The State of Alaska is situated on the Pacific Rim and offers high value mineral exploration and development opportunities. State, federal and native regional land areas open to mineral entry amount to 191,100,000 acres, 2.7 times the entire area of Nevada. State sponsored geological and geophysical mapping effort, a reasonable tax burden, a talented workforce, exploration incentives, a problem-solving Minerals Commission, a developing infrastructure and an industry-support organization (The Alaska Miners Association) make Alaska an attractive place to do business. The Office of Economic Development is the primary advocacy agency in state government promoting mineral exploration and development by providing information, economic data, and technical assistance.

For the 12th year in a row, with 2007 being the last in the series, the value of the minerals industry has exceeded $1 billion dollars, with production valued at $3.4 billion. The value of the industry for 2007 was a record high at over $4.0 billion Employment is estimated to be over 3,400 persons. Price improvements are driving exploration and project development. Forecasts are for a marked improvement over the next 10 years to a value over $5 billion per year.

Placer gold mines continue to contribute to the value of the industry. Production amounted to about 53,849 ounces in 2007 from operations throughout the state.

Hard rock development and mining continues to increase. Development stage projects include Kensington near Juneau, Rock Creek & Big Hurrah near Nome, and Chuitna Coal near Anchorage. Advanced stage exploration projects include the Donlin Creek project near Aniak, and the World Class Pebble Copper project located near Iliamna. Two (2) large open pit metal mine, one moderate-sized open pit coal mine, and three underground metal mines are operating in the state.  Teck-Cominco’s Red Dog zinc mine near Kotzebue is the most valued contributor with over one-half of the total value credited to this operation.  The Ft. Knox gold mine near Fairbanks, the 12th largest open pit metal mine in the United States, produced approximately 338,459 ounces of gold in 2007.  Operating underground mines include the Pogo underground gold mine located southeast of Fairbanks, the Nixon Fork underground gold mine located near McGrath and the Greens Creek underground polymetallic (silver, gold, zinc and lead) mine near Juneau.

Industrial minerals operations continue to provide the needed materials for construction of roads and other infrastructure. The value of rock, sand and gravel production approaches $102 million per year.