Gold deposits in Bashkiria. History and modernity of gold deposits of the Urals

At today's press conference at the Bashinform agency, the head of the subsoil use department for Bashkiria, Rasikh Khamitov, dispelled hopes for the rapid transformation of the republic into the diamond center of Russia.

There are three or four areas containing diamonds in the Beloretsk region that we are ready to put up for auction,” he said. - But the stones there are small - 0.2 carats each. Large ones must be looked for at a depth of 60-100 meters, but investors have not yet reached them. Nobody wants to wait five years for geological exploration and other activities to take place.

In fact, this find raises doubts - it is very similar to the alloy, and it is also strange that the ingot was found on arable land. But small nuggets were found quite often in Bashkiria - they were called “cockroaches” because they were the size of a cockroach.

Rasikh Khamitov also reported that the State Duma passed the first reading of a bill on legalizing gold mining in old and abandoned mines. This proposal was put forward by the Union of Gold Miners to arouse interest in forgotten deposits. If the law is adopted, then any person will be able to mine and hand over to the state up to two kilograms of gold per year.

Aigul NURGALEEVA Bashkir regional supplement to the newspaper “Trud-7”.

Yesterday, the city administration hosted this year’s last meeting of the Council for the Promotion of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the “Entrepreneurial Hour” format, led by the head of the administration, Alexey Shmelev.
Administration of Oktyabrsky
27.12.2019 UFA, December 27, 2019. /Bashinform News Agency, Aliya Galimova/. Residents of Bashkiria will be able to use the services of Sberbank even during the New Year holidays.
Bashinform
27.12.2019 UFA, December 27, 2019. /Bashinform News Agency/. In Ufa they plan to create a Center for monitoring hazardous geological processes.
Bashinform
27.12.2019

Gold-bearing regions of Russia.

The most promising areas for searching for gold nuggets can be found by looking at the results of gold mining in the Russian Federation in Table 1.

Structure of gold production for 2004: - 43.8% was extracted from placers, 50.3% from primary deposits, associated gold from complex ores - 5.9%. License for gold mining in 2001 owned 639 enterprises, by 2004 - 558. Large enterprises with production of more than 1t/year of gold are 30; their total production covers more than 65.0% of the all-Russian one; small enterprises, with production of less than 100 kg/year - about 35% or 200 enterprises, the total production of which is 15.0% of the all-Russian one.


GOLD OF THE URAL.
Let us dwell in more detail on the Urals and its eastern and western slopes. There are significant reasons for this;

  • The climate is a longer average annual warm period. Lack of permafrost in the middle and southern Urals.
  • Geographical location – not far from the European part of Russia. Availability of places for gold mining, developed communications - road, air and railway.
  • Availability of local infrastructure for supplies and accommodation.

The Urals are one of the main and oldest gold mining centers in Russia. Official date The discovery and beginning of gold mining in the Urals is considered to be 1745. However, long before this, the tribes and peoples who inhabited it already knew and mined gold. By the beginning of the 20th century, more than 300 mines were operating and the Urals ranked third in Russia in gold mining, with an average annual volume of about pounds. Currently, the main production takes place in the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions, occupying 8-11th place in Russia among gold-mining regions. The source of gold is not only the gold ore bedrock or alluvial deposits themselves, but also gold-bearing complex ore deposits, from which gold is extracted as an associated component. Thus, in 1992, out of 19 tons of gold mined in the Urals region, including Bashkiria and the Orenburg region, 12.7 tons (66.9%) came from complex deposits, 3.7 tons (19.4%) - from placers, and only 2.6 tons (13.7%) - to primary deposits.

Primary deposits.

In the Urals, based on the combination of geological position, morphological characteristics of ore bodies and technical and economic indicators, they are divided into two geological and industrial types: vein and mineralized zones (veined-disseminated). Vein deposits are represented by quartz veins 0.5-5 m thick (rarely up to 10-15 m), containing disseminated sulfides (from 1-2 to 40-50%) and belonging mainly to the easily enriched technological type.
The productivity of quartz-vein gold mineralization is mainly associated with the presence of native gold particles in the ores. The latter, as a rule, are enclosed in aggregates of sulfide minerals or deposited in quartz microcracks. Sulfides, like gold, are unevenly distributed in the veins. Their number can vary from 1–2 to 40–50%. Ore bodies in vein-type deposits are, as a rule, quartz veins themselves, but have high gold contents (up to 0.5 g/t, rarely up to 3 g/t). The most common and early sulfide minerals are pyrite and arsenopyrite.
Native gold associated with sulfides in vein deposits has a medium and high standard (Au content in native gold, expressed in fractions of 1000) - more than 850. The main impurity component in it is silver.
There are more than 150 gold deposits and ore occurrences in the Orenburg Urals. Gold reserves are associated with quartz veins in black carbonaceous shales, with placers in deposits of ravines and rivers, with “iron hats” - products of weathering of rocks from copper pyrite deposits.
The Kirov gold deposit is located 3 km from the village of Beloozerny, Kvarkensky district. The deposit is mined in a quarry; ore is processed using heap leaching. The Aidirlinskoye gold deposit of quartz vein type is located 5 km east of the village of Aidyrlinsky. The deposit has been mined from the surface; unmined ore has been preserved at depths of more than 100-120 m.
Blaki gold deposit of quartz vein type is located near the village. Blak in the Svetlinsky district

Placers.

The main polygenic placer deposits are concentrated in the axial part of the Urals at the junction of the Tagil-Magnitogorsk and East Ural structural-geological zones, near the cities of Krasnoturinsk, Nizhny Tagil, Nevyansk, Yekaterinburg, Polevsky, Verkhniy Ufaley, Karabash, Miass, Verkhneuralsk, etc., as well as on the eastern slope of the Urals and on the Trans-Ural Plain around the years. N. Saldy, Rezha, Asbest, Plast, etc. Almost all the predicted resources of placer gold are concentrated here. Placers of the Central Ural zone, along the rivers Pechora, Vishera, Velsu, Ulsu, Vilva, Vizhay, Mezhevaya Utka, and the upper reaches of the Ufa and Belaya rivers, are of lesser importance.
The most promising for gold are the upper reaches of the Suunduk River in the Orenburg Urals. Alluvial gold deposits are located on the left slope of the Suunduk River from the Bezymyanka River to the Baituk River. The deposit has been mined from the surface, and deep, watered gold-bearing layers have been preserved. Since 2003 gold mining has begun from the “Berezitovy Uval” and “Mechetny” spoon gold placers in the Yasnensky district in the Orenburg region.
Sources of placer gold are products of chemical weathering of bedrock ores, including those with relatively low metal contents, as well as the collapsing upper parts of gold deposits. The mechanism of gold concentration is the erosion of loose gold-bearing formations of weathering crusts by surface watercourses, accompanied by gravitational differentiation and transport of eroded material.
The basis of the raw material base of placer gold mining The deposits are Krasnooktyabrskoye, Sosvinskoye, Vagranskoye, Chakinskoye, Kamenskoye, Serebryanskoye, Nevyanskoye (Sverdlovsk region), Velsovskoye, Ulsovskoye, Promyslovskoye (Perm region), Miasskoye, Kochkarskoye, Bredinskoye and Gumbeyskoye (Chelyabinsk region).
The base of proven reserves of alluvial deposits is:
a) overvalued previously mined placers of the Middle and Southern Urals along the rivers Salda, Neiva, Pyshma, Miass, etc.;
The predominant genetic type of placers in the Urals is alluvial; spoon type placers (alluvial-deluvial or deluvial-proluvial) are less common. Alluvial placers were formed with significant transport of clastic material and gold. These are deposits of river valleys with their terrace, valley and channel morphological types. In alluvium, pebble material and gold are well rounded, characterized by a varied composition of pebbles and distinct layering of sediments. In colluvial placers, the clastic material is transported close to the bedrock source, so the roundness of gold grains and pebble material is much weaker than in alluvium. Such placers are formed on mountain slopes. Proluvial placers are located at the foot of mountains when temporary flows of clastic material wash away their slopes. The clastic material of the proluvium is weakly rounded and poorly sorted. Gold placers consist mainly of coarse material - pebbles and boulders, cemented by a clay-sand mass. Quantitatively, light minerals predominate, primarily quartz, which is the most stable in the processes of physical and chemical weathering. The content of clay minerals is significant.
The sizes of gold placers are different: their length in most cases ranges from several hundred meters to 1–3, less often up to 5 km, and only a few of them can be traced at intervals of tens and even hundreds of kilometers (the Sosva, Tagil, Neiva, Miass). The width of the placers is usually 20–60 m, less often 100–300 m or more. The depth of occurrence of gold-bearing layers is varied: 1–3 m (“podderniks” or “upper areas”), most often up to 10 m, in some cases up to 40–60 m. Gold is distributed unevenly in them. As a rule, it is contained in the first hundred milligrams per 1 m3 of sand and is most concentrated in well-sorted sand and pebble sediments, where its content can reach several grams per 1 m3 of rock. The size of gold particles in placers varies from less than 0.1 mm to nuggets. It is calculated that the average metal size in the Middle Urals is 0.60 mm, with individual placers varying from 0.23 to 1.00 mm. In the placers of the Southern Urals it increases to 0.86 mm (from 0.45 to 2.00 mm), and in the Northern Urals – to 1.11 mm (from 0.35 to 3.85 mm). The average sample in explored deposits was calculated, which varies in the range of 780–960. For individual parts of the region, it is: Southern Urals - 948, Middle Urals - 900, Northern Urals - 910, Subpolar Urals - 891.


