156 ALASKAN MINERAL RESOURCES IN 1905. 
as those which showed tin on assay. After having become somewhat familiar with these 
rocks, the writer must confess his inability to differentiate them by eye alone. 
Another mineral that has been repeatedly mistaken for cassiterite is augite, which occurs 
as peculiarly large black crystals, reaching 2 inches or over in length in granitic rocks of 
rather dark color (specimen T5AH109). The augite is not so difficult to tell from cassiterite 
as tourmaline, having a much lower specific gravity and breaking along distinct parallel 
lines, which cassiterite will not do. 
COST OF MINING. 
At present wages in the York region are $5 and board, and good board can not be con- 
sidered as worth less than $1.50 to $2.50 per day, making wages the equivalent of $6.50 to 
$7.50 per day. At Cripple Creek, Colo., where average wages may be considered as perhaps 
$3.75, in the Portland mine,« the cost of removing all rock, both barren and ore bearing, was 
$3.13 per ton. The rock here is only partly granite, a part being softer breccia and intrusive. 
At Butte, Mont., the cost of mining in granite has been about $3.50 per ton,& with wages 
averaging aboul $3.50 per day. An average of these two examples gives about $3.32 per 
ton for the cosl of raising ore, exclusive of milling and smelting charges. In view of the cost 
of wages, materials, machinery, etc., it is hardly possible to suppose that the cost of mining 
in the York region can be less than twice this amount, or about $6.64 per ton. In 1903 the 
price for which black tin (i. e., the cassiterite concentrated from the ore) sold from the Corn- 
wall mines was 16.1 cents per pound, but no data are at hand as to its purity. On the 
assumption that it was about 70 per cent pure, this would be about 23 cents per pound for 
the contained tin. At $6.64 per ton for ore raised and 50 cents for milling and concentrating, 
a total of $7.1 1, it would take a minimum average of about 31 pounds of tin per ton of rock 
mined, or 1.55 per cent, to pay for working. However, this estimate allows nothing for 
transportation, sinking fund, prospecting, legitimate profit, c\c, and it seems safe to figure 
that under present condil ions nothing less than 2% per cent ore can be worked with a reason- 
able assurance of profit. 
PLACER DEPOSITS. 
BUCK CREEK. 
The placer tin deposits on Buck Creek are the only ones in Alaska from which there has 
been any production and ha\ e yielded to date about 91 tons of ore that would average prob- 
ably 65 per cent of metallic tin. In this amount is included the production of 1905, which 
was very small, owing to had weather and other reasons. During the year the trail between 
York and Buck Creek was changed somewhat. Instead of following Anikovik River to a 
point opposite the head of Grouse Creek the trail now leaves the river at Ishut Creek, which 
is followed to its head, then crosses a narrow divide and traverses Gold Creek to Grouse 
Creek and that to the mouth of Buck Creek. By this change the bad divide between ( rrouse 
('reek and Anikovik River is avoided. The total haul is from 14 to 16 miles. 
But one company operated on the creek during the season. Its plant consisted of an 
oil-burning 35-horsepower upright boiler and engine, French scraper with belt conveyor, 
and sluice boxes elevated 16 feet above the ground. Two sets of sluice boxes side by side 
are used, so that there need he no stoppage of work for clean-ups. 
The work has shown the gravel to carry an average of from 20 to 30 pounds of concen- 
trates, running from 60 to 70 per cent of metallic tin and about 40 cents in gold per cubic 
yard. The gravel is from 120 to 160 feet wide, averaging about 125 feet, by 3 to 6 feet in 
depth, averaging about 4^ feet. The tin-bearing gravels extend from the mouth to Peluk 
Creek, a tributary of Right Fork. Left Fork and Peluk Creek are said to also carry 
stream tin, hut in the case of the latter obtaining water for sluicing will be a serious difficulty. 
Sutter Creek has so far shown but little stream tin. There is probably a length of about 
aFinley, J. R., Ninth Ann. Rept. Portland Gold Mining Company, February 2, 1903, p. 13. 
b Communicated byW.H, Weed. 
