La Teko Producing at Alaskan Heap Leach Operation

As Robert Service said, there are indeed “strange things done in the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold.” But even he would be hard pressed to find anything more unlikely than a heap leach operation north of the 49th parallel.

Although normally associated with gold mining in the southwestern U.S., La Teko Resources (VSE) operates such an animal near Fairbanks, Alaska, which the company believes to be the first and only heap leach operation in that state. Although La Teko describes its Ryan Lode property as located “within a snowball’s throw of the Arctic Circle,” the operation can be readily accessed during the leaching season by a paved road from Fairbanks, just eight miles away.

Now in its second season, La Teko recovered 5,560 oz of gold as of Sept 11. The company has mined, agglomerated and stacked 105,000 tons of ore on three leach pads and expects to continue leaching until mid-October.

In addition to the gold recovered last year and the gold to be recovered in 1988, the company says it will have on hand about 7,500 oz of gold in 30,000 tons of high grade ore that is not amenable to leaching with the present crushing equipment. A series of lab tests to determine the best way to recover this gold is now under way, the company reports.

The company says preliminary indications suggest that finer crushing will allow for economical leaching and if this proves to be the case, it will eventually recover about 18,300 oz of gold from the 170,000 tons mined during 1987 and 1988, a recovery of 0.11 oz of gold per ton of ore.

La Teko reported a profit for the 1987 season of $1,143,951 before taxes and earnings of 8 cents per share, with the cost of production about $12.20(US) per ton.

The company is now finalizing a 5-year mining plan for the Ryan Lode operation and has also applied for permits for its Margarita heap leach project in Arizona.