86 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1905. 
GOLD AND SILVER. 
In a number of places throughout the district are quartz veins which carry small amounts 
of iron and copper sulphides and which have been prospected for gold and silver. Three 
of these veins, which were reported to show considerable values in gold, were examined — 
one on the north flank of Copper Mountain, one in the eastern part of Glacier Island, and 
one on the point between Landlocked Bay and Port Fidalgo. Assays have been made 
from two of these veins; one assay was from the decomposed upper part and the other from 
the solid vein about 15 feet below the surface. The assay reports show only traces of gold 
and a fraction of an ounce of silver per ton. While these assay results are not encourag- 
ing, at the same time it is quite possible that quartz veins may be found about the sound 
which will carry gold in economic quantities. 
In the copper veins, gold and silver are almost invariably present in small amounts, and 
commonly gold is found in the copper ores which have been shipped from both mines, in 
amounts running from $1 to $5 per ton. The silver content of these copper veins is com- 
monly less than $1 per ton. 
In 1900 some gold-bearing veins were reported from near Alaganik, on the Copper River 
delta, « but no recent work seems to have been done in this locality. 
Some prospecting for placer gold has been done about the shores of Prince William 
Sound, but work of this sort was not carried on during the summer of 1905. Small amounts 
of placer gold have been reported from near the mouths of Gold Creek and Mineral Creek, 
which enter the north side of Port Valdez, and also about the streams entering the bay at 
the foot of Canyon Creek Glacier. A few years ago the gravels in Solomon Gulch, south 
of Valdez, were explored for gold, but evidently without success. 
NICKEL. 
At two points on the shores of Prince William Sound there has been prospecting for 
nickel during the past year. One occurrence is in small stringers along the south side of 
Port Valdez, and the other is near the mouth of Miners River, on the east side of Unakwik 
Bay. At the latter place the owners of the property were not present when the Survey 
party visited it. A tunnel about 8 feet long was found on the north side of the bay into 
which Miners River enters. The country rock is diorite, carrying disseminated pyrrhotite. 
The vein, if it can be so called, is a zone in the diorite impregnated with this iron sulphide 
and has no sharply defined walls. This sulphide-bearing rock is 10 or more feet in width, 
and above the tunnel, which is at the water's edge, a zone of iron-stained rock, perhaps 20 
feet in width, can be seen running up the cliff. Here also there arc in the diorite some 
pegmatitic veins which also carry pyrrhotite. These veins resemble those described from 
north of Mummy Bay on Knight Island. They are from one-fourth inch to 2 inches in 
width and are not sharply defined. There are also in the dioritic country rock small frac- 
tures filled with quartz, but these do not, at least so far as seen, carry the iron sulphide. 
It was thought that the pyrrhotite carried considerable values of nickel and also of cobalt. 
Selected samples of the best ore which could be found at this particular point were assayed 
and the results show neither cobalt nor nickel. 
LEAD AND ZINC. 
A few veins containing small amounts of galena (sulphide of lead) and sphalerite (sul- 
phide of zinc) have been seen, but in no case did they contain sufficient quantities of these 
minerals to encourage prospecting for lead and zinc. 
a Schrader, F. C, and Spencer, A.C.,The Geology and Mineral Resources of a Portion of (lie Copper 
River District, Alaska (a special publication of the U. S. Geol. Survey), 1901, p. 00. 