EXAMPLES OF PLACERS IN THE URAL.

1) GOLD OF THE BOLSHESHALDINSKAYA PLACER. In 1824, mining began in the valley R. Big Shaldinka. The outbreak of exploration led to the discovery of numerous placers in the area of ​​the village, which was named Gold Crafts(now the village fishing Gornozavodsky district). The first studies of the patterns of placer gold content in the Gornozavodsk region were carried out A.A. Krasnopolsky in 1889. He discovered that the source of detrital gold was numerous small quartz veinlets running through metamorphic shales. The described placer is interesting in that, along with gold sand, it contained ore-type gold and nuggets, which allowed the famous specialist N.V. Petrovskaya(1973) infer the proximity of bedrock sources and the destruction of the upper rich parts of the ore bodies. Loose deposits have different natures. Eluvial-deluvial loams with crushed stone and blocks of underlying rocks lie directly on the bedrock. The color of these deposits varies depending on the color of the underlying rocks. Rare, weakly rounded fragments of introduced rocks were also noted. On these sediments, and sometimes on the bedrock, lies what miners call “river river” or mature, well-sorted alluvium. It is the main productive layer. Higher up, it gives way to immature alluvium, represented by less sorted material, enriched in clay, sometimes black (marsh) due to plant detritus. Locally, lenses and layers of black (floodplain) clay are recorded, as well as proluvial deposits associated with erosion of both deluvial and alluvial sediments. Almost all sediments are gold-bearing, except for floodplain ones.

The placer contains minerals that can be attributed to the following associations. The predominant minerals originating from metamorphic rocks are magnetite, ilmenite, rutile, titanite, anatase, brookite, monazite and pyrite. Gold is represented by crystals, dendritic formations, irregular grains of varying degrees of roundness, which indicates its entry into the placer over a long period of time. (photo4)

In general, the gold is of high quality and contains only an admixture of silver, which is also typical for other occurrences of the Northern Urals.
Currently, this placer is being exploited LLC "Staratel"

2) GOLD PLACEER MOSS SWAMP. (Nepryakhinskoe deposit, Southern Urals)
The Nepryakhinskoe gold deposit, 10 km north of Chebarkul station in the Chelyabinsk region, combines a group of gold-bearing quartz and sulfide-quartz veins and mineralized zones accompanied by placers. The deposit has been known since the beginning of the 19th century and was repeatedly mined until 1960. Among the primary minerals of the ores in different veins, quartz, carbonate, pyrite, arsenopyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and galena are indicated. The formation of gold placers is associated with the erosion of the weathering crust and oxidation zones of deposits reaching a depth of 50–60 m.
In the oxidation zone, the gold content is 1–10 g/t, silver – from 0.2 to 10–13 g/t, in some samples up to 50–100 g/t. The eluvial placer “Moss Swamp” is located 700–800 m southeast of the village. Nepryakhino (Fig. 1). Until 1917, 250 kg of gold was extracted from the placer with an average content of 2.3 g/m3. Later work was carried out in 1939–40. and were curtailed due to severe watering of the site and lack of electricity. In 2000, exploration and pilot industrial mining of placer gold was carried out by Ingul LLC, Chebarkul. In the western part of the swamp with traces of old work, exploration wells 5–7 m deep were drilled and a small hydraulic quarry (200 x 150 m) was laid. A placer 200–250 m wide was traced to the south-southeast for 700 m. In undisturbed areas, a layer of peat (0.5–0.7 m) overlies the clay of the weathering crust 2–3 m thick.

Rice. 1. Geological diagram of the Moss Swamp placer area

1 – sericite-chlorite schists, quartz-
sericite, graphite-quartz;
2 – chlorite, quartz-chlorite schists;
3 – serpentinites;
4 – talc-carbonate rocks;
5 – talc slates;
6 – gold veins and zones;
7 – placer of gold “Moss swamp”
8 – contour of the swamp;
9 – area of ​​the village. Nepryakhino


According to the results of the work, it was noted that there was a complete absence of rounded gold; gold was often found in intergrowths with vein quartz. For the most part "gray" concentrates were dominated by quartz or fragments of raft rocks (up to 60–92% of the volume); V "black" concentrates contain more than 50% heavy fraction. "Gray" concentrates, in addition to quartz, most often contain feldspars. Gold concentrates characterized by a predominance of large gold (average, % mass): about 30% - nuggets (more than 4 mm); 51.5% – gold fraction –4+1 mm; 10% – gold fraction –1+0.5 mm; 8.6% – fine gold of the –0.5 mm fraction, where only 0.2% falls on the –0.25 mm fraction.
The largest nugget weighing 94 g was characterized by a length of about 7 cm and a barrel-shaped shape with protrusions. (see photo 5).
A typical concentrate of spot gold from a hydraulic section usually includes 3 small nuggets (5–12 mm), 80 gold particles (2–4 mm) and about 400 small grains. Bright yellow gold nuggets have a complex shape with a lumpy-pitted surface and voids from the dissolution of host minerals, intergrowths of translucent quartz and sometimes pyrite. There are nuggets that are close in shape to crystals with smoothed tops and edges.
The nuggets are practically not rounded and are aggregates of grains from former sulfide-carbonate-quartz veins. Gold fractions +1 mm and –1+0.5 mm are characterized by a varied shape, usually flattened and weakly rounded. Among gold grains and smaller grains of gold, the proportion of lighter (yellow) gold is about 5% of the volume.
Pieces of vein gold-quartz aggregates are aggregates of gold grains 0.1–2 mm with intergrowths of whitish and colorless fine-grained quartz (0.5–3 mm). The gold grains are bright yellow and complex in shape.

The gold of the “Moss Swamp” eluvial placer is concentrated during the formation of the weathering crust during the destruction of low-sulfide gold-carbonate-quartz veins; This is indicated by the predominance of large gold and nuggets with quartz intergrowths and pyrite inclusions. The predominant host rocks are metasomatic shales with small amounts of fine gold.


