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Industry sells valuable data State of Alaska plans to release geological maps for 440 square miles of mineral prospects in Alaska Range, data compiled since 1976 by industry Patricia Jones Petroleum News Contributing Writer
Later this summer the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys plans to release geological maps and related data covering the Delta Mineral Belt, a section of 440 square miles in the Alaska Range some 52 miles west of Tok, Alaska.
The data comes from industry-commissioned geological work in the mineralized area, started in 1976 and continuing through 2001 — research worth about $20 million, said Laurel Burns, mineral section chief at the division.
The division will release to the public one inch to the mile scale geological maps, along with an analysis of more than 800 rock samples gathered in the area. Information used in the state printing of the maps and reports came via Northern Associates, a Fairbanks-based geological consulting firm that has prospected the area for industry clients since 1994.
“For this area, the focus of (past) exploration has been for base metals,” said Sam Dashevsky of Northern Associates. “The map identifies 66 mineral occurrences.”
Most of those mineral occurrences are classified polymetallic, containing copper, gold and silver in addition to the base metals of lead and zinc, he said.
Dashevsky obtained permission from the current owner of the geological data, Grayd Resource Corp., to produce the information for state release.
The cost to the state was “pennies on the dollar,” he said, although he declined to reveal the exact amount.
“It was pretty minimal — thousands of dollars, versus the millions of dollars the data represents,” said division geologist Dave Szumigala. “It was a very low-cost way to acquire something that benefits us in the mineral community.” First state-industry information release This is one of the first joint state-industry geological information releases of this kind, Burns said. Usually such detailed and expensive prospecting information gathered by a private company is kept secret.
“So many times each private company goes in and works an area and then leaves Alaska and they take their information with them,” Burns said. “Unlike in Canada, where (the government) ends up with copies of their maps.”
Annual work on mining claims in Canada requires proof, contained in geologic maps and reports that companies file with the government, Szumigala said. That information is held confidential for a certain period of time.
In the United States, companies conducting annual work necessary to hold mining claims are not required to include such proof of their work, he said, a surprise to some firms accustomed to working in Canada.
“To have more data would help in a lot of areas,” Szumigala said. “There’s a lot of good data out there from other private companies. We hope they see this and they might consider releasing some data in a similar manner.”
Grayd hopes the information release sparks additional exploration in the area, and generates interest in prospects the company still holds, Dashevsky said.
“It will help people understand the geology and existence of deposits,” he said. “It’s a three-way win-win deal for the state, Grayd and Northern Associates.” Long prospecting history Data to be released to the public is based on the geologic mapping, lithochemistry, airborne geophysics and core drilling carried out by Northern Associates from 1994 to 1999 for two of the property’s industry prospectors, Grayd and American Copper & Nickel Co.
“Grayd has a fantastic piece of research summarizing what they know from thousands of feet of drilling, geochemical work, airborne geophysical surveys and ground geophysical surveys,” Burns said.
Grayd earned an ownership of part of the property in 1998 and subsequently inherited the data gathered since the first prospecting started on in 1976.
Resource Associates of Alaska, working on contract for Cook Inlet Regional Corp., first discovered the massive sulfide occurrences in the Delta Mineral Belt in 1976, Dashevsky said. Since then, numerous companies have explored the area, spending $18 million through 1999, according to Grayd.
A project summary on the division's web site said an inferred resource has been calculated for eight deposits contained within the Delta Mineral Belt. One of those calculated resources contains 19 million tons of mineralized rock, grading 0.6 percent copper, 2 percent lead, 4.6 percent zinc, 73 parts per million silver and 1.9 parts per million gold, Dashevsky said.
Other occurrences on Grayd’s property contain “considerably higher grades” of mineralization, he added, but with less drilling work to date. Recent work shows gold Currently, Grayd is taking another look at those high-grade occurrences and testing some other exploration concepts, Dashevsky said, work of a casual nature not requiring exploration permits.
The company’s last partner in the area, Placer Dome, financed $350,000 of exploration work in 2001, which included surface sampling, geophysics, hand trenching and drilling on a five-mile long mineralized trend called White Gold.
According to the 2001 Alaska Mineral Industry Report, higher-grade intersections drilled included 4.3 feet grading 0.36 ounces of gold per ton of rock, 57.4 feet grading 0.035 ounces and 42.6 feet grading 0.035 ounces. Twelve holes were drilled, spread over five miles, for a total of 5,720 feet. All holes contained anomalous gold intervals, according to the state report. Placer Dome canceled its option on the property after that exploration program.
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