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Select Mineral Abundancy Data from Alaska Placer and Pan Concentrate Samples Reanalyzed from 2020-2025

September 16, 2025

Samples from the Alaska Placer Concentrate Collection (APCC) were retrieved from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Geochemical Sample Archives and submitted for mineralogical analysis at the Colorado School of Mines. The APPC contains samples from placer mining operations throughout Alaska. The original collection contained approximately 5,000 samples that were collected by USGS geologists between 1895 and 1953 from various mining districts in Alaska (Cathrall, 1993). Much of the collection was lost and surviving samples are housed in the USGS National Geochemical Sample Archive (Cathrall, 1993). Maps showing the sample location and notebooks containing information about the samples in the APCC were retrieved from a Technical Data archive located in the Alaska Science Center in Anchorage. Site locations were digitized from APCC location maps and site information was obtained from the folders that accompany the location maps. Mineralogical analysis was performed on 67 samples selected from the APCC using automated a scanning electron microscope (SEM) based mineralogical automated mineralogy system. These data files contain the results of the mineralogical analysis.

Publication Year 2025
Title Select Mineral Abundancy Data from Alaska Placer and Pan Concentrate Samples Reanalyzed from 2020-2025
DOI 10.5066/P9BGM7YV
Authors Bronwen Wang, Matthew Granitto, Katharina I. Pfaff, Keith Labay, Alan L Pongratz
Product Type Data Release
Record Source USGS Asset Identifier Service (AIS)
USGS Organization Alaska Science Center
Rights This work is marked with CC0 1.0 Universal
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