METHODS OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF PLACERS AND GOLD LOSS.

The technology used by the miners is traditional and has not changed much since the time of Odysseus (see photo above). The only difference is the use of bulldozers, hydraulic monitors and the use of metal mesh and textured rubber mats instead of sheepskin (golden fleece).
Mining at the described placers is carried out using industrial devices. Prompribor is a simple installation for gold extraction. Often made from an old body from a KRAZ dump truck, the top is covered with a screen (iron sheet with 80 mm holes). And on the sides there are steel sheets installed so that the gold does not scatter to the sides. At the bottom of the “body” there is attached a long iron box (gateway), 5-10 meters long, the bottom of which is lined with metal mesh and special rubber mats. The rock is fed to the screen by a bulldozer, then it is washed away by a jet of water from a hydraulic monitor. Everything that passes through the holes of the screen ends up at the sluice, the rest of the rock - pebbles - is washed into the dump, and it contains nuggets. With a roar, the rock, along with the water, passes through the sluice, leaving gold flakes on the rubber mat. The breed that has passed through the sluice is called ephelia. They often also contain floating small, thin flake gold or gold grains intergrown with quartz and clay.
It turns out that the ephel of industrial devices ( ephel - washed rock from which gold is extracted) may also contain large gold and nuggets. Their losses are associated with gold-quartz aggregates and clay pellets. The fact is that with a significant amount of quartz, the specific gravity of the nugget, and even more so of gold, decreases. For this reason, gold and quartz go into ephelia.
For example, it is quite possible that 10 g of gold are placed as a vein in a quartz pebble measuring 5 cm. The mass of such a pebble without gold would be about 150 g. Adding 10 g of gold to this mass gives an increase in mass of less than 10%. Obviously, when enriched at the sluice, such a gold-quartz aggregate will easily roll down and be washed down the sluice. By analogy, with poor disintegration of rock sands, with a significant content of clay and loam in it, gold particles in clay aggregates are washed away from the sluices more often into a pebble dump and less often into an ephelium dump. When surveying for gold from sluices, coarse material, including quartz pebbles, tends to be thrown into the tailings. At the same time, it is unlikely that every quartz pebble is carefully examined by tenants. It is unknown how much gold hidden in quartz ends up in the dump. In the recent past, outdated technology was used that practically did not catch gold of a class less than 0.5 mm and nuggets larger than 80 mm: according to the Russian Academy of Sciences, when using traditional methods of mining placer metal, gold was extracted with losses from 15% to 40% of the total production, and gold with a grade of less than 0.25 mm was not recovered at all. It is clear that all the metal cannot be extracted, but, according to preliminary estimates, only in technogenic deposits in Russia is it possible to annually extract 5–7 tons of gold with minimal operating costs, and organize small enterprises.

Equipment for small-scale gold mining.

One of the possible ways is a method of working with gold mining at small sites using autonomous mini equipment. In places where there are no large reserves of sand for large cooperatives, you can always find small enriched areas for selective processing.
There are still more than enough small-sized but enriched areas containing tens and hundreds of kg of gold in our rivers and placers. They are not of interest for large-scale production, but for 1-2 people at minimal cost they can provide a satisfactory income. Here we can recall the domestic experience - the mining of spit gold by small teams was carried out in the Zeya district of the Amur region on a large scale before the revolution and in the 30s. On the Zeya River in 1914, 819 kg were mined from the shallows and spits of the rivers; in total, more than a ton of spit gold was mined in the Zeya region per year on trays. The method of “zolotnik” seasonal, civilian work at the mines was widely practiced in Eastern Siberia and the Far East by owners of licensed areas. In 1913 In this way, 30% of the total gold production of 1,601 poods was mined at the mines. No one knows how much was washed up by the “predators.” ( “Predators” - the name of private miners who panned for gold in new areas they discovered, using improvised means, without detailed exploration of placers and organization of work, arose in the Far East.)

Mining of small areas can be organized using modern technologies and equipment;

  • Minidrag - washing of productive sands along the shallows and spits of rivers.
  • Mini-sluices with finishing of concentrates on manual trays or concentrators - repeated washing of ephels on technogenic placers.
  • Metal detectors – selective search for nuggets on technogenic pebble dumps and rafts of waste placers, as well as on outcrops of primary deposits (veins, nests, etc.)

Minidrags - completely self-contained units for sand feeding, washing and gold recovery. They are mounted on a pontoon on which an engine, a pump, a pulp hydraulic elevator, and a flushing sluice with mats are installed. Mini dredges have a productivity of 1.5 m3 of sand per hour, their weight is from 60 kg. Productivity is usually limited by the power of the pump for sucking sand into the receiving hopper. They carry out selective washing of sand; a sand fraction of less than 5 cm gets into the pump inlet pipe. The minidrag ejector pump can suck in material from a depth of up to 3 m. Gasoline consumption from 0.8 l/hour, cost from 2.5 thousand dollars. They are used on channel and spit placers or heavily watered areas.
Minigates– devices for washing and gravity extraction of gold. Mounted on a collapsible frame: - hydraulic screen, disintegrator, receiving hopper, washing sluice. The bottom of the gateway is lined with fleecy mats and metal stencils. The tilt angle is adjustable up to 12 degrees. An engine-driven water pump supplies water from a source with a range of up to 20 m using flexible hoses. Gasoline consumption from 0.8 l/hour. Mini-sluices have a capacity of about 1.5 m3 of sand per hour, weight from 25 kg. They wash sands with pebble inclusions up to 100mm in size. Used in dry areas near water (no further than 20m). Productivity is usually limited by manual feeding of sand into the receiving hopper. Cost from 2 thousand dollars.
- an electronic device designed specifically for artisanal gold mining to search for native gold. They began searching for nuggets using metal detectors in Australia. This is where the “Electronic Gold Rush” began in 1982, when the largest nugget “Hand of Fate” weighing 27 kg was found with the help of a metal detector.
capable of selectively detecting gold particles in mineralized gold sands. The metal detector is capable of detecting the smallest gold nugget measuring approximately 5x4x2 mm, provided that it is located up to 20 cm from the surface. The metal detector determines the location of the nugget using an audio and visual signal. The devices have the function of ignoring signals from ground minerals and other metals. In cases where technogenic metals are not found in the rocks, the device perfectly records nuggets weighing 100 mg or more. Nuggets weighing from 100 mg to 1 g. are found at a depth of up to 10 cm, weighing more than 1 gram. - at a depth of up to 30 cm. The detection limit in the soil is gold particles weighing 100 mg.

Sites for small-scale gold mining with a metal detector.

To select an area and a search site, you need to find out whether nuggets weighing more than 50-100 grams have ever been found in this area. If no one has found nuggets larger than 50 g in this area, then you should not search for them. Most likely there are simply none in the area you have chosen. Information about nuggets is most easily obtained from geologists who have been working in your area for a long time or from old-timers. It is useful to talk with local geologists, visit the library of the territorial geological fund, look at exploration reports and gold sieve analyzes there. If you have access to geological information, you can make a more reliable forecast and more accurately choose where to look for nuggets.
If as a result you find out where nuggets weighing more than 50-100 g were found in the intended area, then this is already good, useful information. This means that you also have a chance to find nuggets. Typically, nugget placers form nodes that include several placer deposits. The presence of large nuggets indicates that the place is “nugget-like”. This means that there are most likely several placers with large gold. As a rule, they are mined, but all the nuggets were not recovered during mining. Some of the nuggets remained, since the quality of the placer mining was low.

  • A “good” site should have a high median gold size (preferably more than 4-5 mm).
  • When the median size of gold in a placer is less than 1 mm, searching for nuggets is futile.
  • With a median gold size of 1-2 mm, you can search for nuggets, but you shouldn’t expect good results. In general, the higher the coarseness, the better.

