The Alaska-Gastineau Mine (alternate: Perseverance Mine) was a gold mine in Perseverance, about east of

Juneau, Alaska The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the se ...

, USA. It was briefly the largest gold mine in the world. The mine was operated by the

Alaska-Gastineau Mining Company The Alaska-Gastineau Mining Co. had its offices in 25 Broad St., New York City, New York. It was the operating company for the Alaska Gold Mines Co. in Alaska. It worked the Alaska-Gastineau Mine/Perseverance Mine in the Silver Bow Basin, app ...

Geography

The Alaska-Gastineau Mine was located within the

Silver Bow Basin The Silver Bow Basin, often written as Silverbow Basin, is a valley located northeast of Juneau, Alaska, USA. It is situated on Gold Creek in an area north of Icy Gulch, and approximately north of Gastineau Peak. A trail from Juneau leads dire ...

. Its concentrating plant was situated near Thane. The mine had a shaft running through Mount Roberts that reached the Perseverance Mine near Gold Creek. It adjoined the Alaska-Juneau Mine. The mine's low-grade ore is situated on a mountain above the Gastineau Channel. Its ore body covered approximately , more than in length, with of tunnels and crosscuts. According to Jackling, the block of ore had at least 100,000,000 tons above sea level. The property consisted of a group of claims whose lode system covered . It was operated on a 6,000-ton daily capacity.

History

The mine's large scale development began in 1912. In 1913, while it was under construction, Emile Gastonguay was hired as the mine's chief electrician by managing director,

Daniel C. Jackling Daniel Cowan Jackling (August 14, 1869 – March 13, 1956), was an American mining and metallurgical engineer who pioneered the exploitation of low-grade porphyry copper ores at the Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah. Biography Early life Born near ...

. Bartlett L. Thane was the manager. Becoming unprofitable, it was shut down in 1921.

Features

For a period of time preceding World War I, the Alaska-Gastineau Mine was the largest gold mine in the world. Its mills were said to be the largest and most modern gold-crushing plant in the world. For its time, the ore was handled more economically than in any other Northwest mine. "The mill avoided chemical processing with cyanide ('' cyanidation'') or mercury

amalgamation Amalgamation is the process of combining or uniting multiple entities into one form. Amalgamation, amalgam, and other derivatives may refer to: Mathematics and science * Amalgam (chemistry), the combination of mercury with another metal **Pan am ...

circuits by smelting all the concentrate."

References

{{Reflist, 2 Gold mines in the United States Buildings and structures in Juneau, Alaska Gold mining in Alaska 1912 establishments in Alaska 1921 disestablishments in Alaska Mines in Alaska