Alaska's YENTNA MINING DISTRICT-EDUCATION/FUTURE MINERS OF AMERICA

ALASKA GOLD RUSH GOLD MINING RECREATION ALASKA TRAVEL GUIDE INFORMATION VISITOR TOURISM

Education: This is a very important part of the Alaska Prospectors and Miners Association. We are diligently working with various groups to educate the general public about the importance and relevance of mining in Alaska's past, present, and future, and the care and concern that modern mining operations demonstrate for the environment. Some of our members are available to visit schools, groups, and functions to illustrate and provide hands-on training for teachers and students on the subjects of prospecting and mining. Summer tours of operating mines are being prepared. Watch for other exciting and fun developments here at the Alaska Prospectors and Miners Association Page. Bookmark this page now, and come back soon!

Did you know.....?
An estimated 200,000 ounces of placer gold has been produced in the Yentna District since 1906, mostly by hand methods.	The average Alaskan miner earned $5158.00 per month last year.	The average American requires 40,000 pounds of newly-mined minerals each year, and 6,800 pounds/year of coal, contrasted with Chad's (a Middle Eastern country) per capita consumption of 260 pounds/year of minerals. See the connection between standard of living and minerals?	95% of the general public is scientifically illiterate.Dr. Carl Sagan In a rational, scientific analysis of mine plans, good science will prevail over the emotionalism and fear promoted by anti-mining activists.
Gold was first reported in the district in 1898 by a U.S. Geologic Survey party that got lost.	The money from the mines and the employees wages pour into the local economy, and circulates around, multiplying the effect.	Most of the transportation and communication infrastructure, and communities, in the Western States, were started and/or built by prospectors and miners.	Mining today is environmentally responsible through improved technology, community outreach, and careful design. However, many politicians make gratuitous criticisms of areas in which they do not have expertise or responsibility.
"If it can't be grown, it has to be mined" Alaska Miners Association.	Between 1988 and 1993 the percent change of persons directly employed by mining in the Mat-Su Borough increased by 369.6%.	Less than one-tenth of one percent of the land in the Western U.S. has been disturbed by mining, and modern mining operations exist harmoniously with nature and provide real benefits to society.	New mining operations today routinely clean up abandoned mines, recovering minerals left by previous operations, and create new wildlife habitat.
In the U.S., 100,000 miners produced 1 billion tons of coal last year, while in China 7 million miners produced the same amount.	The value of the mineral industry in Alaska in 1995 was $6.629 Billion Dollars, and is expected to rise steadily.	In Southcentral Alaska in 1995, 10 placer mines produced a reported 35,094 ounces of refined gold, and directly employed 232 people.	Since 1980, U.S. businesses have spent $1.6 *trillion* on compliance with environmental laws. That's $10,000 per person, per year.

In 1848, Peter Doroshin, a Russian mining engineer, was sent by the Russian-America Co. to prospect for precious metals in Alaska. He found only a few ounces of placer gold on the upper Kenai River and his mining venture was abandoned. Doroshin was convinced, however, that large placer gold deposits were present in the Kenai Mountains. Thirty-eight years later, his hunch was proven correct. (U.S.F.S.)	The physical properties of gold add to its popularity and value. On a scale of 1 to 10, it has an average hardness of 2.8,; diamond is 10. So gold is relatively soft, malleable and tarnish resistant. It makes excellent jewelry.	The modern electronics industry uses gold for its corrosion resistance and conducting properties, accounting for 1/3 of the industrial demand for gold.	The brightness and ornamental beauty of gold have fascinated humans for more that 5,000 years and still does. This most noble metal takes its name from the Germanic "gulth," meaning glowing or shining metal. Gold often establishes the standard by which wealth is measured.
Gold has an average specific gravity of 19.3, meaning it is 19 times as heavy as an equal volume of water. Contrast this with the specific gravity of gravel, 2.7, or lead, which has a specific gravity of 11.	Gold has a rich yellow color or "kindly" appearance, turning paler as its silver content increases. Gold is relatively easy to recognize when you know its properties, but novices can confuse it with minerals such as pyrite or mica.	Although gold is normally opaque, very thin sheets let through a feeble, greenish color, and coating a few molecules in thickness is used to protect astronauts and pilots vision.	The fusion point of gold is 1942 degrees F, and it is insoluble in acids, except aqua regia.
Gold is never found pure in nature, but is always alloyed with other metals, commonly silver, copper, and iron. The purity of gold is referred to as "fineness", and is expressed as parts per thousands. For example: "500 fine" would be 50% gold. The farther gold travels from its source, the more pure it becomes.	Gold is traded in "troy" ounces and sometimes nuggets are weighed in "pennyweight". One troy ounce weighs 31.1035 grams, or 20 pennyweight. Our usual ounce weighs 28.350 grams.
Gold occurs primarily in high-temperature hydrothermal quartz veins in extrusive rocks. Weathering and erosion of these deposits, called "lode" or "hardrock", and transportation, sorting, and deposition of the materials, result in the formation of placer deposits.	In a commercial placer the relative amount of gold (by volume) may be on the order of one part gold to one hundred million parts of gravel.

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