Where to look for gold in the Urals? Map and detailed information will be given in this article. Let's look at the history of metal mining in this region, the main deposits and prospects for gold mining in general.

A little history about gold mining is useful for those who want to get more information about gold mining. precious metal in the Urals. Interestingly, it was in this territory that gold was first discovered in Russia. The first gold mine began its work there. How did this happen? In 1745, Erofei Markov discovered in the Ural mountains unusual stone, characterized by the presence of gold particles. He took the find and brought it to Yekaterinburg. Next, the engineers arrived at the place indicated to them in search of the precious metal, but found nothing. Only Ignatius Yudin (a student of Lomonosov) managed to discover grains of gold in 1747. At the same time, the first mine began work.

So Russia acquired its own gold deposit. The main difference was that mining began from an ore deposit, and not from a placer deposit, as in the rest of the world. But it was not immediately possible to establish mass gold mining. The first tangible results appeared only in 1754, when 16 pounds of gold were recorded.

Larger finds became known only towards the end of the eighteenth century, when dozens of mines were already in operation and over 140 gold-bearing veins were discovered. In one of the mines in 1842, a unique nugget was discovered that weighed over 32 kilograms. It was called the "Great Triangle".

The Urals are the wealth of Russia, because this region is amazing in its mineral content. In the Urals, not only gold is mined, but also copper, silver, aluminum, platinum, and ferrous metals. The region is rich in coal, oil, gas, asbestos, dolomite, talc, and magnesite. There are large quantities of deposits of precious and semi-precious stones.

Gold deposits in the Urals and their map

Gold deposits in the Urals and their map are of concern to many who want to try their hand at gold mining. It is worth knowing that most of the mines (about 70%) currently operating are concentrated in three main regions of the Urals - Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk. Mines are represented in smaller quantities in the Orenburg region, Northwestern and Volga districts, and Bashkortostan. The bulk of the deposits are gold ore and complex mines, but the share of placers does not exceed 17%.

Worth knowing! About 75% of alluvial gold is mined in the Sverdlovsk region, and over 71% of the gross volume of gold production is produced in the Chelyabinsk region, which is famous for its ore deposits.

The most popular primary deposits are:

1. Kochkarskoe;
2. Berezovskoe.
3. Bereznyakovskoe.
4. Svetlinskoe.
5. Vorontsovskoe.

Among the promising placer mines are Staro-Marininsky, Kazansky, Suleimenevsky and Severo-Svetlinsky.

You can take a look at the map below. From it it is clear that gold is concentrated throughout the entire territory of the Ural Range, somewhere in large and somewhere in smaller volumes. The reason for such a natural miracle can be called the collision of two tectonic plates, which led to the formation of mountains and minerals in them. Especially a lot of gold is contained in lava masses. In fact, they are the main source of precious metal in the Urals.

Features of gold prospecting and mining in the Urals

The features of gold prospecting and mining in the Urals will be of interest to many. The most popular is the ore method (divided into mine and quarry). It is also considered the most expensive, so it is available exclusively to large companies. At placer deposits, gold is contained in large quantities in the soil, which is why its industrial mining is not the most profitable business. That is why there are crowds of miners operating there who use artisanal methods.

It is worth knowing that anyone can search for and mine gold in the Urals. For independent gold mining, it is necessary to draw up a contract agreement with any organization that has its own mine in the territory. If this is not done, the procedure will be considered illegal, which may lead to criminal or administrative liability. After mining, the only option for delivering gold is an agreement with the company. However, the price is not always encouraging.

You can mine gold in new areas. This is the most promising method. Especially in demand are the gold-bearing rivers of the Urals (on the map of Russia - all the rivers of the Ural region), mountain slopes, as well as places where rock masses move.

In addition, you can search for metal in waste placers. The probability of finding the material is high due to the fact that modern methods of finding aurum do not allow achieving one hundred percent efficiency. Prospectors even occasionally manage to discover small nuggets.

We can conclude that the Urals are one of the richest regions for seekers of gold, as well as other precious metals and stones. In principle, anyone with a little persistence, time and desire can find gold in the Urals. The main thing is to register the extraction legally and believe in yourself.

