Symptoms of recurring gold fever.

• Author: Maschmeyer, Gloria
• Position: Nome, Alaska - Special Section: Slow Bore: A Tale of Obstacle Courses, Bright Prospects & High Hopes - Cover Story

Nome, a former site of successful placer mining, now is attracting prospectors intent on tapping the mother lode.

Almost 100 years ago shouts rang out across the world that gold was discovered in Nome. Prospectors and fortune hunters swarmed to Nome's distant shores to pan for gold. Since 1898, the Nome district has produced about 7 million ounces of gold through placer operations that employ washing, dredging and other hydraulic methods to recover gold.

Today, rumors abound that the mother lode has been found. Five miles north of Nome on Rock Creek, Anvil Joint Venture is exploring a 25-square-mile area that it expects to identify as the source of Nome's placer gold deposits. Spearheading the effort is R.V. Bailey, president of Aspen Exploration Corp., headquartered in Denver, Colo. Bailey put together a joint-venture agreement between Aspen; Newmont Exploration Ltd., a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corp.; and Golden Glacier Inc., a joint venture of Bering Straits Native Corp. and Sitnasuak Native Corp.

Newmont Exploration is performing the initial exploratory work and will complete studies to determine if hard-rock mining is feasible. While Nome traditionally has been the site of extensive placer mining, a process by which gold is extracted from loose material such as gravel or sand by washing, no substantial gold deposits have been recovered from hard-rock deposits.

Bailey is a geologist with a longstanding desire to discover the origin of Nome's placer deposits. He first visited Alaska in 1954 while doing field work. Nearly 30 years later, one question still nagged him: Where did all the placer gold come from?

In 1983, Bailey returned to Nome. After studying old mining records and other information, Bailey identified an area where he felt the mother lode might exist. It took him three years to secure leases from the landholders: Alaska Gold Co., Bering Straits Native Corp. and Sitnasuak Native Corp.

"Everyone said we were wasting our time and money," Bailey recalls. They concluded that since no one discovered a significant deposit during the 1898 placer gold rush and subsequent exploration, one didn't exist, he adds.

After securing the land leases, Bailey acquired aerial photos and sent soil samples for chemical testing. The area that proved most promising was Rock Creek, just north of what formerly were the most productive placer deposits on Anvil Creek and Glacier Creek. Anvil Creek was the location of the first gold discovery in 1898.

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