Cement raw materials available to the Windy Creek area, Alaska

Abstract

The high cost of imported cement and the strategic advantages of a local source of supply for the military establishment have led to a growing interest in the possibility of cement manufacture in interior Alaska. A plant location in the Alaska Railroad belt seems desirable in view of the advantages of rail transportation and the accessibility of the principal interior markets. A cement manufacturing operation would require essentially four types of raw materials: 1) calcareous material, 2) argillaceous material, 3) fuel and 4) gypsum. The relatively favorable location of limestones near Windy station on the Alaska Railroad has led to the investigation of the potential raw materials which would be available to that region. Three limestone deposits of commercial size occur in the Devonian rocks of the Alaska Range in the Windy Creek area. Two appear to be of suitable chemical character. They are located approximately 7 and 11 miles west of the Railroad respectively. Twenty-four deposits of various types of argillaceous materials in the Healy River and Windy Creek areas have been sampled and analyzed chemically. Sufficient and presumably suitable fuel for a potential cement operation appears to be available from the coal mines in the Healy River area. Gypsum occurs at Sheep Mountain, 120 miles southeast of the Windy Creek area. Potentially sufficient tonnages are available to meet the requirements of a cement plant, but little has been done to develop the deposits. The raw materials now available probably would be suitable for type I cement, although the alkali limit probably would be exceeded if no means of beneficiation were employed.