Alaska's gold to Alaskans dear: what happens to the gold that leaves the Last Frontier?

• Author: Gallion, Mari
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Mining

According to the USGS, in 2011 Alaska produced 25,400 kilos of gold, second only in production to Nevada, which produced 172,000 kilos; Utah came in at a distant third place with 11,788.

Rather than saying where gold can be found in Alaska, as it is found just about everywhere, it is more practical and direct to mention where it can't (or rather, hasn't) been found: Yukon Flats and the North Slope.

According to the Resource Development Council's website, approximately three hundred placer mines produced 85,000 ounces of gold, as well as platinum, in Alaska in 2012.

Add to that the large mines, like Pogo, Kensington, Greens Creek, and Fort Knox, that have become household names, and anyone can see that there's "gold in them thar hills"--as well as in the rivers, rocks, flat lands, and back yards.

Just like with oil, gold needs to be refined in order to be of virtually any practical use--that said, where does Alaska's gold go when it leaves the ground?

The Minor Miners

In a state of such vast size and opportunity, it would follow that there are many independent individuals and small-scale placer miners out working these sites.

"I meet a lot of the small scale miners, the one- to ten-person operations," says Michael Robuck, owner of the Alaska Mint. "They sell us gold specimen pieces, which are pieces of quartz with a little bit of gold in them, and a wide variety sizes of nuggets, all the way down to dust."

"These miners are from all over the state," Robuck says, and when he says "all over," he means it. "From above the Brooks Range, Nome, all over Western Alaska, even to Canada and down into Southeast--from Ketchikan to the top of the state."

Robuck's family has been in the Alaska jewelry business in Anchorage and Kenai since 1967, but he didn't start the Alaska Mint until 1991.

And mind his own business Robuck does, as he is not schooled on what the larger Alaska operations do with their gold. "We don't buy direct from the big guys at all. What we do," he continues, "is different. The miners will come in; miners, prospectors--even just guys with metal detectors--with their gold. We buy that gold as we can afford to, and then in our retail store the first thing we try to do is re-sell it in its natural state. We either package them up as specimens or make them into jewelry. The smaller flake and dust we make into glass bottles and sell in increments of a hundred dollars at a time."

If Robuck accumulates a bunch of gold he can't or doesn't...