Rural areas in Alaska depend almost entirely on expensive imported fuel oil for heat and power generation. Following the drastic price increase in petroleum a few years ago, local governments and state agencies have shown considerable interest in determining the potential for northwest Alaska as an alternative energy source. A compilation of earlier work by the U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Mines, and industry located over 50 separate coal occurrences within the 50,000 mi² Cape Beaufort, Kobuk Valley, Seward Peninsula, and Norton Sound areas. The most promising localities were examined in the field by DGGS and BLM geologists, and six of these were selected for drilling and geophysical surveys by contractors.

Two of the areas drilled were found to have coal of sufficient quantities and quality to justify additional drilling and feasibility studies. The Cape Beaufort-Kukpowruk River area contains Cretaceous-age coal beds up to 20 ft thick and extends from the coast to about 20 mi inland. Drilling under the DGGS-USGS/MMS/BLM-administrated program indicated approximately 20 million tons in the Deadfall syncline alone, where four moderately dipping beds have a 1 to 5 stripping ration. One 320-acre tract may contain eight million tons of bituminous coal having a 13,000 to over 14,000 Btu value as received.

The other site where work continues is the old Chicago Creek coal mine near Candle on the Seward Peninsula. The coal bed here has been traced by drilling and geophysics for 3,500 ft along strike and found to average 35 ft in thickness. While the deposits is up to 80 ft thick in one drill hole, the coal is lignite and typical of the Tertiary coals in this region, being erratic in character and averaging about 6,900 Btu/lb. Three and one-half million tons of lignite are indicated and another million tons inferred.

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