(Median fineness is the size of the sieve through which 50% of the gold mass is sifted).
Once you have learned that the gold is large and there are nuggets, you must decide where exactly you will look. There are several options for work:

  • search in technogenic placers (see examples above)
  • search in new areas: - entire placers and in bedrock.

Search in technogenic placers the occupation is calm, relatively reliable, you can definitely find gold here, but large production is unlikely here. If you're lucky, you might find a nugget weighing several hundred grams, but very large nuggets are rare.
Search in new areas - complete placers and in bedrock more risky. There is no guarantee here, you must find a nugget. But here you can find a “nugget nest” containing several kilograms, or maybe tens of kilograms of gold. In addition, there are a lot of objects to search for. There are countless small unexplored streams in gold-bearing areas. The search for nuggets in a bedrock outcrop can be of interest only in rare cases when there is reliable information about the location of the vein and the large gold contained in the ore.

Search for gold nuggets in technogenic placers.

In the surface layer (up to 20 cm), which can be examined with a simple and relatively cheap metal detector, there are more nuggets than on the open surface, and in a layer 50 cm thick there are even more. The best modern metal detectors provide a detection depth of very large nuggets up to 0.5 m. In technogenic placers, mining areas located closer to the headwaters of rivers are most preferable. This is due to the fact that nuggets are poorly transported by streams and remain closer to the headwaters of a stream or river. For example, the best nugget placers of a river are located in its upper reaches (no more than 2-2.5 km from the sources). The lower part of the river (for 3-5 km from the mouth) is characterized by relatively fine metal. You can look for nuggets here, but they will most likely only be in certain places. These are places where nuggets are brought in from the sides of the valley, through local indigenous sources, or from small tributaries. Finding such places is quite difficult. Therefore, the simplest thing, at first, is to abandon large valleys and look for nuggets in placers located no more than 2 km from the sources.
From such placers, it is better to choose objects with a high linear reserve, that is, the richer the area, the better. It is also possible to find nuggets on “poor” placers, but most likely there will be fewer of them than on “rich” ones.
When analyzing possible objects of work, it is necessary to take into account the availability of the raft for inspection. Nuggets are almost always confined to the lower part of the formation and depressions of bedrock. Bedrock remains on the surface after the placer is mined. Such places where bedrock comes to the surface are the most favorable for searching for nuggets. It is best to look for nuggets immediately after industrial sand mining. The raft is most fully opened at this time. It can almost always contain nuggets in the recesses and cracks of the raft. Search efficiency will be maximum here. The strength of the raft, the presence of powerful earth-moving equipment at the enterprise, and years of development play a role. Even after clearing the landfill with heavy equipment, the depressions remain untouched. A soft raft, if the enterprise has powerful bulldozers, can be excavated so deeply that no nuggets remain on it. A durable raft is more promising for work. Not everyone has a powerful bulldozer and not everyone is ready to “rip it” on strong bedrock. Therefore, on strong molars it is more likely to find raft sinks with gold nuggets.
By considering a combination of different conditions, you will find an object worth visiting. It is characterized by high coarseness of previously mined gold, located in the upper part of the valley; after mining at the landfills, an exposed raft remained. The raft is durable. The placer was mined a long time ago, when there were still few powerful bulldozers, and the loss of gold was turned a blind eye. If you have such an object, then the nuggets are in your pocket. However, such ideal objects are rare. At many placers they managed to carry out reclamation - the raft was filled up. Often the waste landfill is littered with leaching tailings. Then there is no longer a guarantee that nuggets will definitely be found.
If the placer raft is closed, then the search for nuggets can be carried out in dumps of washed sand. There may also be nuggets here. In placers with large gold, nuggets fall into the heap, especially often when using scrubbers and dredge barrels with perforations less than 20-30 mm. According to geologists, in some of the mines of the Urals, out of 200 nuggets for which there are passports indicating their location, 80 nuggets (40%) were raised in pebble dumps from separate mining in the 50s. This indicates that testing pebble dumps using metal detectors can be quite effective.
Nuggets in quartz are quite common. According to some data, the vast majority of gold nuggets from placers are aggregates of gold with quartz. The presence of gold-quartz aggregates is noted in almost any report on detailed exploration of deposits. For some placers, the share of such gold reaches 10-20%. In fact, there may be more of it. Exploration underestimates the share of gold with quartz, as it uses gravity enrichment devices, in which it is only partially captured. However, searching in man-made dumps is much more difficult than in the rafts of waste landfills. There is a lot of metal waste in the dumps, which interferes with work. The best in terms of cleanliness are placer dredge dumps that have been used once.
Mostly large nuggets (tens and hundreds of grams) can be found in dredge dumps. However, such nuggets are rare, so you can’t hope for success right away. You may have to work patiently before the first nugget is found. According to experience, in dredge dumps there is on average one nugget per 600-1000 cubic meters of rock. When working with a metal detector, you can listen to 50 cubic meters in an hour. Therefore, a good nugget can be found in a day's work.

Search on solid placers and in bedrock.

Near the streams, there are generally three types of rich placers that are not explored, licenses are not issued for them, and they are not of interest to existing mines and artisanal mining cooperatives. This brush, channel and spit placers. They are characterized by an uneven, nested distribution of gold, with reserves of tens and hundreds of grams of gold. These placers are a desirable mining target for single miners and small teams. Brush and channel deposits are common in mountainous areas, especially in headwater streams near watersheds. Spit placers can be found in the mountains and on lowland rivers, often very far from gold-bearing areas.
TO brushed include placers with concentrations of metal in cracks in bedrock, in places where watercourses cut into bedrock. They are found at drops, waterfalls, and in the zone of the cutting edge, where the erosive activity of rivers slows down for one reason or another. The bedrock transverse ridges, which can be composed of dikes and quartz veins, are very promising.
TO channel placers productive alluvium of the channel, not covered by empty sand and pebble deposits, should be considered. They are characterized by the accumulation of gold in the raft (bedrock) and their partial dispersion in the supra-raft rocks. Characteristic features include small nests, lenses, jets, quickly wedging out tapes, etc. Channel placers are usually located next to brush placers in those areas of valleys where channel incision occurs. (CHANNEL PLACERS - placers lying in a river bed and located in the area of ​​activity of a water flow; they arise at the initial stage of formation or the stage of transformation of a valley placer. R.R. are characteristic of young valleys in the incision stage and are formed by direct erosion of a root source or due to previously formed valley and terrace placers; they can be restored after mining of gold, platinum, diamonds, etc.)
TO spit placers include gold-bearing deposits of riverbed shallows. Contains gold of small and medium fractions. In the valleys of mountain streams, spit placers are usually composed of coarse clastic material, in the foothills of those rivers where the speed of streams decreases - gravel-sand sediments, and in the valleys of lowland rivers they are always represented by sand mixed with clay or silty material.
Spit placers sometimes appear tens of kilometers from the primary sources. In many river systems, spit placers are separated from other floodplain alluvial placers. But often both are spatially combined. They exhibit an uneven distribution of metal, both in the lateral and vertical directions. Oblique gold placers are usually characterized by low concentrations of the metal, represented mainly by its fine fractions. Within river spits and shallows, it is necessary to look for enriched areas in the form of lenses, which may be in places where the channel bends, behind boulders, fallen trees and similar obstacles .(SPIT PLACERS - alluvial placers of long-distance transport and redeposition, lying on sand-pebble, sandy riverbed shoals (“spits”) and alluvial islands, containing the most mobile small particles of useful minerals in the alluvial environment. They are represented by thin (several centimeters or millimeters ) layers and lenses enriched with useful minerals, alternating with layers of “empty” sediments. The thickness of the productive formation, localized in the upper horizons of the channel alluvium, rarely exceeds.1m, often amounts to several decimeters. Easily processed by water flow and can be displaced downstream during floods; able to recover after working out. Useful components of spit placers are gold (native), diamond, platinum (native). Their industrial significance is small, but they serve as a reliable indication of the presence of other types of placers and their primary sources in the valleys)

