ABSTRACT
Alaska added significant amounts of so-called "strategic" and "critical" materials to United States domestic mineral production during four wartime periods---the First and Second World Wars, and the Korean, and Vietnam conflicts as well as during times of unusual shortages caused by technological change or disruption of critical foreign sources. Alaska's contribution includes tin, tungsten, the platinum-group metals, antimony, mercury, chromium, and minor amounts of asbestos. This paper defines strategic and critical minerals, describes briefly the geology of important deposits, summarizes Alaska's past strategic-minerals contributions and known reserve base, and discusses strategic- and critical-minerals availability with respect to lands that are open or closed to mineral entry and development. Portions of this study have been previously released (Bundtzen and others, 1982; Rennick, Penny, editor, 1982).
