Placer group minerals in the Goodnews Bay complex display a chemical affinity for chromite and magnetite (Bird and Clark, 1976). Microscopic platinum group mineral grains have been frequently identified in these petrographic studies (Barker and Lamal, 1989). In the past, secondary platinum group minerals have been recovered by grinding the magnetic fraction of the dredged concentrates. The Goodnews Bay Mining Company has found significant platinum reserves from the Salmon River Valley dredging in 1975. Between 1987 and 1989, Westgold had drilled over 2530 holes in offshore Nome.

Barker and Lamal (1989) report that placer group minerals are generally native to the exposed extent of lag deposits, reworked, glacial till, bedrock, paleo alluvium and drift that are confined to a narrow zone parallel to shore. Thus, they conclude that placer group minerals are found on the surface of the seafloor only in high-energy sediment transport zones where swift currents deter sediment accumulation and affect hydraulic sorting. The lag materials, however, extend further offshore under the high-energy environment. The exposure of placer group minerals to ocean processes at the base of the dropoff is the apparent source of fine-grained placer group minerals that are seasonally entrained in the beach sediments. Barker and Lamal (1989) recommend that future explorations should focus on recent transitional and marine placers in lag deposits, reworked, mixed till, bedrock, alluvium and drift and ancient, pretransgression deposits that include drowned fluvial channels and strands parallel to buried wave-cut scarps. Exploration should also target offshore strandlines, where more enriched strand deposits may have developed.