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In recent years mining companies have explored the area bordered by the Denali Highway. The area is believed to have deposits of platinum, palladium, copper and nickel.

Armed with promising results, the companies have asked the state to take possession of 209,455 acres from the federal government so more exploration work can be done to see if a mine can be developed.

Bill Ellis, president of Alaska Earth Sciences, and a geologist who has done much of the exploring in the area, agrees there are differences between state and federal regulation.

The state has less red tape and lower costs for its mining permits than does the federal government, Ellis told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. In order for a company to reach a point where they can start to build a mine, the mineral deposit has to proven economically viable.

That takes years of exploration and testing and at this point none of the mining interests, mainly three mining companies-Fairbanks-based Northridge Exploration; Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia-based Nevada Star; and the Toronto-based Fort Knox, have hard numbers that would support a mine, Ellis said.

That's why he and others have pushed hard to persuade the state to have the land transferred from federal ownership to the state under the Alaska Statehood Act. Since statehood, Alaska has selected and received 90 million acres from the federal government.

Only 15.5 million acres of selected lands have not been conveyed, including 5 million acres that skirt the Denali and Richardson highways from Paxson to Cantwell, known as the Denali Block.

The 209,455 acres that interest the mining companies fall within the eastern portion of that 5 million acres. In anticipation of the land conveyance, the mining companies have filed almost 3,000 mining claims pending conveyence of the land.

Some of the land has already been transferred. The Bureau of Land Management conveyed to the state almost 90,216 acres earlier this summer. What's left are 119,239 acres which include part of the popular Tangle Lakes Campground.

Of greatest concern to mining opponents is the northern portion of the Tangle Lakes Archaeological District, a site so dense in archaeological resources that it was named to the National Register of Historic Places.

Ahtna Inc. and Copper River Native Association officials say the district holds evidence of their ancestors, who hunted in the area 10,000 years ago.

BLM and state officials are working out an agreement on how the state will treat the district to protect the archaeological resources.