FOUND: RED DOG

We are writing to correct the story of how the Red Dog deposit in Alaska was discovered (TNMM, January, 1990). The following account comes from Robert Griffis, who was a member of the Watts, Griffis and McOuat (WGM) discovery team:

“Cominco Ltd. deserves much credit for acquiring the Red Dog, but it had nothing to do with the discovery. That credit largely belongs to a team of WGM geologists in Anchorage who in 1975 were following up an obscure geochem anomaly from an earlier regional stream sediment survey done by the United States Geological Survey.

“At the time, WGM was under contract to the U.S. Bureau of Mines and was completing a regional survey over a large area of closed lands in the Brooks Range. The U.S. Congress was about to set aside this region as a wilderness reserve but thought it wise to see if there were any mineral resources worth future development. By chance, the first area examined by WGM turned out to be the Red Dog area, which had been previously named by an Alaska bush pilot but whose treasure was not recognized until Clint Degenhart and I had the good fortune to be following up the earlier USGS work. Although most of the exposures at Red Dog were subcrop, it took us little time to recognize that much of the valley was underlain by lead-zinc-barite mineralization. The discovery was announced by the Bureau of Mines that summer; subsequently, the area was removed from the proposed wilderness area and granted to the NANA Regional Corp., who eventually joined with Cominco.

“Based on the surface mapping and sampling carried out over a 2-week period, WGM estimated inferred geological reserves amazingly close to current published reserves. I think real credit goes to the unnamed WGM geologist(s) who in the previous winter, happened to spot the USGS reference to a geochem anomaly that had never been followed up. To this day, I remain amazed that this deposit was not previously recognized, and it is a good reminder to explorationists that there probably are other world class deposits sitting at the surface waiting to be discovered. If it had not been for the WGM work, there is a good chance that the Red Dog Valley would have remained the exclusive domain of a few itinerant caribou and peregrine falcons.”

I hope that sets the record straight.

Ross Lawrence,

Watts Griffis McOuat,

Consulting Geologists and Engineers,

Toronto, Ont.