What’s in your pockets? Alaska’s precious metals Photo courtesy Greens Creek Mine &PEWOEƶWVMGLQMRIVEPERHQIXEPHITSWMXWLIPTTVSZMHIXLIGSQTSRIRXWJSVRYQIVSYWIZIV]HE]TVSHYGXWLIPTMRKXSWIGYVIXLI RIIHJSVQMRMRKERHQMRIVWXSFVMRKXLSWIHITSWMXWXSXLIWYVJEGI
bZ]V^TY[`MWTNLʬLT]^QZ]3PNWLɪ^2]PPY^.]PPV8TYP in his hometown of Juneau. For thousands of years, Alaska Native people used jade and copper in tools and jewelry, Satre said. ?ZOLd,WL^VLɪ^ʭaPWL]RPXP_LWXTYP^ɨ2]PPY^ Creek, Red Dog, Fort Knox, Pogo and Kensington — produce gold, silver, lead and zinc. And it’s serious business — about $2.4 billion in estimated revenue last year, according to the Alaska Department of Nat- ural Resources. “Red Dog is one of the world’s largest zinc mines,” Satre said. “Greens Creek is the largest primary silver producer in the United States.” Minerals — often shipped as concentrates or, in the NL^PZQRZWOL^[L]_TLWWd]PʭYPOOZ]±ML]^ɨXLVP`[ more than a third of Alaska’s total exports. And they almost certainly return to the state, transformed and put to use in everyday items. “I think what Alaskans don’t necessarily recognize,
Greens Creek, Red Dog, Fort Knox, Pogo, Kensington net $2.4B in revenue last year BY COUNCIL OF ALASKA PRODUCERS Mike Satre is familiar with the image that probably pops into your head when you think of gold mining in Alaska: “The old prospector with a pickaxe and a donkey.” The gold-seeking sourdough certainly has a place in Alaska history. But metals and minerals are a far bigger part of the state’s story than the Klondike Gold Rush alone. “Mining and using Alaska’s minerals has been happening for millennia,” said Satre, a geologist who
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The Alaska Miner
January 2020
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