THE MINERAL INDUSTRY OF ALASKA 
77 
Table 6.—Freight rates, Seattle to selected Alaskan cities in 1967
Hydrotrain service 1 
(Cents per hundred pounds) 
Commodity 
Minimum 
shipment 
(pounds) 
Seattle to— 
————-————————
           Anchorage Fairbanks Seward via Whittier via Whittier via Whittier

 
 
Groceries                             Do                              Do
                              
Iron or steel articles                     Do                           
   
60,000 
80,000 
2 100,000 
60,000 
80,000 
218 
173 
104 
230 
178 
277 
232 
163 
290 
219 
213 
168 
99 
220 
172 
 Do                               
Machinery                            Do                              Do 
                             
Lumber                              Do                              Do  
                            
Ores and concentrates (southbound only)3    Do                          
   Do                               
Petroleum and products  Do                              Do              
                
100,000 
60,000 
80,000 
100,000 
60,000 
80,000 
100,000 
60,000 
80,000 
100,000 
60,000 
80,000 
100,000 
168 
247 
212 
202 
206 
171 
161 
109 
92 
87 
210 
175 
165 
209 
290 
255 
245 
254 
219 
209 
145 
128 
123 
308 
273 
263 
162 
233 
198 
188 
207 
172 
162 
 
 
210 
175 
165 
1 Rates include all-risk insurance. 
2 Excess over 80,000-pound minimum when loaded in or on same car. 
 Value not to exceed $60 per ton. Rate increases 25 percent for each additional
$60 (or fraction) per ton valuation. 
Source: Puget Sound-Alaska Van Lines. 
 
REVIEW BY MINERAL COMMODITIES 
 
MINERAL FUELS 
 
 Coal (Bituminous) .—Value of coal produced increased by 5 percent
compared with 1966 figures; tonnage was virtually unchanged. For the third
successive year, value per ton, $7.89, showed an increase over the previous
figure ($7.50). Following the Korean conflict, Alaska coal operators had
been able to effect a truly significant reduction in prices. Spurred by the
competition of natural gas from the Kenai Peninsula and aided by the acquisition
of modern pit equipment, the industry by 1964 had been able to reduce unit
value to $6.72 per ton, a value below that of any year since 1946. The record
showed 1964 to be the sixth successive year of price reduction and the 11th
year in a downtrend that began in 1954. 
 Operators in the Nenana (Healy River) field, insulated from the threat of
Kenai gas and bolstered by long term contracts to supply fuel for the new
mine-mouth generating plant at Healy, were able to maintain the downtrend
in unit prices. The northern operators accomplished a 9 percent reduction
between 1964 and 1967. But Matanuska Valley operators, plagued with the specter
of competition from natural gas 
and handicapped by increasing stripping costs, were unable to hold the line
on prices. At yearend the major operation in the Matanuska field, in continuous
production since 1922, was faced with shutdown owing to the loss of contracts
to supply military bases. Matanuska coal, useful for steam generating, gave
little promise of competing in Japanese import markets where coking coal
was needed. 
 The U.S. Armed Forces were again the major consumers of Alaska coals. Military
contracts for the fiscal year 1968 totaled 732,000 tons compared with 668,000
tons for the fiscal year 1967. Usibelli Coal Mine, Inc., operating in the
Nenana fields, was the leading contractor with 272,000 tons. Vitro Minerals
Corp., a joint venture of Vitro Corporation of America and Rochester &
Pittsburgh Coal Co., supplied 250,000 tons. In the Matanuska fields, Evan
Jones Coal Co. furnished 210,000 tons. For the first time in almost 10 years,
coal from the Nenana fields was shipped south to fuel the military bases
in the Anchorage area. 
 Except for minor quantities from small fields, all Alaska coal was strip-mined
at four mines, two each irs the Matanuska and Nenana fields. Of total tonnage
mined, 37 percent was cleaned compared with 42 per-