A World Apart

From the Juneau Empire:

In addition to Alaska’s well-known oil resources, the state contains 3 percent of the world’s zinc, which would rank the state eighth in the world if the state were a country. It also has 3 percent of its gold, ranking seventh in the world, and 6 percent of its copper, ranking third in the world. 

 

Alaska has 17 percent of the world’s coal, ranking it second in the world and holding the potential for huge exports if that resource could be developed.

Greg Wolf, executive director of the World Trade Center Alaska, said the state’s resources are likely to keep the state’s economy going strong in the coming year as well.

“We’re in a sweet spot right now,” he said. “We have what the world needs and increasingly the world has the money to buy it,” he said.

The world’s emerging economies will soon surpass the developed countries, if they haven’t already, but billions of Asian consumers with money to buy Alaska products could benefit Alaska, Wolf said.

“There’s some seafood products that Americans just don’t eat, but they’re highly prized in Asia,” he said. 

The weakening U.S. dollar will help make American exports more completive, Wells Fargo private baker Jon Snare said.  “Some things that are good for Alaska aren’t good for the United States as a whole,” he said.

 {emphasis added}

h/t DR