We start with the stream.
In gold-bearing areas, small mountain streams are a good place to look for nuggets. Gold falls into them from the slopes. Light rock is carried away by water, and gold, due to its high density, sinks through sand and pebbles, accumulates and forms gold-bearing placers. It is better to choose streams for examination that are short in length, up to 10-15 kilometers. These may also be the upper reaches of larger rivers. Nuggets are inactive and are not transported over long distances by the river. Typically, the further from the source, the finer the gold. Small streams are especially interesting because in them you can find rich areas of small size - “nests”. The nests contain not only nuggets, but also gold sand. From history, nests with several pounds of gold are known. To search for small gold nuggets in streams, you need to use metal detectors at maximum sensitivity. The appearance of a nugget carries useful information, so it is advisable to measure, photograph and accurately describe each nugget where it was found. This may be useful in the future for searching for a nest or root vein.
Beneath the sand and pebbles in any stream lies solid (bedrock) rock. Geologists often call them “rafts”. Gold, sinking through loose rocks, reaches the raft. It cannot fall further and accumulates here. The nuggets on the raft are the largest. There is also gold above the raft, but the higher it is, the finer it is. Nuggets are rarely found 1.5-2 meters from the raft. No nuggets are found on the open surface.
When searching for nuggets with a metal detector, the problem is that the raft is usually located at a depth of 2-5, and sometimes 50 m. You cannot get nuggets at such a depth with any device. You have to choose places where the raft comes close to the surface. Such places along the banks of mountain rivers are found quite often in the form of bedrock outcrops. Their surface was once the bottom of a stream. Later, the stream washed out another new channel, and the old bottom remained on the surface. Promising places in the form of rock outcrops are the easiest to visually find, but they are not found in all streams. If there are no visible outcrops, you need to examine the floodplain of the stream, hoping for luck. If the surface of the rock has cracks, gold, if any, remains in them. The metal detector will find it. The entire surface of the rocks and areas adjacent to the rocks must be scanned very carefully with the device.
It is also advisable to examine the accessible surface next to the riverbed, 10-20 meters above the water. These may be preserved sections of ancient river valleys (terraces), and their surface could once have been the bottom. It is interesting to examine the underwater part of the channel; there may also be nuggets there. You can search underwater with a metal detector, although it is very difficult to pull out a nugget from under the water.

Gold's companion is quartz.
A stream can be preliminarily assessed for gold using additional criteria. If there are quartz pebbles in the stream, then the stream is more promising for gold. The presence of quartz in a stream is a good sign. The fact is that gold comes from an indigenous source - a quartz vein. The quartz is destroyed, the gold is released from it and washed down the slope into the stream. Quartz also ends up in the creek and is easy to see. Quartz is a white or light gray rock. With a little experience it is easy to see. The main difference between quartz and other rocks is that it has high hardness and scratches glass. You can take any fragment of a bottle and run a piece of rock over it. If there is a scratch, then the fragment is quartz.
A more accurate criterion for selecting promising streams is washing the rock with a tray or spot sampling. Sand washing should be carried out 200-500 m above the mouth. If at least one piece of gold (sign) is caught in the tray, it’s a good sign. It is likely that there may be nuggets in the stream. But if there is no gold in the tray, then the stream cannot be considered unpromising. The tray “catches” small gold, and in the nugget area of ​​the stream the content of small gold is small, up to 1g per 1m3, and it may not get into the sample of the tray. In nugget areas you can wash 10 trays and all without gold. But if gold gets into the tray, then the stream needs to be examined first and very carefully.


CONCLUSION.

Small-scale gold mining is becoming increasingly common today. Those who want to mine gold enter into an agreement with the license holder and work on his site, on man-made dumps. The work is carried out in small teams, in other cases by single miners, sometimes by families panning for gold.
The development of small-scale gold mining is artificially constrained by legislative restrictions: individuals are allowed to mine gold only within existing mining allotments and only from technogenic deposits.
Man-made dumps have a number of advantages - they require lower costs for organization and re-development, and also have lower initial requirements for technical training of personnel.
Research conducted by specialists suggests that the predicted gold resources in dumps in the territory of the Oymyakonsky ulus of Yakutia alone amount to more than 70 tons. In some deposits, the number of nuggets during mining was twice as high as during exploration, which suggests their significant presence in pebble dumps. A preliminary analysis of the documentation of 400 deposits in the Indigirka River basin with a total gold production of more than 450 tons showed the prospects for recycling 130 deposits, which produced more than 360 tons.
The prospect of searching on old dumps has the following advantages: :
– capital and operating costs for metal extraction are significantly reduced;
– no stripping operations are required;
– the location of the sites is reliably known;
– the ability to use mobile and inexpensive mini equipment;
– lower requirements for technical training of personnel;
– relatively developed infrastructure and road network in the work areas;
– the cost of performing appraisal work is significantly lower than standard exploration methods.
The decisive factors that provide a long-term prospect for the search for nuggets are huge reserves of gale-ephel dumps, relatively low investments at the initial stage, high profitability during mining, and ample opportunities for investing in new technologies for gold mining.


Each region, like a person, is unique and inimitable. I was born and raised in Bashkiria and I want to talk about my land, which has a special attractive force, a unique, fascinating nature and still conceals many mysteries. And I hope that once you get to know this land, you will love these places and want to come here again and again.
One of the most beautiful corners of the republic is the northeastern part of the Trans-Urals - Uchalinsky and Abzelilovsky districts. The map shows that this territory lies in the east and the sun begins its daily journey across Bashkiria from here

The region of Bashkortostan is named after the people living on this territory. The word Bashkir comes from the ethnonym Bashkort in the meaning bash - “main, main” and kor (t) - “clan, tribe” (R. G. Kuzeeva). According to 18th-century researchers V.N. Tatishchev, P.I. Rychkov, I.G. Georgi, the word Bashkort means “main wolf.” In 1847, local historian V.S. Yumatov wrote that Bashkort means “beekeeper, owner of bees.” This interpretation of the meaning of the word “Bashkort” is associated with beekeeping (beekeeping) developed in this territory.
Here, every piece of land has its own history, and the nature is pure and pristine. And every person who finds himself in these parts has the opportunity to feel its true spirit, to “hear” first-hand the legends of the old-timers - the larches, whose age reaches 800 years.

"Golden Rivers" and Mirror Lakes

Back in the 19th century, placer (mine) gold was mined in the Trans-Ural region. Mining was carried out along the valleys of the rivers Daryuly, Yrgaida, Orsk, Iremel, Ural and many others. According to an expert in these regions, geologist Basyr Magadeev, grains of the precious metal can be found in almost any mountain river. Gold is everywhere, just be able to see it

D custom of gold by miners (Chalino Museum of History and Local Lore)

There are many legends associated with this natural wealth that exist among the local population. Many people wonder how gold was found here before? It is not given to everyone. Legends tell about a golden mare.
“There lived in a village a young guy - an orphan shepherd. And one day he saw a golden mare at the well. He went out to gather the herd and looked - she was standing there, raising her head. It was just dawn and everything was clearly visible. The shepherd is watching, but is afraid to come closer. She was pure gold, neighed quietly and disappeared. And it was so outlandish that the guy wondered if he had imagined it. I walked around the pasture all day, and the terrain in the Trans-Urals is mountainous. And on the same day, a shepherd found a nugget in a ravine - the size of a fist.

View of the Belaya River from the mountain, Bashkiria

People said that he was not the only one who saw this mare. And always the one who saw it either found the nugget or hit the vein.

