A new map covering a broad swath of northern Alaska offers a data-driven look, one federal officials say is the first of its kind publicly available in the state, at possible locations for deposits of gold and rare-earth minerals.
The U.S. Geological Survey released its map of projected minerals Monday for the Bureau of Land Management’s Central Yukon Planning Area, encompassing about 59 million acres of land with 16 million acres managed directly by the bureau.
In addition to gold, the possibility of finding metals such as uranium, tungsten and molybdenum are also assessed by the map.“This study evaluated potential for rare earth element deposits associated with alkali-rich intrusive rocks, placer gold deposits, platinum group element deposits associated with iron- and magnesium-rich, silica-poor igneous rocks like basalts, carbonate-hosted copper deposits, sandstone uranium deposits, and tin-tungsten-molybdenum-fluorspar deposits associated with some specialized granites,” USGS officials wrote in a statement on the map.
Jamey Jones, the lead author of the study, said that while plans are in the works to cover many more resources, with a statewide map planned for later this year, Monday’s effort is a forerunner for that wider work. Jones said, “There’s been a big push to understand strategic and critical minerals in Alaska over the last few years.”
The USGS map assesses probabilities of finding minerals as low, medium or high, with brighter colors for each watershed’s mineral deposit groups based on “the availability of lithologic, geochemical, and geophysical data in each.” “The BLM is excited to have this tool — it basically helps them to better understand what’s out there,” Jones said.
Steve Cohn, BLM Alaska’s deputy state director for resources, echoed that view in the USGS statement.”This level of analysis will benefit the BLM’s planning process tremendously,” Cohn said. “It was designed at a scale to compliment the BLM’s other resources data using the USGS’ expertise with commodity and strategic minerals. This effort represents a significant advancement in mineral resource evaluations.”
Via KTUU.com Anchorage
image credit USGS
