Southeast mining boom.

• Author: Kleeschulte, Chuck

For years Southeast Alaska has been considered filled with promise as far as supporting major mineral development. While some of that promise turned to reality during the past year with the increasingly successful production from the Greens Creek multi-mineral mine outside of juneau, there's still far more Panhandle mining projects in the exploration than development stages.

Within another year, however, that could change, as Juneau is on the threshold of dethroning Fairbanks for the title of mining capital of the state. Southeast, in general, is on the verge of living up to industry scuttlebutt that currently pegs it as the nation's hottest exploration prospect.

"There is no question that the exploration community is excited about Southeast. It is one of the hottest prospects in the North American minerals industry today," says Al Clough, a geologist for the U.S. Bureau of Mines based in Juneau.

'Even with gold and silver prices being down, the exploration interest is holding its own on the Pandhandle,' adds James Deagan, mineral development specialist for the state's Department of Commerce and economic Development. "Everyone still recognizes that Southeast holds tremendous promise for minerals development."

After 14 years in the making, the Greens Creek mine on Admiralty Island, 15 miles west of juneau, shifted into full production last summer. Although plagued by normal startup bugs in its mining and milling process during its first year - reportedly not breaking into the profitable ranks until this summer - it still turned out 5.2 million ounces of silver, 23,530 ounces of gold, 19,843 metric tons of zinc and 9,585 metric tons of lead in 1989. That output made Greens Creek the largest underground (lode) silver mine in North America and one of the largest underground multi-mineral mines in the nation.

The 1,000-ton-per-day, $114 million Greens Creek project, however, could pale by next year in comparison to the 22,500- ton-per-day, $270 million proposal to reopen the giant Alaska-Juneau gold mine in downtown Juneau or by the 4,000ton-per-day, $150 million proposal to reopen the historic Kensington gold mine, north of Juneau.

But besides these projects, firms have moved into the permitting process to win approval to build two other mines on the Canadian side of the border, the Windy Craggy copper mine north of Haines (see Alaska Business Monthly, August 1990) and the Eskay Creek gold mine outside of Wrangell which just recently a Canadian firm moved for regulatory approval to open. Eskay Creek could be the second or third mine to open in what Canadian geologists describe as their Golden Triangle.'

On the exploration scene, work continued this summer on proving the feasibility of reopening the Jualin gold mine, north of Juneau, the next most likely mine to come into production on the Alaska side of the border. Exploration officials this summer, meanwhile, were busy drilling core samples at at least another four sites, while basic exploration/ rock sampling was occurring on a score of the Panhandle's other more than 150 knovm mineral prospects.

The Bureau of Mines'Clough says Southeast is enjoying renewed popularity with mining firms because it is a region that contains proven mineralization. The Juneau Gold Belt, which runs from north of Berners Bay to Windham Bay, in the early 1900s supported dozens of mines that produced six million ounces of...