In addition to the “golden” rivers, the treasury of the northeastern Trans-Urals contains many lakes, more than sixty of them. Most of them contain healing mud-sapropel in their sludge. It is used in medicine for mud therapy, as soil fertilizer and as mineral additives in livestock feed.

Between the village of Mikhailovskoye and the state farm “Red Bashkiria”, in a small depression lies Lake Muldakkul (Muldak; Bashk. Muldak kul, salt lake). There is practically nothing in it, but its water has a healing effect on the human body.

Lake Kuldybai (at the northern foot of the Kutantau ridge)

The most famous lake of this land is Yaktykul (Yaktykul, Yaktykul, Mauyzzi, Bashk. Yaҡty kul - “bright lake”), also known as “Bannoe”. According to legend, Emelyan Pugachev ordered his troops to “bath” before the battle, that is, to wash themselves in the alkaline water of Yaktykul. Today this lake and its surroundings are a favorite vacation spot. There are sanatoriums and recreation centers here, and there is also a ski center on Mount Bashmak.

Mountain riches of the Trans-Urals

One of the main natural attractions of these places is the Iremel mountain complex, where the second largest peak of the Southern Urals is located. Iremel - “Sacred (mountain)” from the Bashkir-Tatar words yrym - “spell”, “witchcraft”, yrymly - “bewitched”, “bewitched”.

View of Big Iremel from the Avalyak ridge

It is believed that Iremel has unique energy. And the water in the rivers and streams that originate on the mountain gives energy and strength to a person. Local residents believe that the mountain helps achieve their cherished goals.
Every year a huge number of tourists come here with the cherished goal of climbing the mountain, recharging their energy and dreaming what they want.

The land of the northeast Trans-Urals is rich in manganese, jasper and marble. One could only guess about these riches until deposits of marbled limestone were discovered in the vicinity of the villages of Ryskuzhino, Amangildino and Utyaganovo. There is so much marble here, experts say, that it will last for decades, and its color is completely unique - its analogues can only be found in the depths of the Republic of South Africa.

Bakty Ridge (adjacent to the Iremel mountain range in the east)

Origin of the Bashkirs in the Trans-Urals

The question of the origin of the Bashkirs in the Trans-Urals has long been of interest to scientists. The accumulated archaeological material suggests that the penetration of Bashkir tribes into this land occurred long before our era. In the Uchalinsky district alone, 44 ancient human sites were discovered.

At the beginning of our era, early Bashkirs lived here, about whom legends said that they were immigrants from the Syr Darya, from the ancient homeland of the Bashkirs - the Aral Sea region, Kazakhstan.

In the 13th century AD. e. These lands were conquered by the Mongol-Tatar troops. At the same time, Genghis Khan lost too much “manpower” here and refused to go deeper into the territory.

The main part of Bashkiria joined the Russian state in 1557. But representatives of the Tabyn tribe remained loyal to the Siberian Khan Kusem, refusing to obey the Russian Tsar. Only after half a century of bloody wars, the Bashkirs of Trans-Urals joined the Russian state.

The future of Trans-Urals

Every year interest in these places only increases. This is due both to the development of mining and the natural beauty of the area.

But tourism in these parts is not yet very widely developed, and many people have yet to get acquainted with this wonderful corner of the planet: meet a picturesque sunrise, swim in the cleanest lakes, feast on fresh fish and feel the energy of these places. And these regions have something to surprise and delight guests!

In the Bashkir steppe

What a distance! What space!
In the steppe, as in the sky, the gaze drowns,
And the thought flies after him,
And there is no barrier around her.

There is a green ocean all around.
On it, like a wave, a mound froze,
And everywhere, with the foam of stormy waters,
Silver feather grass blooms.

Sometimes, like the wind,
Bashkir will ride on a horse...
A flock of sheep... A chain of wagon trains...
Aul... And there is still the same steppe,
Still the same breadth, still the same distance,
All the same rivers are living steel...
Here is a kingdom of clear silence,
Here is the bed of northern spring.
(Fedorov A.M.)

Gold mining is a global business, operating on every continent except Antarctica. And gold mining in Bashkiria occupies a significant part in this area.

Long before any gold is obtained, extensive research and measurements will be required. To determine the size of the deposit as accurately as possible, and to extract and process gold ore efficiently and safely.

It will take an average of 10-20 years before a mine is ready to produce material.

In areas of the Urals, huge volumes of precious rocks are mined every year. They account for about 15 percent of total production. It is one of the richest sources of precious metals. And gold too.

This is due to the following:

  • features of the geographical location;
  • moderate climate type;
  • resource location availability;
  • absence of permafrost in the spring.

Currently, gold mining is carried out throughout the Ural territory.

The year 1745 is considered to be the beginning of the official operation of gold-bearing mines. However, many people previously discovered Ural gold nuggets and sold them.

So, briefly about where and how they look for gold in the Urals.

Although, as noted earlier, gold mining is currently carried out everywhere, Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk stand out from all places. They are famous for their rich sources of precious metals, which have not yet been exhausted.

Every year, 20-50 tons of gold are obtained on the Ural side. Extraction is carried out in several ways:

  1. Manually. Specialists wash the sand themselves and then sift it.
  2. Ore method. Such work is usually carried out in mines.
  3. Using dredge. A dredge is a special machine used for washing soil.
  4. Hydraulic method. Workers use a special pump that erodes rocks.

As a rule, in most cases the ore method is used. It is the most convenient and is actively used throughout Russian territory.

The mine with large gold reserves, which was discovered first, was precisely the Ural one. And it was called “Berezovsky”. This happened in 1747 near the Berezovka river, which flows near Yekaterinburg. A little 9-year-old girl discovered gold flecks while playing in the sand. This is how it became known about one of the largest deposits.

This mine with a 300-year history still exists today. Its area has been completely explored by gold miners, although it extends for tens of kilometers.

Many experts argue that the Ural gold reserves are far from exhausted. According to research, gold mining in the Urals will continue to exist for about a century. At the same time, the projected amount of gold mined is at least 20 tons annually.

In addition, they are now actively exploring hard-to-reach places where miners have never set foot before. Many of them contain gold and other precious rocks.

Gold mining in Bashkiria

At the Russian level, Bashkiria is one of the largest gold producers. Thus, in 2015, approximately 7.5 tons of precious metals were mined on Bashkir territory, among which gold was not the least important.

On the territory of Bashkortostan there are four main regions where gold has been mined for a long time. All deposits have differences in the nature and composition of the metal mined there:

  • Sakmaro-Tanalyk zone – placers;
  • The Uchalinsky district is predominantly a gold-sulfide deposit;
  • Baymaksky district - this area is characterized by gold and polymetallic mining;
  • Beloretsky district. In the Uchalinsky and Baymaksky districts there is the largest concentration of quartz gold veins.

And throughout the east of the South Ural slope, gold-quartz compositions are dispersed. A certain number of them are also present in the areas of Upper Avzyan.

Most of the Trans-Ural deposits with sulfide ore are high-quality sources of both gold and copper.

The large concentration of precious deposits in Bashkiria is due to the number of oxidation zones in the deposits. Currently, geological work and the search for new gold deposits are being actively carried out in Bashkortostan. A number of potential rich sources have already been found.

Recently, private gold mining in abandoned mines was legalized here. Absolutely anyone can come here with a metal detector and start searching. True, the likelihood of finding something is small. Because these places have been walked far and wide by professionals a long time ago.

Gold mining in the rivers of Bashkiria

Many deposits can be found near river waters. With sufficient awareness, it is possible to find a placer even in shallow water.

There are many rivers in Bashkiria that contain gold.

Rivers play a significant role in the gold mining industry of Bashkiria.

Before starting the mining itself, experts examine the components of the bottom, since gold is not found in every river section.

