U.S. Demand For Strategic Tin
Spotlights Seward Pen. Deposits
By SEN. HOWARD LYNG
Early in 1903, Crim, Randt, and
O’Brien located some 30 tin claims
in the Cape York district in the
vicinity nowadays referred to as
Lost River. In the Nov. 25, 1905
issue of the Nome Nugget, Leslie
Crim was quoted as stating: “We
have run five tunnels on a many
claims, besides putting down
many prospect holes on our other
claims. We have three ledges par
alleling each other. The smallest
is 15 ft. 8 in. in width between
walls: the largest is 30 ft. wide
between walls. Each of the ledges
has been cross-cut and measured
so we know their exact width.
And all three carry tin in paying
quantities. Last year we shipped
10 tons of ore to Seattle just to
show that tin quartz \fras to be
found in this section. The ore av
eraged 20 percent tin. Develop
ment of the Seward Peninsula tin
fields has directed renewed atten
tion to tin mining, and Seattle
men have announced their inten
tion of erecting a tin smelting
plant near that city.”
From the Nome Daily Gold Dig
ger, the second daily newspaper
of the Bering Sea metropolis^ is
sue of June 18, 1906, we glean:
“The tin mining industry of
Seward Peninsula will receive
great impetus this summer. All
the companies who are now lo
cated at Tin City, York and Lost
River are preparing to install big
plants and get down to actual
mining. The United States Tin
Co. of Cape Mountain will erect a
tin stamp mill this summer. The
stamps were placed on the ground
last fall and the lumber is on the
S.S. Indiana.
“Last Saturday B. J. White and
a score of men left for the mine
to prepare a foundation for the
mill. A drift of over 100 feet in
length was run during the winter
into a solid ledge of tin ore. About
30 men will be* employed regu
larly.”
These high hopes for tin devel
opment on Seward Peninsula
were written 50 years ago, but
lack of interest by capital and
government, with the nearest tin
smelter ih far-away Malaya,
straits settlement, made the cost
J orderly development prohibi
tive, and far beyond the reach of
the original discoverers. Yet they
hung on grimly, getting out tin
sporadically, about two million
dollars worth up to about 1912.
The greater part of this was
placer tin and methods used in
cluded a dredge which operated
on Buck Creek for several seasons.
Alaska tin-bearing area com
prises about 1,000 square miles at
the extremitv of Seward Penin
sula. adjoining Bering Strait, and
the known occurrences are widely
scattered.
Appalling Lack of Tin in U.S.
Since World War II spotlighted
the appalling lack of tin in the
U.S., either stockpiled in the
ground as reserves, together with
the utter dependency for U.S. re
quirements on foreign countries,
with all the uncertainties of con
tinuous supply, the Government
decided to explore and develop
the Seward Peninsula tin fields.
Under the aegis of the U.S.
Bureau of Mines, crews were sent
into the various districts, and for
a number of summers they pros
pected with diamond drills, shafts,
and drifts. The result of this mod
ern prospecting, and financial as
sistance given through the govern
ment’s Defense Minerals Explora
tion and Procurement Adminis
1 tration, caused aggressive explor
ation and development to begin
four years ago. There are now
four tin mining activities on Sew
ard Peninsula. Others are in the
planning stage.
One of the four is privately
financed; the other three are fi
nanced as cooperative efforts be
tween government and private
enterprise. These activities con
stitute a wise and vitally impor
tant first step and should not be
permitted to falter and fade away.
With continued government and
private industry backing and team
work, this infant industry could
well develop into one of major
importance to Alaska, and to our
natural welRbeing.
Northern Tin Company
The Northern Tin Co., operated
by Ramstad Bros, and wholly
financed by Alaska capital, has
been producing tin since 1949,
operating on Buck Creek where
the tin dredge worked over 40
years ago. To date the company
Modern Laundry & Dry Cleaners
FIRST AVE. & LANES WAY PHONE MAIN 113
EIGHT-HOUR SERVICE
«- ■ i
has produced 375 tons of concen
trates containing an average of 70
percent metallic tin. The mining
method utilized is dragline and
dozer, with a small crew of three
to five men. Northern Tin Co. was
the only shipper of tin during the
past mining season—76 tons.
The Zenda Mining Co. of Seat
tle, with D.M.E.A. assistance, has
been drilling for the past two
seasons in the Cape Mountain re
gion at the foot of the Bering
Straits. This immediate area con
tains a number of tin bearing
creeks, including Boulder, Tranite,
Goodwin and Cape Creeks. The
drilling on Cape Creek alone is
sufficient to warrant installation
of a complete plant. The proven
estimate on this creek to date is
five million pounds of tin in the
old channels.
Alaska Tin Corporation
Halfway up the Bering Strait,
15 miles or so back of Shishmaref,
the Alaska Tin Corporation, also
of Seattle, and also with D.M.E.A.
assistance, explored 12 claims on
Turtle Creek, near Ear Mountain,
during the 1953 season. They like
wise did some drilling on Eldor
ado and Kruger Creeks in the
same area. All showed good indi
cations of becoming producers.
Here, too, several years ago, the
U.S. Bureau of Mines explored
the possibility of quartz or lode
tin, on Ear Mountain. The com
pany will continue its drilling and
testing program through the 1954
season. Ralph Lomen of Nome’s
Lomen Commercial Co., is resi
dent agent of both this and the
, Zenda Mining Co. and a director
in both.
Empire Tin Mining Company
A group of Alaska and Seattle
financiers have obtained an option
on the Empire Tin Mining Co.
property in the Cape Mountain
district, accoi'ding to Willis T.
Bacheller, Seattle consulting min
ing engineer. They propose to or
ganize an exploration syndicate to
complete drilling a part of Cape
Mountain, begun by the U. S.
