Gold Mines Close Down In Alaska

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29801, 18 April 1962, Page 20

Gold Mines Close Down In Alaska

(From a Reuter Correspondent) j ... ..... . j

ANCHORAGE, Alaska. Gold mining will virtually cease by 1963 in the once rich Fairbanks and Nome Districts of Alaska, according to a forecast by Mr James D. Crawford, an official of United States Smelting and Refining Company. The company is the sole active operator in the two areas. By late 1962 or 1963 both areas of operations would be halted, he said. The word from the creeks 63 years ago was “gold,” and it electrified the world. It started a gold rush coupled with the rush to the Klondike field in the Yukon Territory of Canada, across Alaska's border. History records it as unique among large population migrations both in size and stimulation. Then, gold was the dream and men fancied it lay like pebbles on the Nome beach and in mother lodes in the creeks near Fairbank. Gold glittered because it was scarce and was valuable. Trebled Costa The cost of mining gold has climbed three-fold since then in Alaska, and now it is too costly to mine even by the most economical methods. After the flood-tide of gold seekers to the Alaska goldfields, came the mining indus-

try, organised to take advan- ' tage of cost-saving machinery ‘ 1 and methods. For many years , 1 a great many companies : mined gold in Alaska. Now J there are few and the list , is getting shorter. In 1910 ‘ : there were more than 500. ‘ 1 Today there are fewer than , 109. The biggest of these is the , 1 United States Smelting, Re- | fining and Mining Company, ( which operates gold dredges , in Alaska under the title Fairbanks Exploration De- c partment and also has other . ‘ interests. Its suspension of \ gold-mining will hardly effect , 1 its activities. • United States Smelting, began curtailing at Nome and ) • Fairbanks in 1957. Since then I dredging has continued only 1 1 on ground that was thawed . ! and stripped, according to ' 1 Mr Crawford. At that time, four com- 1 1 pany dredges were operating t ; in the Fairbanks vicinity. In ( August this year, the dredge at Fairbanks Creek shut j 5 down. The remaining three ; 1 will operate until the end of t > 1963. At Nome, two dredges < ■ are expected to continue working for the remainder c 1 of tills year and shut down 1 • next year. , After 1963. the company I