You can learn more about gold mining in the Urals from the video below.

Today we will look at ancient abandoned gold mines and gold mining sites in Moldova and Bessarabia. We will also find out where you can find and mine gold in Moldova. Let's look at ancient maps and diagrams of gold deposits in Moldova

The German company Gabri Resour decided to mine gold 50 km from Chisinau. In accordance with the text of the agreement, the German company will transfer only six percent of profits to the Moldovan government. Open-pit mining of gold and silver is planned for 16 years, using cyanide to purify gold from impurities. The deposit is valued at 6 billion euros. However, the government itself would rather get a headache than money. After 16 years of mining, 259 million tons of cyanide-containing waste will be collected in a special settling tank.

The same is true for gold ore mining near Rybnitsa. The American company Chevron has been granted permission to explore the country's subsoil. It’s just that the conditions in this case are classified. In general, the country’s gold mining market and the companies operating in it are a closely guarded secret. In 2004, the state-owned gold mining company Petro was privatized. In Chisinau today, liberals were tearing their throats, talking about how the state cannot effectively manage property.

But the Moldovan company was bought by the Austrian OMV, which actually belongs to the Austrian government. Traditionally, part of the terms of the contract is classified and remains unknown to the general public ten years later. The authorities are afraid of publicity - the people might rebel. Something similar is happening throughout Moldova. Following the combination with VEM and the International Airport, they are going to privatize Moldtelecom.

From the history of gold mining in Moldova. In 1827-1830 gold placer deposits were found and developed near the village of Riscani. In 1829, the company of the Ryazanovs, Kazantsev and Balandin discovered an unusually productive gold placer near the town of Shepteban. In 1838, deposits were discovered on the Keinar River. Then the search moved to the Prut River, where fabulously rich placers were soon discovered. Their development was accompanied by an influx of prospectors from all over Moldova, reminiscent of a gold rush. In 1847 alone, about 4 tons of gold were mined here!

The search in the vicinity of Chokylteni was crowned with success: in 1843 gold was found there. All over Moldova, mines grew like mushrooms. The old gold mining area was not forgotten either - near the village. Drochia. The expectation of finding placers here paid off: in the vicinity of the Drochia mines, 40 kg of gold were mined in 1845. In 1853, the famous Meshensky placer was explored, thanks to which the amount of gold recovered increased several times, reaching 0.8 thousand kilograms.

Gold miners quickly moved east across Moldova. In 1846, the first gold mines appeared on the border with modern Ukraine. In 1863, applications were made for mines along the Reut and Byk rivers. It was then that the winter quarters of miners arose, which laid the foundation for the city of Bukovets, the famous gold mining center of Moldova.

Many placers in the Prut River basin are located under sediment at a considerable depth - up to 60 m, and only large companies can develop them. Single miners went bankrupt and sold their mines, scattering along the tributaries in search of “easier” gold. Thanks to them, rich deposits were found in the valleys of the Botna and Yalpug rivers.

Later, active development of gold began in the Budzhyakuluy steppes. But here the scouts faced great difficulties: a very harsh climate, hot summers, a complete lack of roads and impassable steppe. In addition, the pioneers used primitive technology. Kaylo, shovel, wheelbarrow and sluice gates with bars are irreplaceable, but low-productive tools of gold miners of that time. At first, while large deposits were being mined, artels produced 15 or more kilograms per year. But the rich placers were quickly depleted, and prospectors had neither the equipment nor the money to develop deep deposits.

In the 60s. XIX century Dutch gold miners reached the Black Sea coast - the search for placers covered the whole of Moldova, where they discovered sea placers.

In total, during the period from 1752 to 1917, more than 22 tons of gold were mined on the territory of modern Moldova, which amounted to 0.5% of all world production during this period, and in the middle of the 19th century. reached fifth place in Europe. However, after the discovery of giant deposits in California, Australia and South Africa, Moldova’s share decreased in 1840 to 0.03% at the beginning of the 20th century.

In the 19th century, Moldova, although it was part of other states, created its own gold mining industry. Hundreds of European mining engineers, mechanics and skilled miners worked on the development of fundamentally new technologies.

