Placer mining workshops offered

April 4, 2016

Marmian Grimes

One-day introductory workshops for placer miners will be offered in Palmer, Soldotna and Tok during April and May.

Donald Keill, who has nearly 40 years of experience as a mining engineer and geologist, will teach an introduction to placer mining workshop April 23 in Palmer, April 30 in Tok and May 14 in Soldotna. Keill is also a certified mineral examiner and the owner of Keill Engineering in Fairbanks.

The workshop will cover placer exploration and mining, including placer geology, claim staking, hand and mechanized methods, mining agreements, permitting, mine plans, mining economics, reclamation and more.

The workshops, offered by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service, will run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Palmer and Soldotna. The Tok workshop will begin an hour later. The fee is $75 or $50 if students register 10 days before a class begins. Register at http://bit.ly/ces-workshops and see class details at www.uaf.edu/ces.

The workshops will meet in the Kerttula Building at the Matanuska Experiment Farm in Palmer, the Kenai Peninsula College Steffy Building in Soldotna and at the university Tok Center. For more information or to schedule a workshop in your community, contact Meg Burgett at 907-746-9472 or asburgett@alaska.edu.

ADDITIONAL CONTACT:  Debbie Carter, 907-474-5406, dscarter@alaska.edu.