The Alaska Resource Data File (ARDF) is a database of mines, prospects, and mineral occurrences in Alaska. It contains information compiled from published and unpublished sources from industry, U.S. Bureau of Mines (BOM), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and other government and private sources. ARDF is not a mining claims database.

This data release provides descriptions and locations of 134 significant deposits in Alaska. Approximately 99 percent of past production and remaining identified resources of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States are accounted for by deposits that originally contained at least 2 metric tons (t) of gold, 85 t silver, 50,000 t copper, 30,000 t lead, and 50,000 t zinc. Deposits of this size comprise a very small fraction of the total number of mines, prospects, and occurrences for these metals in the United States. They are called significant deposits because they are few in number yet collectively represent almost the totality of domestic production and resources of these metals. The significant deposits database was first published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as part of the 1996 National Mineral Resource Assessment (NMRA), which was limited to these five metals. The database was intended to characterize known mineral resources for comparison with estimates of undiscovered resources provided by the NMRA. Data on location, deposit type, past production, and remaining reserves for 1,118 individual significant deposits comprised the original database. During the 20 years since the original database was published, there has been substantial new production and additions to resources at many of the deposits in the database and many new discoveries that meet the criteria for a significant deposit. New information on a few deposits has revealed that some of the deposits in the original database do not meet the criteria for significant deposits and these have been deleted. This data release is a revision of the Alaska portion of the original 1996 database, with updated production and resource data, improved locations, added data on land ownership, and addition of new discoveries. The Excel table provides locations for and information on significant deposits in Alaska. The geodatabase contains a single point layer which represents the locations of these deposits. The attributes of the point layer contain the same information as the Excel database. A detailed description of the original database and its interpretation was published as Long, Keith R., DeYoung, John H., Jr., and Ludington, Steve, 2000, Significant deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States: Economic Geology, v. 95, p. 629-644 (more information available at https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70022329).

This data release provides descriptions and locations of 134 significant deposits in Alaska. Approximately 99 percent of past production and remaining identified resources of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States are accounted for by deposits that originally contained at least 2 metric tons (t) of gold, 85 t silver, 50,000 t copper, 30,000 t lead, and 50,000 t zinc. Deposits of this size comprise a very small fraction of the total number of mines, prospects, and occurrences for these metals in the United States. They are called significant deposits because they are few in number yet collectively represent almost the totality of domestic production and resources of these metals. The significant deposits database was first published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) as part of the 1996 National Mineral Resource Assessment (NMRA), which was limited to these five metals. The database was intended to characterize known mineral resources for comparison with estimates of undiscovered resources provided by the NMRA. Data on location, deposit type, past production, and remaining reserves for 1,118 individual significant deposits comprised the original database. During the 20 years since the original database was published, there has been substantial new production and additions to resources at many of the deposits in the database and many new discoveries that meet the criteria for a significant deposit. New information on a few deposits has revealed that some of the deposits in the original database do not meet the criteria for significant deposits and these have been deleted. This data release is a revision of the Alaska portion of the original 1996 database, with updated production and resource data, improved locations, added data on land ownership, and addition of new discoveries. The Excel table provides locations for and information on significant deposits in Alaska. The geodatabase contains a single point layer which represents the locations of these deposits. The attributes of the point layer contain the same information as the Excel database. A detailed description of the original database and its interpretation was published as Long, Keith R., DeYoung, John H., Jr., and Ludington, Steve, 2000, Significant deposits of gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc in the United States: Economic Geology, v. 95, p. 629-644 (more information available at https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/70022329).

DGGS Digital Data Series 18, Alaska Minerals Database, is a working, internal database that supports multiple data products developed by the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS), including the Alaska Mineral Industry Report series (https://dggs.alaska.gov/pubs/minerals) and a web service of significant mineral industry occurrences and industry activity in 2020. DGGS anticipates developing additional products from the database in the future. This abstract and data dictionary will be updated as more of the database becomes publicly available over time. The full, unpublished database contains information about significant mineral occurrences in Alaska, including industry activity by year, mineral resource estimates, mine production statistics by year, and an interpreted mineral system type using the classification scheme of Hofstra and Kreiner (2020). The database also associates records in Alaska Resource Data File (ARDF; U.S. Geological Survey, 1996) with significant mineral occurrences, as interpreted by DGGS. DGGS annually compiles mineral industry information from past-year statements issued by companies, including press releases and corporate annual and financial reports, as well as phone interviews, replies to questionnaires, and news media articles. Only publicly available data compiled by DGGS are visible; confidential data are incorporated into statewide figures. The database is actively updated as new mineral activity data become available each year. Property information and previous years' data will be updated to resolve errors, reflect new geologic interpretations, and display newly available data. Consequently, products developed from the database may change over time as information and figures are updated. DGGS encourages members of the public to contact DGGS' Mineral Resources Section staff to discuss potential changes to the data or errors to be resolved in our derivative products. The data are available from the DGGS website: http://doi.org/10.14509/30873.

Samples from the Alaska Placer Concentrate Collection (APCC) were retrieved from the 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 U.S. Geological Survey 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 68 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.