In terms of technical equipment, the gold mining industry of the then Moldova was not inferior to and even superior to the American, and even more so Australian and South African. Diamond drills were used in Moldavian mines, and a system of heat treatment of ore and winter gold washing were used in the mines. Hydroelectric power stations operated, the energy of which was used not only for production, but also for domestic needs. In 1910 11 dredges, the most advanced for their time, were installed at the Moldavian mines. Annual production by 1914 exceeded 10 tons and amounted to almost 0.2% of the world.

In 1896, the Moldavian Gold Mining Partnership was created. Under the contract dated January 4, 1909, the English company Gold Fields acquired 67,319 shares of Prut-Gold (1/6 of the annual production in Moldova). About 20% of annual income went into the pockets of the British. Working and living conditions were so difficult that in 1912, unrest began at the mines, which escalated into a strike that lasted more than two months. As a result, the owners lost about £6 million in profit, although it would have cost them only £1 million to comply with the workers' demands.

The owners of Prut-Gold decided to cover their losses by playing on the stock exchange. When small shareholders, having heard about the Moldovan events, began to sell shares at low prices, the company bought them up. After the resumption of work at the mines, the stock price went up again. As a result, Gold Fields not only fully recovered its losses, but also made a profit.

The gold of Moldova attracted close attention of foreigners. Many expeditions from England, Germany, and Belgium conducted geological exploration in the central part of the country. In just one day - April 7, 1907 - five foreign field detachments passed through Moldova. The Americans were eyeing the famous mines of Moldova. In 1913-1914 Hundreds of German buyers appeared in the east of Minjir. Having significant loans from German banks, they penetrated into the very hinterlands and purchased gold directly from the mines.

A serious problem for the gold mining industry in Moldova was labor. In Moldova, for example, local residents were prohibited from engaging in artisanal mining so that they would not be distracted from agriculture. This forced enterprise owners to hire Ukrainians, who came to Moldova in teams of 100-150 people. With their help and with some support from foreign capital, an underground network for pumping gold abroad arose.

The gold miner actually handed over the mine to the Ukrainian artel, received a pre-agreed portion of the extracted metal, and turned a blind eye to the rest. Gold went through Ukraine to Turkey, where it was refined and sent in bullion to the USA, Great Britain and other European countries. Only from the mines of the river. Of every 3 tons of gold mined, 2 tons were illegally exported abroad.

Most of the previously explored gold deposits in Moldova, especially in the pre-revolutionary period, are currently abandoned and have not been developed for a long time, but in vain. In fact, their potential is far from exhausted.

In those distant times, compared to modern methods, gold mining techniques in Europe and in particular in Moldova were primitive and more than 50% of the gold remained in dumps or simply was not discovered. If you walk through the old Bessarabian mine these days, even with an ordinary metal detector, you can already collect a decent gold “harvest” on the first day.

You just need to know where such an abandoned mine or gold deposit is located. Old pre-revolutionary maps of gold deposits in Moldova, detailed geological and topographic maps of exploration of gold ores, veins and placers can help with this. As a rule, such maps are not freely available. They can be found in regional archives or large libraries.

The GeoKniga resource has a map section. Geological maps of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, part of Poland. Sufficiently detailed geological maps of Bulgaria and Romania, Central Asian states.
I will describe working with the resource using the example of the Moscow region. If anyone has any questions, write. Sometimes I don’t have time to respond to readers’ letters.
Open the resource geokniga.org/maps

On the left there is a scale with "+" and "-" for zooming in and out of the map. Press the plus sign and use a pen to correct the map. In my example, this is the Moscow region. We select a map with the Varavino ravine, a walk into which I described earlier.

Click on the square or alphanumeric designation of the card. We are waiting for the download. After downloading, a list of available geological maps of the area appears below.

Along with maps at a scale of 1:200,000, the list also includes maps at a scale of 1:1,000,000.

Under each card there is the word “Download” and just below “View list of available files.” Let's look at this list.

