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Alaska Mineral Resources Projects

Resource assessments of undiscovered mineral deposits rely on the integration of geology, geochemisty, geophysics, and the genetic models of ore formation. To produce the assessments, the USGS performs bedrock and surficial geologic mapping, geochemical sampling of rocks and stream sediments, and airborne and ground-based geophysical investigations. The resultant datasets are used to describe the geo-environmental character of the lands studied and to produce qualitative and quantitative estimates of the probabilities of mineral-deposit occurrences on those lands. These studies inform land-use planners and decision makers about where mineral commodities are known and suspected in the Earth's crust and about the environmental consequences of the presence of those commodities.

Current Projects and Activities by the Mineral Resources Program in Alaska

• Alaska Field Records Archive (ATDU)
• Alaska Geologic Map and Database
• Alaska GIS - Databases and Information Analysis
• Alaska Minerals Outreach
• Alaska Resource Data File (ARDF)
• Assessment Techniques for Concealed Mineral Resources
• Development of Mineral Environmental Assessment Methodologies
• Integrated Methods Development
• Updated National Mineral Resource Assessment - Planning Phase
• Western Alaska Range Metallogeny and Tectonics

Completed Projects

• Alaska Mineral Resource Assessment Program II
• Anchorage Urban Region Aeromagnetics Project
• Application of Secular Trends and Continent-Scale Geophysics to Mineral-Resource Assessment
• Backgrounds and Baselines
• Early Tertiary Slab Window in Alaska and its Resource Implications
• Federal Lands in Alaska - Geologic Studies
• Geochemical Landscapes of Alaska
• Geoenvironmental Impacts of Mercury and Arsenic
• Geoenvironmental Model for Epizonal Hg-Sb-As-Au Systems of the Tintina Gold Province
• Geologic and Mineral Deposit Data for Economic Development in Alaska in the 21st Century
• Geologic Mapping in Support of Land, Resources, and Hazards Issues in Alaska
• Large Mafic Igneous Province (LIP) in Central Alaska
• Minerals Data and Information Rescue in Alaska (MDIRA)
• Mineral Potential for Southeastern Alaska
• National Surveys and Analysis - Alaska and Hawaii
• Origin of Gold Deposits—Geochemistry of Intrusion-related Gold Systems of the Tintina Gold Province, Interior Alaska and Western Yukon
• Pathways of Metal Transfer from Mineralized Sources to Bio-receptors
• Regional Fluid Flow and Basin Modeling in Northern Alaska
• Secular Trends in Ore-forming Processes through Earth History
• Syngenetic Massive Sulfide Deposits in Alaska
• Talkeetna Mountains Transect - Tectonics and Metallogenesis of South-Central Alaska
• Tintina Gold Belt
• Tintina Metallogenic Province—Integrated Studies on Geologic Framework, Mineral Resources, and Environmental Signatures
• Trans Alaska Crustal Transect