Anglo American Contributes to State Airborne Geophysical Program
By Patricia Liles, Alaska Journal of Commerce, Anchorage
Apr. 6–Alaska’s airborne geophysical survey program received a financial boost from Anglo American in late 2007, allowing for additional areas in Southcentral Alaska to be covered by the grassroots exploratory data-gathering effort.
The global mining giant, which has a 50 percent stake in the Pebble project in Southwest Alaska, contributed $230,000 in 2007 to the state’s airborne geophysical survey program covering a potentially highly mineralized area of state land in the western part of the Alaska Range near Rainy Pass.
“This is the biggest contribution to date from a single company,” said Bob Swenson, state geologist and director of the survey program. “It tells us that we’re doing the right thing, that the information we’re providing to the public is worthwhile, worth the effort.”
Each year, airborne geophysical data is gathered from a highly prospective mineralized area in Alaska, then followed up the next year by ground geological mapping, a program managed by the state Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys for the last dozen years.
Results from the geophysical and geological data gathering are released to the public, either in the form of published maps or on disc, so prospectors can utilize the raw data in their own exploration programs.
“Overall in the state, we have 40 million acres of area that are basically what is considered high minerals potential,” Swenson said. “To date, we have covered 6.5 million of acres. We have a whole series of priority areas we are trying to get covered, airborne geophysics and follow up with ground geological mapping.”
Average state spending on the survey program is about $450,000, although it has ranged from $800,000 down to $200,000 during the program’s history, Swenson said.
Last year, $600,000 was approved for the survey program for the Rainy Pass area, Swenson said. The mapping project is called the Styx River area, and includes prospects that have already been staked called Whistler, Terra and Mt. Estelle, as well as open state land.
Initial geophysical data is gathered using a helicopter that flies in a grid, carrying a probe that dangles underneath to gather magnetic and electromagnetic resistivity data over the prospective area. Data compiled from those signals creates geophysical maps of areas.
Initial attempts to survey the Styx River area encountered difficulty last fall, Swenson said.
“There’s a lot of topography in the Alaska Range, so it’s a difficult survey to fly and relatively, the costs are high, so we had to break the area into three different regions,” Swenson said. “It makes it real tough to tie those areas together geologically with only pieces of information.”
DGGS issued a proposal asking for contributions from anyone interested in helping fund the program so the entire area could be surveyed.
Initial data gathered last fall by the state along Styx River was released to the public in late January.
Anglo American’s $230,000 contribution allowed DGGS to increase the surveyed area by 190 square miles, to a total of 700 square miles mapped in the Rainy Pass area, according to DGGS.
Anglo American’s interest in the state’s airborne geophysical program stems from the company’s recent grassroots prospecting along Styx River, a project that is fairly low on the company’s radar screen in Alaska, according to Paul Henry, a senior manager with Anglo American and one of six directors in the Pebble Partnership.
“Last summer we staked claims in that area, basically looking for copper, molybdenum and gold again,” Henry said. “It’s really early stuff. Obviously, we’ll be in there this summer.”
The state’s airborne data gathering stopped late last year, as the decrease in daylight reduced the amount of work time available. That program will restart this spring, Swenson said, with the additional data incorporated with the existing information.
“We have only so much money to spend in any given time. The more we can get industry involved in this and helping, the better off everybody is,” Swenson said. “These surveys increase the geologic knowledge. It may or may not increase activity in the area.”
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