Goodnews Bay District
 The Goodnews Bay platinum mine produced about 600,000 troy ounces of platinum metal concentrate from placer deposits in the Salmon River Valley, south of the village of Platinum near the Bering Sea Coast. Walter Smith and Henry Wuya, both Yupik residents of the area, discovered platinum in the streams draining Red Mountain in 1926-1927. Additional discoveries were made in subsequent years and a claim-staking rush ensued, followed by several small-scale mining operations. The Goodnews Bay Mining Company constructed a bucket-line dredge on the property in 1937; claims were consolidated, and from 1940 until about 1979, the Goodnews Bay Mining Company was the sole operator in the area. Additional platinum metal and gold remain in gravels and tailings in the area, but most placer reserves are deeply buried in the lower Salmon River Valley.
The Goodnews Bay Mining Company assets were sold to R. A. Hanson of Spokane, Washington about 1979. Mr. Hanson and his associates renovated the dredge and operated it intermittently in the early 1980s. The placer and lode potential of the area has recently experienced renewed interest by a variety of potential investors due to higher platinum metal prices.
Calista owns the surrounding uplands that are underlain by ultramafic rock believed to be the bedrock source of platinum in the Salmon River placer deposits. In 1987, Mr. Hanson relinquished a large portion of the Federal lode mining claims in the area and Calista Corporation acquired them as conveyed lands under ANCSA. Calista also acquired lands at Susie Mountain under section 12(a) of ANCSA.
The lode, or hardrock property at Goodnews Bay has been the focus of extensive exploration by Alaska Earth Sciences geologists, with participation in those efforts by Calista geologists. The current leaseholder of Calista’s mineral property at Goodnews Bay is Pacific North West Capital Corp., based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Soil sampling has delineated several zones of anomalous platinum, up to 1,300 ppb, that are coincident with magnetic highs and with resistivity lows detected by geophysical surveys. Geophysical surveys delineated deep electromagnetic anomalies that led to a geologic model requiring deep drilling to test.
Northeast of the Goodnews Bay ultramafic complex and the Salmon River platinum placers are several gold placers, including those on Wattamuse, Slate, Bear and Canyon Creeks, tributaries of the Goodnews River. Other nearby gold placers occur on Kowkow Creek, Butte Creek and Snow Gulch, all tributaries of the Arolik River. Wattamuse gold placers produced 27,000 ounces prior to World War II.
Intrusive related gold prospects occur at the head of Wattamuse Creek and at Ikuk-Explorer Mountain, 10 miles to the west. Vein quartz and soil samples with anomalous gold are widespread over an area known as the Wattamuse Saddle. Quartz-stibnite vein material from the saddle contains as much as 0.5 ounces per ton gold.
Additional Information:
2004 Goodnews Bay Report (8.9 mb)
Goodnews Bay Technical Report (48 mb)
Calista Goodnews Bay Gold District Prospectus (616 kb)
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