Tungsten, in its ore scheelite, has been for a considerable period recognized in the gold placers of Fairbanks, Iditarod and Nome. In 1915 a scheelite-bearing lode was opened near Fairbanks, and in 1916 others were located and opened in that vicinity and also near Nome. Some of the dredges in the Nome and Iditarod districts stparate the scheelite from their con centrates. Both wolf ramite and scheelite are found in some of the gold placers of the York district, and wolf ramite has also been found in some of the gold placers of the Yukon-Tanana region. In 1916 the total output of tungsten ore in Alaska was 47 tons.
Platinum began to attract the attention of the Alaskan placer miners in 1916, and 10 or 12 ounces were recovered, most of it in the newly developed Koyuk district, in the south eastern part of Seward Peninsula and in the Slate Creek placers in the upper Copper River Basin. Platinum has also been reported as in considerable quantity in the gold-bearing gravels of the Kahiltna River, and in the beach placers of Lituya Bay and of Red River, Island.
Quicksilver occurs as cinnabar in lodes in the lower Kuskokwin region, and in nearby localities in the Yukon Basin. The extent of the deposits has not yet (1917) been defined.
Nickel and cobalt have been found in a cop per-bearing lode near Pinta Cove, on the west side of Chichagof Island, in the Sitka district. There are deposits of molybdenite at several points in southeastern Alaska, and in the Wil low Creek district, but no attempt to develop them had been made up to the close of 1916. A bismuth-bearing vein occurs on Creek in the Nome district, and this metal is also found in connection with gold at two points in the Tanana valley. No output was reported for 1916.
Coal— Coal occurs in Alaska in many widely separated sections, and in many grades, ranging from a fair quality of anthracite to lignite. Much the larger part of the coal area is so remote from transportation lines as to be available only for local uses. The only area at present accessible is the Matanuska field, yield ing high grade steam and coking coals, and low grade bituminous coal. This field is reached by the Matanuska Branch of the government railroad. The Bering River field, yielding high grade steam and smithing coal, and per haps coking coal, with some anthracite, can be made accessible by the completion of the rail road now under construction, and its extension into the central and western parts of this field, where the best coal is found. The Cook Inlet field lies practically at tidewater, but yields only lignite.
Notwithstanding the extensive areas of its coal-fields, the amount, mined in Alaska has been insignificant, amounting to less than 50,000 tons. The withdrawal of coal-lands from public entry in 1907 ended all mining, but legislation in 1914 provided for utilization of the coal. Over 1,200 square miles of area have been determined by survey to be cqal-fields, while there are good reasons for the belief that 11,400 other square miles are underlaid by coal-bearing rocks. About 58 per cent of the
known fields are of lignite, while 7 per cent are high-grade coal — there being 26 square miles of anthracite, 7 of semi-anthracite and 50 of semi-bituminous. No considerable area of high-grade coal has been found outside of the fields in the basins of the Bering and the Matanuska Rivers. By far the greater amount is in the Bering River field-22 square miles of anthracite and 28 square miles of semi-anthra cite and semi-bituminous. The coals vary from 84 per cent of fixed carbon in the anthracite to 74 per cent in the semi-bituminous. Workable Bering beds are known from 3 to 25 feet in thickness. In the Matanuska field of 46 square miles the seams vary from 5 to 30 feet in thick ness. The estimates for these two fields indi cate the presence of at least 3,554,000,000 tons of high-grade coal, which estimates will doubt less be largely increased when detailed surveys are made. Bituminous coal exists in large quantities in the Alaska Peninsula. Through out the Yukon Basin coal is widely distributed, theprincipal fields being the Nulato (the best coal), the Washington (upper Yukon), and the very extensive Nenana lignite coals, where 66 square miles are covered by veins from 500 to 1,800 feet in thickness at many points. Three fields are known on the Arctic coast — Cape Lis burne, Wainwright Inlet and the Colville Basin.
Under the Act of 16 July 1914, the Alaskan coal lands were opened for public use. The act empowers the President to reserve for govern mental purposes coal-bearing lands not exceed ing 5,120 acres in the Bering River Basin, 7,680 acres in the Matanuska field and one-half of the other coal-fields. Unreserved coal lands are to be divided into blocks of 40 acres, and no combined blocks exceeding 2,560 acres in the aggregate shall pass under any one control, the leases to run for 50 years only. Limita tions are imposed on aliens, corporations, rail roads and other common carriers. Royalties of not less than two cents per ton are to be levied, rising while annual rentals sing from 25 cents per acre for the first year to $1 in the sixth and succeeding years are provided for. The royal ties and rentals are to form funds for the con struction of railways and for other public utilities in Alaska.. Leases must contain pro visions for an eight-hour day as well as other welfare restrictions in favor of the miners. For strictly local or for domestic use permits may be granted covering the mining for 10 years, without royalties, of areas not exceeding 10 acres. No less than 47,742 tons of coal were imported by Alaskans during the fiscal year 1917, which indicates the inadequacy of the coal law of 1914. See COAL LANDS.