THE MINING INDUSTRY IN 1905. 5 
A less evident though equally important factor in this advancement is the great reduction 
in mining costs which has taken place during this period. The pioneer miners of 1 he Yukon 
could not afford to handle gravel averaging less than $10 or $15 to the cubic yard. In the 
same district good wages can now be made, even by crude methods, in extracting gold 
from pay streak averaging less than $5 to the cubic yard. In Seward Peninsula gravels 
running less than $2 to the cubic yard can in many localities be handled at a profit by 
the man working only with the pick and shovel. In some of the interior districts, and in 
parts of Seward Peninsula, even present costs can be reduced to less than 50 cents to the 
cubic yard by introducing machinery or the use of water under pressure. Nor is there 
reason to believe that the latter is the limit in the reduction of costs. In lode mining the 
reduction of costs has been analogous, though not by any means as striking, nor are exact 
general figures available. Thus it is made evident that the prosperity of the mining indus- 
try must be measured not only by the increase of output, but also by the increase in net 
returns from mining ventures. 
The value of the copper-ore production has shown a very marked increase, the total 
shipments of copper ore in 1905 being more than double those in 1904. This will bring 
the value of the annual copper production of Alaska up to over $600,000. The annual 
production of silver incidental to mining for other ores" is about $100,000. 
Work has continued on the tin deposits, but these are not yet on a productive basis. 
The coal fields, though extensive, have been but little exploited, the entire production for 
1905 being probabty less than 2,000 tons. Prospecting for coal has been very active in 
the Controller Bay region and in the Matanuska Valley. The only other developed mining 
industry is marble quarrying, which, according to the returns of the customs officials, has 
shown an exported production of about $3,000 in value- 
Notable advances have been made in three mining regions, and practically all the others 
have shown a healthy growth. In southeastern Alaska the copper deposits of Prince of 
Wales Island have reached a productive stage, and auriferous lode mining in the Juneau 
district has made considerable progress. The two copper mines on Prince William Sound 
have considerably increased their output, and much was done in the way of prospecting 
other properties. By far the most important feature of the last year is the rapid expan- 
sion of the placer-mining industry of the Fairbanks district in the Tanana Valley. This 
field produced more than ten times as much gold in 1905 as in 1904. 
In the following pages an attempt will be made to review briefly the progress during the 
year. The important districts, described elsewhere in this volume, need only be mentioned 
briefly, but some of the less productive fields, not considered elsewhere, will.be treated of 
in such detail as the available information permits. 
DISTRIBUTION OF MINERAL WEALTH. 
The map (PI. II) shows the distribution of the known localities of occurrence of econom- 
ically important minerals. Three broad belts, which are the loci of the gold deposits, are 
recognizable. One stretches parallel to the Pacific seaboard through the panhandle of the 
Territory, and, following the great bend of the coast line, is lost among the islands of 
southwestern Alaska. This zone includes practically all the auriferous-quartz mines of 
the Territory and also some of the smaller placer districts. In this same general belt also 
lie the copper deposits of Prince of Wales Island and Prince William Sound. A second 
belt extends northwestward from the international boundary near the famous Klondike. 
It includes much of the region lying between the Yukon and the Tanana, thence it proba- 
bly bends to the southwest and extends into the area drained by the Kantishna. This 
zone has thus far yielded only placer gold. The third and less-known belt includes the 
placer district of the upper Koyukuk, west of which it is mantled by younger sediments. 
The gold placers of Kobuk River and Seward Peninsula may represent a southwesterly 
extension of this same belt, but the connection between the two has not been established. 
This third zone has thus far produced only placer gold, with the exception of a single 
quartz mine on Seward Peninsula. 
