Niblack is a historic mining settlement at the head of Niblack Anchorage, an inlet that runs west for 2.5 miles (4 km) off Moira Sound on the southeast coast of Prince of Wales Island, about 28 miles (45 km) southwest of Ketchikan and 28 miles (45 km) southeast of Hydaburg, Alaska. Lieutenant Commander Richardson Clover, commanding the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer Carlile P. Patterson, named the anchorage in 1885 for Ensign Albert P. Niblack, a member of the survey party who later rose to rear admiral and, after World War I, served as the Navy’s director of naval intelligence. A post office operated at Niblack from 1901 until 1909, when it was transferred to Ketchikan.

Niblack is a volcanogenic massive-sulfide deposit yielding copper, zinc, gold, and silver; a 2023 estimate put indicated resources at 5.85 million tonnes grading 0.94% copper, 1.73% zinc, 1.83 grams per tonne gold, and 29 grams per tonne silver, plus 210,000 tonnes inferred. Since the mid-1970s, at least 11 companies, including Cominco-Alaska, Anaconda Minerals, Noranda Exploration, and, later, Teck Resources, have explored the district; the ore bodies drawing the most attention lie near the Lookout and Trio prospects. Extensive surface mapping, sampling, and geochemical and geophysical surveys have accompanied the drilling. The Niblack Project, an advanced-exploration prospect covering some 6,200 acres (2,510 ha) of federal and state mineral claims, is now owned by Treasury Metals Inc., which acquired it in July 2024 through its merger with Blackwolf Copper and Gold Ltd. (formerly Heatherdale Resources Ltd.).

Since at least 2005, most work has concentrated on mineralization near the old Lookout prospect, at an elevation of about 1,800 feet (549 m) and known to miners before World War I; roughly 30,000 tons of ore were extracted from the original Niblack mine between 1902 and 1906. In 2008, Heatherdale Resources completed a 2,886-foot (880-m) exploration drift to test the deposit at depth, and most subsequent drilling has been staged from it; by November 4, 2011, 343 holes had been drilled on the Lookout and Trio deposits. Full-time exploration ceased in 2012 amid a funding shortfall, and work stayed dormant until a limited surface program resumed in late 2020. Drilling has continued intermittently since, and in 2024 the project’s owner bought out the camp facilities outright, ahead of the merger that made Treasury Metals the current operator. Read more here and here. Explore more of Niblack and Moira Sound here: