment to the states would necessarily involve shipping difficulties in view of the already 1 lack of cargo space There is plenty of equipment in the states that could be turned over for the min ing of nonferrous metals, it is stated. Machinery used in hydrau lie mining would not be useful in nonferrous metal mining.
 Tn Alaska about the only non- i ferrous metal required would be tin and this is known to exist only on the Seward Peninsula and tin is now being mined there with all equipment necessary. Copper min- ing was stopped when the Kenne- colt mines ore was exhausted.
 Miners released from gold min- ing would probably engage in other war production.
 Merry GO- Round
 In Washington Merry -Go- ceived by the Empire, it is re- vealed that backstage battle pre- ceded the Nelson plan to close gold mines and that Secretary of h. terior Harold L. Ickes has long fought to swing production from gold to tin and copper mining. Under the sub-head of Battle of Gold Mines," Drew Pearson, author of the Washington Merry Co., Round, writes
 Behind Donald Nelson's plans to close the gold mines of the na- tion was backstage argument with Secretary Ickes who long as- serted that it was foolish to mine more gold only to bury it in the ground at Fort Knox.
 Ickes and his Bureau of Mines proposed early last summer to use gold mining labor and machinery for the production of much need ed tin and copper.
 \ Among other things he proposed that the Homestake Mine in tht Black Hills of South Dakota, ont , of the largest in the United States be closed and it's machinery moved , 20 miles to an important tin de. posit.
 , While the United States doe! F not have tin deposits of highgrad, ore. it does have tin which can b, mined profitablyf in wartime. Ant with cargoes of Bolivian tin beinl sunk in the Caribbean, it was vi tai to open tin production insid, . the United States.
 |l However, when this was proposed to E. Vogelsang, chief of WPBi v Tin and Lead branch, he actet !. just as leisurely as he did befor, 2 Pearl Harbor, when he stalled fo months before okaying an Ameri can tin smelter in the United P States. Vogelsang tried to stal : Ickes by saying that he was hay ing his tin specialist explore ant