The presence of metal also depends on the nature of the soil. Hydrologists are dealing with this issue. Often gold deposits can be found in dry river beds. In the form of sediment.

Some of the former river flow sediments may also contain gold. The richest deposits in this regard are:

  • alluvial and channel;
  • terrace and bottom.

Before they start looking for gold, miners study all kinds of data. Such as the reasons for the appearance of metal in the soil and the nature of its movements.

Due to the fact that metal is several times heavier than water, it is easy to calculate its movements. The stronger the water flow, the greater the likelihood of resource displacement. Distance and direction are calculated in the same way.

However, gold rarely travels long distances. Unless it's just a gold mine. Nuggets, especially large ones, simply crawl along the bottom surface in the direction of the current. Due to the weight of the nugget and the law of attraction, the speed of movement is minimal.

In the vast majority of situations, the placer occurs either at the end of a bend in the river channel or at the beginning. There is also a high chance of encountering gold in the inner river bend.

Geology of placer deposits

A placer deposit is a concentration of natural gold accumulated in sediments. For example, in the beds of rivers and streams.

Gold produced by weathering or another process is likely to accumulate in placer deposits because of its light weight and corrosion resistance. In addition, its characteristic yellow color makes it easily and quickly recognizable even in very small quantities.

To extract gold of this type, special miner's trays and sieves are often used. They are a container made of sheet iron with sloping sides and a flat bottom, which is used for washing gold-bearing soil or other material containing heavy minerals. The alluvium is carefully sifted for valuable materials.

The material washing process is the simplest and most commonly used. This is a less expensive method of separating gold from silt, sand, and other stream sediments.

It's tedious work. And only with practice does a person become a professional in his activity.

Hydrogeochemical exploration

Groundwater may also contain subsurface deposits. As groundwater flows through the deposit, small amounts of gold are washed out of the rocks. Sometimes it can be found in parts of groundwater collected from wells.

Over the past few centuries, Bashkiria has been carefully explored by enthusiasts. They searched for precious metals in both the most famous areas and the little-known ones. The results of their activities have never been fully documented.

But incomplete data suggests that only a few of the many thousands who searched this or that part of the deposits ever found valuable resources. Most of the "golden" areas were explored by industry pioneers, many of whom were very experienced in their field. Therefore, gold ore is rare there.

However, the development of new, highly sensitive and relatively inexpensive gold prospecting methods has greatly expanded the possibility of detecting deposits. Now gold extraction is possible in inaccessible places.

They can be quite large. And therefore suitable for the operation of modern mining and metallurgical plants. Geologists and engineers who explore remote Bashkir regions systematically find small placers of gold.

Facts from the “golden” history of Bashkiria

The vast majority of the world's gold was mined in the modern post-war era. It is not known for certain how many centuries gold mining was carried out in the Southern Urals. But we can definitely say that it manifested itself at the end of the 18th century.

In the Uchalinsky district, even before revolutionary times, a large gold bar was somehow discovered, which weighed about 16 kg. And, after some period, they found another one - weighing 5 kg. He was given the name “Irndyk Bear” and placed in the local central museum. It is still possible to visually study it and even touch it today.

At the end of May 1812, the monopoly on the extraction of this metal was abolished. And all residents of Russia were allowed to search for gold ores. With the condition of further payment to the treasury. Until 26 of the same century, precious metals were mined by miners.

In the south of the Urals they used a chemical method for extracting gold. This happened in 86 of the 19th century, when a plant for processing ephels containing gold was built at one of the mines. The chlorination method was used.

In the period from 1832 to 1917, more than 42 tons of gold were extracted from the subsoil located in Bashkiria. About 28 tons mined occurred between 1885 and 1917. According to scientists, this clearly shows the cyclical nature of the gold mining industry and its dependence on economic and political factors.

By the 20th century, the industry had reached new heights. And this is precisely what contributed to the emergence of the socialist economy some time after the Civil War. It also improved industry throughout the republic.

In the first Soviet years, Buribayevskoye, Sibayskoye, Vostochno-Kuznechnoye and other well-known deposits were discovered. And in the east of the Uchalinsky district they discovered Blagodatnoye, Yuzhno-Remezovskoye and Krasnoohtinskoye.

Social and economic consequences

Despite the scale of the global gold mining industry, its socio-economic impacts are not well understood. However, many reports present a number of indicators indicating the significant contribution of the gold mining industry to socio-economic development.

In recent years, concerns have been raised about potential links between gold and illegal armed conflicts such as Civil Wars. Although their share in Bashkortostan is low, a responsible mining industry has oversight processes in place to make sure that neither the companies nor the gold they produce contribute to conflict.

The conflict-free gold standard is an agreement developed by the World Gold Council. It is based on internationally accepted criteria and helps mining companies ensure that their gold is not subject to national and international controversy. The standard promotes proper auditing of supply chains and reduces the likelihood of hazards.

Bashkir oil refiners and representatives of industry groups describe the Standard as an important step towards trust and transparency in the gold sector.

Success in finding gold continues to be achieved by those who choose favorable areas. And only after a thorough study of the rocks and geology of the area. Serious prospecting should not be undertaken by anyone who does not have sufficient capital to support a long and possibly unsuccessful gold prospecting campaign.

In Russia, work to discover deposits is being carried out in many regions. And every year the number of successful campaigns increases. This makes it possible to constantly increase the state gold reserve. Ural is one of the leaders in this area. The largest part of precious metals is mined here. And Bashkiria plays an important role in this.

From the materials of various researchers (Jessen, 1948) it follows that gold mining first appeared in the Southern Urals, apparently at the end of the second millennium BC. and finally froze in the 16th-17th centuries AD, i.e. just 100-200 years before the emergence of the Russian gold industry. Available sources do not allow us to answer the question of whether it existed continuously for almost three millennia, or arose and lasted only during certain historical periods.

We do not yet know direct traces of ancient gold mining on the territory of the Republic of Bashkortostan; information about the finds related to this area has not been sufficiently reflected in the literature. The little that can now be pointed out boils down to the following.

At the Sultanovsky mine on the river. Sultanka - the right tributary of the river. Bol. Kizil (Baymaksky district of the Republic of Belarus), miners discovered traces of ancient mining of gold-bearing quartz veins using stone tools. Pieces of crushed quartz were found here, and traces of gold scraping were found on veins exposed by mining.

Academician Lepekhin, who traveled through the Urals in 1770, notes the “Peipus Mine” 4 km from the Kananikolsky plant along the Kurtly river (Zilairsky district of the Republic of Belarus). He writes: “Our Peipus mine seemed to us to be proof that the ancient inhabitants of this country also traded in high metals.”

Another ancient “mine” was discovered by Lepekhin not far from the previous one. “...Being 20 versts from Sakmara, near the Shirly River we came upon a protruding mountain ridge, and 5 versts from that place on a hillside, the name of which the Bashkirs could not name, there was an ancient mine, where there were signs of copper in quartz and with gold were rabble."

Following the footsteps of more ancient developments, the Kiryabinsky copper mine was founded in 1749, and at the beginning of the 19th century, the Voznesensky copper mine was founded in the Uchalinsky region.

Ancient work on placer gold can be judged indirectly, based on the following facts.

N.I. Kuraev (1937) points out that during the pre-revolutionary development of placers along the river. Miass (Orlovo-Nadezhdinskoe and Vasilyevskoe swamps) near the village. Ilchigulova (Uchalinsky district of the Republic of Belarus) found copper axes. Gold mining dates back to no later than the 5th-3rd centuries BC. e., when later copper and bronze axes were used in the Urals.

At the mentioned Sultanovsky mine, during the extraction of placer gold in gold-bearing “sands,” copper and bronze tools were found: an eye axe, a chisel and two pieces of a clay vessel. These items date back to 1000 BC.

