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Show Seek Vital Ores In Alaska Wilds U. S. Men Thaw Icy Earth To Obtain Samples of Needed Minerals. WASHINGTON. Following many of the trails blazed by the sourdoughs sour-doughs of '98, crews of the bureau of mines are braving Alaska's wilds in quest of minerals to .supply metals met-als for war factories, Secretary Ickes said in describing the bureau's accelerated program for mercury, tungsten, tin and other strategic materials. ma-terials. With a view to getting metals for war and to foster a greater development develop-ment of Alaska's ore reserves, the bureau's crews are moving in by pack train, dog team, river boat and airplane to remote areas of the territory. ter-ritory. The men must build their own camps, clear their own trails and I often establish transportation systems. sys-tems. In many instances the ground must be thawed to obtain ore samples, sam-ples, Dr. R. R. Sayers, director of the bureau of mines, has informed the-secretary. Discard of Gold Taken. j Much of the bureau's search centers cen-ters in the discarded material, or I tailings, left at placer operations and dredges by mining men of former days who sought only gold. Many of these tailings contain some valuable valu-able tin ore, of which Alaska now leads the nation in output. The bureau's exploration of the Lost River tin mine on the Seward peninsula has indicated a substantial substan-tial tonnage of low-grade tin ore. Tailings are being examined in the Buck Creek-Potato Mountain area, at Cape Mountain, near Tin City, and in the Lost River area, all on the Seward peninsula, near the Arctic Arc-tic Circle. Near Sleitmut, on the Koskokwim river, another bureau of mines crew is sinking a shaft in search of more mercury ore. At Moose Creek, near Anchorage, coal prospecting has been done. On Prince of Wales island in southeastern Alaska, the bureau is starting a new project for iron and copper ores. Vitally needed tungsten is being sought near Hyder, also in Southeastern South-eastern Alaska, and exploratory projects have been carried on at Yakobi island for nickel and on the Kenai peninsula for chromite. Discover Ore Beds. "Scattered throughout Alaska's 586,000 square miles are many untapped un-tapped and unexplored mineral deposits de-posits which contain virtually all the strategic, critical and essential war metals," Secretary Ickes said. "The territory thus far has produced nearly near-ly a billion dollars in minerals, most of which has been gold." The bureau's exploratory work in the territory already has resulted in the development of several ore beds, and reports of the mining engineers and metallurgists are transmitted regularly to various interested government gov-ernment agencies, including the War Production board, the Defense Plant corporation, the Board of Economic Warfare, the Reconstruction Finance corporation and the army and navy munitions board. In its Alaskan program the bureau of mines works closely with the geological geo-logical survey also of the department depart-ment of the interior, which began its studies of the mineral resources J of Alaska In 1895. |