In addition to the map, it also contains an explanatory note. We also download the explanatory note and read it while looking at the map.
Sometimes I ask the question: “Are there more recent geological maps? Otherwise, these are old ones.” The age of these geological maps when compared with human life is quite retirement age. But if we remember that the last glacier retreated 10,000 years ago and the stones laid in those days still lie there, then fifty years is nothing. And if we talk about the deposits of the Cretaceous period in the Varavino ravine, then this is more than 60 million years old. As it lay down in those days, that’s how it all lies.

Good afternoon We know a lot about the American gold rush - the unorganized mining of the precious metal by prospectors, mostly poor adventurers. Writers (Jack London, Jules Verne) and Hollywood cinema contributed to the mythologization of the gold rush in the United States. Stories about tragic fate indigenous people of America - Indians.

Gold deposits in Russia We have not been spared by the general obsession with wealth. Russian Golden fever lasted from the beginning of the 19th century and covered Siberia and the Far East - at that time remote, undeveloped territories.

There was a legend about Yegor, nicknamed Lesnoy, a former convict who was one of the first to begin independent mining in the Berikul River basin, but never reported where exactly he could find gold.

Metals with an atomic mass of more than 55 units (heavier than iron), which cannot be formed inside stars, arise as a result of gamma-ray bursts - releases of energy in space during supernova explosions. To Earth - many years ago, when our planet was just being formed and had no atmosphere. Most of the heavy elements sank below the Earth's surface and formed the core.

There are few precious metals on the surface. Their main volume is located in the mantle - the substance between the earth's crust and core. IN upper layers In the mantle, a hot melt is formed - magma, which in some places penetrates the surface of the Earth. There it hardens and turns into solid rock, containing almost the entire periodic table.

Magma is heterogeneous, hardens unevenly - refractory substances coexist with low-melting substances, and the latter continue to circulate inside the solidified former. This is how gold veins are formed within the rock.

Classification of gold deposits

There are two types of deposits. They are divided into:

• primary, they are also radical;
• secondary - alluvial.

Indigenous

Primary deposits are the same fragments of magma ejected onto the surface of the globe. It happens that gold is present in the rock in the form of veins and nuggets, but more often it is alloyed with other elements: gold ores with copper, quartz, iron and sulfur compounds, and polymetallic alloys are common.

The main deposits of gold mined in Russia are concentrated in primary deposits.

Placer

Secondary deposits appeared as a result of destruction (weathering) of primary ones. Weathering refers to the impact not only of air currents, but also of water, temperature changes and even the activity of bacteria. It was alluvial deposits that were so diligently developed by amateur, lone miners.

Until the end of the 19th century, gold was mined mainly from placers - by washing (sliding), which is possible due to the relative gravity of gold. Lighter impurities were washed away with water, leaving gold sand in the washing trays, which was melted into ingots and products.

At the end of the 19th century - in the era of the birth of the scientific and technological revolution - technologies appeared that made it possible to effectively develop igneous rock. This has affected the scale of gold mining: it is believed that 60% of all gold mined in the entire history of mankind is metal produced over the past 150 years.

Gold mining map

In this article I will consider only a few regions of Russia - keep in mind, there are many more, especially in the Far East, Far North and Siberia.

Deposits of the European part of the Russian Federation

The largest amount of gold was deposited in areas where magma often reached the land surface - now there are mountains and hills, and in Magadan. Therefore, in Central Russia there is almost no search for gold.

There are some placer deposits in the Kostroma region, on the Chabra and Chashchevaya rivers, but they are unlikely to be of interest to large gold mining companies. However, this is not a hindrance for amateur enthusiasts: if you want to try, know that it is possible.

West of the Ural Range there are only three industrial gold mining provinces:

• Dnieper-Donetsk zone;
• Karelo-Kola;
• Caucasian.

The gold mining potential of these zones is the smallest of all those located in Russia.

Deposits of the Urals and Trans-Urals

The Ural gold mining province is fourth in the Russian ranking. It is inferior to the Baikal-Vitim, Altai-Sayan and Verkhoyansk-Kolyma provinces. The development of deposits in the Urals began in the 18th century, and by the end of the 20th century there were already more than 300 mines operating here.

The gold mining industry is most interested in primary deposits, but in the Urals and the West Siberian Plain there are many placers - mainly alluvial, that is, accumulated in river beds, “alluvial deposits”. The largest of them are located in the Perm, Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk regions.