Bureau of Mines in 1948. Mr.
Batcheller further stated that the
discovery of columbite, tantalite,
and rare earth fractions on Cape
Mountain prompted the decision
to explore the long-dormant prop
erty.
It might be noted here that all
placer tin so far recovered aver
ages three to four pounds of tin
to the cubic yard of gravel and
bedrock sluiced; likewise, that ac
tual values of tin recovered al
ways exceeded by three to many
times the values indicated by
either the government or private
drilling. This experience suggests
that our known tin reserves may
be several times larger than indi
cated by drilling, atjd that the
area is much richer, generally,
than most experts have thought.
United States Tin Corporation
The United States Tin Corpora
tion, Kenneth J. Kadow of Juneau,1
president, is the operator of the
Seward Peninsula’s only lode tin
mine. It is located at Lost River,
about 30 miles northeast of Cape
Prince of Wales, on the west shore
of Grantly Harbor, and about 22
miles southwest of Teller.
This corporation has been vigor
ously pushing an exploration and
underground prospecting program
for a number of years under
D.M.E.A. assistance and a G.S.A.
production loan. It is now proving
the presence of large bodies of tin
ore and the feasibility of mining
and milling on a year-round basis
less than a hundred miles below
the Arctic Circle. It has been truly
a herculean task, including the
driving of several thousand feet
of tunneling and drifting, at the
same time building a town and
establishing a community.
Village of Lost River
Today at this bleak outpost of
civilization, an arctic village been
constructed. There we find a
church, schoolhouse, and U- S.
postoffice, housing for 25 families
(all occupied), bunkhouses for the
single men, a village general store,
privately operated warehouses,
large machine shops, a milling
plant, with a 150-ton-per-day cap
acity, 600 kilowatts of electrical
generating capacity, four air com
pressors and many other small
pumps and motors, a 9,000-foot
insulated pipeline, with pump
house, to supply water (well) for
winter milling of ore, 80 to 90
wintertime employees”, mostly Es
kimo, and 42 children in school.
The mine and village are seven
miles inland from the beach, to
which they are now connected by
a road constructed during the last
two summers by the Alaska Road
Commission. A 4,000-foot airfield,
for which the appropriation has
already been made, will be built
next summer by the territory.
This will replace the present small
landing strip limited to single
engine bush planes.
U.S. Needs vs. Production
In 1950, the latest year for
which detailed statistics are avail
able, the U.S. consumed 125,156
tons of primary tin metal. During
this period it produced only 94.1
tons, of which 79.5 tons were
mined in Alaska. The remainder
was a by-product of molybdenum
mining in Colorado.
During 1950, the U.S. imported
108,797 tons of tin, of which 63,764
tons came from southeast Asia
and 14,720 tons came from North
and South America, chiefly from
Bolivia, but including 118 tons
from Mexico. With southeast Asia
dangerously vulnerable to Com
munist invasion and Bolivia in a
continuously unstable political po
sition, it is apparent that our na
tional supply of tin rests upon a
very undependable base.
It is greatly in the public inter
est that we explore and develop
strategic tin reserves under our
own flag, or at least in North
SCORCHY SMITH _
OK. DIANA!
I
U. Of Alaska Museum
Registered Visitors From *
All States And Abroad t
The museum at the University
of Alaska has become an impor- '*
tant place for tourists and visi
tors in the Fairbanks area. During '
1953 a total of 28,068 visitors
signed the museum register. A
study of this register gives a
good sampling of the embryo
tourist industry.
From the States 18,187 regis
tered to represent each state in
the Union.
Californians are real travelers
for they topped the list with 2,548.
Washington was second with
1,853. New York led Texas 897 to
879. These were followed toy Illi
nois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsyl
vania and Oregon.
Canada contributed 261 visitors,
Hawaii 78, foreign countries 115.
$5,200,000 REA Loan To
Electrical Assn. Approved
WASHINGTON, UP>—'The Rural
Electrification Administration has
approved a $5,200,000 loan to the
Chugach Electrical Assn, near
Anchorage.
Delegate Bartlett said he was
advised the loan included $2,800,
000 for installation of an addition
al 5,000 kilowatt steam plant at
the Knik Arm plant; 1,039,000 for
new construction in the coopera- .
tive’s service area; $1,170,000 to
improve existing equipment and
the remainder for miscellaneous
items. ,
"4-on" Duplicate Receipt Books >
at the Nugget
America. On the basis of past pro
duction and known tin occurren
ces, Alaska’s Seward Peninsula
offers the best hopes for the dis
covery and development of sub
stantial tin reserves. It is just as
important, perhaps more so^ to
develop tin reserves in the ground
during peacetime, as to stockpile
it from overseas.
Again, it may be of small im
portance to the nation whether
those few now engaged in the
development and production of tin
in Alaska fail or profit from their
efforts. But it is certainly of con
siderable importance to the nation
to know the quantity of, and the
location of, its natural reserve of
scarce metals under our flag.
Nome Directory
ROTARY CLUB
OF NOME
Northwestern Alaska
Chamber of Commerce
MEETS
EVERY TUESDAY NOON
Dewey Goodrich, President
ALASKA CHAPTER NO. 1
Order of Eastern Star
Meets the third Monday of each month.
Jane Perkins
Worthy Matron
Evelyn Branson
Secretary
-—
LESLIE A. STEVENS
PUBLIC ACCOUNTANT
—4b6 Tirst Ave. West, Nome, Alaska—
10 to *2 A.M. - 1 to 5 P.M.
Phone Main 82 — P.O. Box 208
Room 202, La very Bldg., Fairbanks
ANVIL LODGE
No. 140
John Cooley, W.M.
Norvin W. Lewis, Secy.
Meets 1st and 3rd Thursday each Month