Abstract
As part of a cooperative project during 1986 and 1987, personnel from the U.S. Bureau of Mines and State of Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys studied the mineral development potential of the Chilkat Peninsula and Islands, Alaska, as part of the larger Juneau Mining District study. About four-fifths of the area is within the Alaska State Chilkat and Chilkat Islands State Parks and not open to mineral entry. This study located four new (or previously unreported) gold-copper prospects. One of these, the road cut prospect, was examined by trenching, drilling, and geophysics. While sufficient grades and tonnages were not delineated by this work to constitute an economic deposit, they are sufficient to encourage exploration for such in the prospect vicinity. Of 112 reconnaissance rock, stream sediment, and pan concentrate samples collected at scattered locations (not from prospects or occurrences) in the Chilkat Peninsula and Islands, 79 were anomalous in gold, silver, copper, or zinc. Newly discovered mineralization and anomalous reconnaissance sample values indicate that the Chilkat Peninsula and Islands could be an important target for the exploration of fault-controlled gold-copper deposits, but present land status prevents mineral exploration in most of the area.
