JUNEAU, Alaska: Canadian mining company Millrock Resources has been scouting for precious metals on Chichagof Island in southeast Alaska.

However, CEO Gregory Beischer said the company has not been able to secure financing to expand his Alaskan mining, as reported by The Associated Press.

The Alaskan mines produced precious metals in the early 20th Century, with some exploration resuming in the 1980s.

“But it really has been dormant since the mining activity took place in the ’20s and ’30s,” Beischer told CoastAlaska.

Millrock has partnered with another company, which has allowed it to take soil samples on claims less than three miles from Pelican, a community with fewer than 100 year-round residents.

Beischer said soil sample results are pending. But he noted that geologists hope they will show that gold-bearing quartz veins continue down the mountain. Taking soil samples does not require permits, according to state and federal regulators.

“And it will hopefully be encouraging enough for our partner to finance drilling,” he said, “to test the quartz veins at lower elevations to see if the gold continues.”

Some of the public land claims were staked by Millrock. But the bulk of the area is located on claims held by Apex El Nido Gold Mines, an Alaska company whose primary shareholder is Anchorage attorney Joseph Henri, a former state Department of Administration commissioner.