Deposits of Eastern Siberia

Eastern Siberia is a region of Russia rich in precious deposits. Transbaikalia has been developed since the middle of the 19th century. The largest center of gold mining: the village of Bolshiye Koty, modern deposits with the picturesque names Sukhoi Log and Chertovo Koryto.

Single miners were content with working in the stream with a shovel and a tray, while organized groups dug orts - underground tunnels that were eventually connected into a network. In such a mine, workers (often convicts) heated the rock from morning to night.

It was dangerous to be in the orts: despite the fortifications, tunnels and passages kept collapsing, burying people under them. No one knows how many of these mass graves have survived - the comrades of the victims erected an impromptu monument and left, refusing to develop the deadly mine.

The most famous deposits

Sukhoi Log

Sukhoi Log is a deposit in the Lensky gold mining district (Irkutsk region). In its depths there are 2,500 tons of gold and 1,500 tons of silver (according to rough estimates). The concentration of pure precious metal in the ore is low; there are sections of the rock with a gold content of less than 1 g/t. The geological and industrial type of Sukhoi Log is a gold sulfide deposit, that is, the predominant impurities in the rock are sulfur compounds, mainly pyrite (iron pyrite). The average gold content in ore is 2.7 g/t.

Sukhoi Log was opened in 1961 and is still being developed. Its reserves account for 15–28% (according to various sources) of all deposits in Russia.

Berezovskoe

The Berezovskoye deposit is gold-sulfide-quartz. It is located in the Sverdlovsk region (Middle Urals) and is considered one of the first discovered in Russia, standing at the origins of our gold mining. In 1748, the village of Berezovsky arose near the mine - now a satellite city of Yekaterinburg. The Berezovskoye field is being developed underground.

Vorontsovskoe

The Vorontsovskoye deposit (Middle Urals, 12 km from Krasnoturinsk) was discovered in 1985 by geologists and has a gold-arsenic-sulfide technological type. It is developed using an open-pit method - people and machines extract ore from a quarry.

Natalka

Natalka is located 390 km from Magadan, in the Tenkinsky district of the region. This is a gold-quartz deposit, the second largest resource in Russia after Sukhoi Log. The average gold content in ore is 1.7 g/t.

The Natalka gold deposit was also discovered by geologists in the 1940s. It bears the name of Natalya, the daughter of D.T. Aseev, who discovered a gold-bearing stream at the site of future mining.

Which deposit is the largest?

The largest gold deposit in Russia is the above-mentioned Sukhoi Log. It has not yet been fully developed and has long been considered unpromising due to the fact that mining is complicated by the uneven, sometimes low, gold content of the ore. People have yet to master it.

Who owns the main gold mining in Russia?

There are a number of metallurgical companies that own smaller organizations that mine gold in the Russian Federation. This:

• OJSC Polyus Gold;
• JSC "Polymetal";
• JSC "Vysochaishy";
• HRGM;
• OJSC "Yuzhuralzoloto";
• GC "Petropavlovsk";
• OJSC Severstal;
• Kinross Gold.

How and where gold deposits can be developed

In many countries of the world (Australia, Finland, some states of the USA), the government solved the problem of private gold mining simply - it resolved it. All you have to do is buy a license, and you’re welcome to the stream with your tray. Citizens are allowed to use what they have obtained at their own discretion.

It's different in Russia. It is almost impossible to become legalized as a gold miner, Art. 191 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is in effect, and the found metal must be handed over to the state. The bill on civil liberties and the issuance of licenses has been considered in the State Duma since 2009, but has not yet been adopted.

A single miner should focus on the map of alluvial deposits, of which there are many in the Urals and Transbaikalia. There are abandoned mines, the residual deposits of which are of no interest to industrial developers. You can find gold in river basins:

• Sanarka;
• Lena;
• Bodaibo;
• Big Chanchik;
• Talga et al.

Conclusion

If the law on free labor is adopted in Russia, perhaps for some of us, gold mining will become an alternative to office work, and with perseverance and luck, it will bring a good income.

If you were interested, share the information with your friends, and thank you for staying with me!