At the Tanalyk mine of the Goryaevs (Baymak district of the Republic of Belarus), a copper or bronze dagger and the same sickle were found, which dates this find to the beginning of the last millennium BC.

In the territory of the Chelyabinsk and Orenburg regions adjacent to the Republic of Bashkortostan there are also archaeological finds from this and later times. Based on the above information, we can presumably talk about the emergence of ancient gold mining in the Southern Urals back in the Copper-Bronze Age (finds at the Ioanno-Krestitelsky and Sultanovsky mines, on the Yusha River) and about its continuation in the 8th-12th centuries AD. (find near Troitsk). Later, from century to century, there were rumors that there was gold in the depths of the Stone Belt. However, it was only at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries that the history of the mining Urals began.

The discovery of industrial gold in the Urals was favored by many circumstances, including the decrees of Peter I, who took great care to discover gold in Russia and begin its development. In the very first years, when all power was concentrated in his hands, Peter I began to persistently strive to find gold ore. On September 1, 1697, an order was given to the Tobolsk governor, Prince Cherkassy. Gold ore was named first according to the order: “... if someone knows about gold or silver ore, copper ore, or mica, or in the future, they will notify about it,” he said.

The call to search for gold in Russia is even more clearly formulated in Peter’s legislation of November 2, 1700: “to replenish gold and silver in the great sovereign of the Muscovite state in Moscow and in the cities, look for gold and silver and copper and other ores...” .

These and other state acts of Peter I and his successors on the development of mining led to the fact that gold was discovered almost simultaneously in the Urals, Altai, Karelia and Transbaikalia.

The Urals are the only region of Russia in the 18th century in which, based on the discovery of Erofei Markov in 1745, gold mining began to be created and successfully developed as an independent industry. At this time, only in the Urals there were special organizations in charge of gold mining, such as the Yekaterinburg gold mining expedition, the Berezovsky, Pyshminsky and Uktus gold mines.

For 70 years (1745-1814), ore was the only source of gold, and all gold mining in Russia during this period was concentrated in the Urals. The next most important circumstance confirming the primacy of the Urals as the birthplace of the gold industry is the discovery of Russian alluvial gold.

In 1814, the Ural foreman L.I. For the first time in the modern history of Russia, Brusnitsin discovered alluvial gold in the Miass region and began its industrial mining.

Brusnitsyn spent his entire childhood with a tray in his hands; he was a skilled, experienced washer, and the experience he gained was very useful to him. Having become a foreman (mining foreman) and given the task of testing the dumps of gold-quartz veins in order to assess the possibility of their re-processing, he himself began washing samples and at the same time broke the usual pattern: he did not transport samples to the factory, but significantly reduced their weight and simplified processing , limited it to washing on a tray in a river that flowed near the dumps. And it became obvious that many small samples characterize the distribution of gold in a dump faster and more reliably than rare large samples. Rich areas were identified quickly and reliably. Brusnitsyn began to feed the factory with his own ore and increased metal production. All this earned the approval of his superiors, but it was a significant event only on the scale of the factory. Having completed the study of the dumps, Brusnitsyn still spent more time at the river than at the factory. Now he washed samples on a tray not from ore dumps, but from what lay below - from river sand and pebble deposits. This went against the production instructions of that time, but soon one had to be surprised not at Brusnitsyn’s strange actions, but at the fact that gold sparkled in his tray!

This is how the first gold mine in the modern history of Russia (and in the northern countries in general) was discovered. Based on Brusnitsyn’s initiative, a new direction of gold mining was created in a short time - extracting gold from the “sands”. By 1823, gold placers were discovered in more than two hundred places, including in Bashkiria, and the mining of placer gold successfully developed over a vast area from Denezhkin Kamen in the north to the southern Ural steppes. The case, started in the Urals, was then picked up in Altai, Western and Eastern Siberia, and the Far East.

The gold (and mining in general) industry and the inextricably linked prospecting business of Bashkiria have come a long way from artisanal work with their primitive equipment to modern technology, from small-scale “proprietary” and artisanal developments to large mining enterprises and artisanal artisans. At the dawn of its formation, mining was carried out mainly from gold-bearing ores in the oxidation zone of gold sulfide, copper pyrite and gold-quartz deposits.

The development of oxidized gold ores has been known since the mid-18th century. To supply the Preobrazhensky copper smelter (Zilair settlement) with ore, prospecting and exploration work was carried out in the Bashkir Trans-Urals. In 1749, the Tanalykskoye and in 1750, the Uvaryazhskoye gold-copper pyrite deposits were discovered.

When developing these deposits, and then Northern Yuluk and Yulala, butars were used to extract free gold. The upper horizons of the deposits were developed, as a rule, to the groundwater level. Destroyed outcrops of gold-bearing “iron hats” and quartz veins, represented by a clay mass with the inclusion of ore and quartz material, were washed on butars and cradles, and the ore material and quartz were crushed in an ore mortar or thrown into a dump. Gold recovery reached 30-35%.

With the discovery of placer deposits in the first third of the 19th century, the extraction of ore gold practically ceased, since its extraction from placers was more profitable and less labor-intensive.

The first discoveries and the beginning of development of gold placers in Bashkiria date back to the early 30s of the 19th century. At this time, in the Uchalinsky district, rich placers were discovered near the village. Muldakaevo along the river. Miass. In 1835, placers were discovered along the Uy and Shartymka rivers. The Sultanovskaya placer has been known in the Baymak region since 1837. In subsequent years, in addition to the discovery of placers in the basins of the Miass, Uy, Ural and Tanalyk rivers, discoveries followed in the Zilair and Beloretsky (basins of the Belaya and Bolshaya Avzyan rivers) regions. By the beginning of the 1900s, more than three hundred placers were already known, including all the largest ones.

Despite the use of ineffective and unproductive industrial devices in the development of placers, the work was carried out very intensively. As a rule, only rich areas with an average sand content of at least 4-6 g/m 3 were developed. In the Uchalinsky region in the 19th century, the average annual production was about 400 kg of gold, and in the period 1875-1885. it reached 800 kg. In other regions of Bashkiria, the scale of gold mining was significantly lower.

In the 1900s, gold mining passed into the hands of joint stock companies. Due to the consolidation of capital, the technical equipment of the mines has improved and their productivity has increased. The level of gold production reached its maximum towards the end of the first - beginning of the second decade. According to incomplete data, during the pre-revolutionary period, 35 tons of placer gold were mined on the territory of the republic (Kuznetsov, 1936), moreover, over 70% of production occurred in the Uchalinsky region. Along with gold, searches, exploration and mining of copper, platinum group metals, chromites, manganese and iron ores, and jasper were carried out. In 1907-1918 A powerful impetus to the development of the mining industry and the search for new deposits was given by the formation of the Anglo-Russian Tanalyk-Baymak Company, later transformed into the South Ural Mining Joint-Stock Company (YUGAO). In a short period of time, with the involvement of local ore miners, the company explored a vast territory in the south of Bashkiria and in adjacent parts of the Orenburg region, discovered and developed many deposits that are still of industrial importance (Sibaiskoye, Bakr-Tau, Uvarazh, Tubinskoye, Semenovskoye, Yulaly, Bakr-Uzyak, Dergamysh, Kul-Yurt-Tau, etc.). A bright mark in the history of prospecting and mining in Bashkiria was left by the founder of the South UGAO Leslie Urquhart, the chief geologist of the company, a member of the Kingsbury Mineralogical Society of London, and the director of the South UGAO A.F. Kabanov.

In the development of the search for deposits in Bashkiria, the contribution of pre-revolutionary industrialists Rameevs, Goryaevs, geologists N.K. was also significant. Vysotsky, A.P. Karpinsky, N.P. Barbota-de Marny, E.G. Goyer et al.



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