Russian rivers where you can find gold. Discussion on LiveInternet

Russia is a country extremely rich in placer gold. And to feel the spirit of a real gold rush, you don’t have to go to Kolyma. You can try yourself as a prospector closer to home - after all, even in the rivers of the Moscow region you can find gold if you try. But whether it will pay off your efforts is unknown.

It is much better to start searching for deposits that have already been developed industrially. Even after the mines are closed, a lot of gold remains in small areas that are of no interest to industrialists. There are plenty of places like this in Russia, so grab your prospector's tray and metal detector and go treasure hunting. Just get a private prospector's license first; in Russia they take this very seriously.

Sanarka River

In the 19th century, Sanarka was known throughout the world as the richest deposit of precious stones and minerals, with the light hand of Academician Koksharov called “Russian Brazil”. In some places, the river soil is gold-bearing. The now abandoned Andreevsky mine reminds us that there was once much more gold here.

Sanarka

Sanarka belongs to the basin of the Kazakhstan Tobol River. It is located in the Chelyabinsk region, and rumors about it spread throughout the country due to the huge gold reserves that were discovered by the famous academician Nikolai Koksharov. He was the first to call the river basin “Russian Brazil” in his research works. His works contributed to the organization of industrial gold mining in Sanarka. Today, almost all gold reserves there have dried up, and further mining has been declared unprofitable. However, if you mine gold yourself, you can make good money. Although it is almost impossible to work alone, some craftsmen who devote a lot of time and money to preparation succeed.

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Lena River Basin

The Lensky gold-bearing region is one of the richest in Russia. Over more than 150 years of mining, about 1.5 thousand tons of precious ore have been mined here. But there is still a lot of gold left in the depleted deposits, which is not subject to industrial extraction.

Legislative aspects related to gold mining

On the territory of Russia there is a huge number of gold-bearing regions: Siberia, the Urals, the Caucasus, Chukotka, and the Far East. It can be assumed that gold can be found in almost any river that begins its movement from the top of a mountain and is located near other rivers that are famous for their extensive gold reserves. In modern Russia, independent gold mining is prohibited. In order to carry out legal gold mining, it is imperative to conclude an agreement with a company that specializes in exactly this.

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Bodaibo River

This gold-bearing river is located in the central part of the Patom Highlands. Alluvial gold from placers in the Bodaibo basin is predominantly large: gold particles from 2 to 4 mm predominate. Grains larger than 8 mm are often found. There are nuggets - the largest of them were found in the placer of the upper reaches of the Bodaibo River.

PHOTO: VLADISLAV POSTNIKOV

Author: Maria SHAROGLAZOVA 10.18.2021

Against the backdrop of multibillion-dollar profits from representatives of the gold mining sector of the economy, environmentalists are forced to record numerous violations of environmental legislation in remote, hard-to-reach areas where supervisory authorities do not often fly. Destroyed spawning rivers for salmon, a ruined environment in the places where indigenous peoples of the North live, and multimillion-dollar financial losses for the country's budget - all these are recent examples of the work of gold mining companies.

At the end of September, well-known ecologist Georgy Kavanosyan in Russia published his investigation into the destruction of the salmon spawning river Vichaevskaya in Kamchatka. The film is about the death of millions of juveniles and adults of coho salmon, sockeye salmon and pink salmon due to the consequences of underground gold mining at the Asachi deposit. The Alarming Glow mining and processing complex operates here.

ALARMING GLOW

Just four years ago, representatives of the Kamchatka branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “VNIRO” (a structure of Rosrybolovstvo) announced a trend towards the complete destruction of salmon habitat in the area of the Asachinskoye field. According to scientists, in 2021 the technogenic impact of the mining and processing plant has reached a critical level. “In the near future (within several years), 93% of the spawning and feeding stock of the Vichaevskaya River and 20.5% of the total salmon potential of the Mutnaya River basin will inevitably be lost. This will happen if the enterprise does not stop the illegal practice of annually discharging from the tailings dump toxic liquid phase of the pulp diluted with atmospheric precipitation and the annual discharge of more than 10 million cubic meters of untreated adit water,” the scientists’ report stated. Currently the situation is getting worse.

Ecologist Kavanosyan took several samples of water, bottom sediments and pulp from the sludge storage facility. According to the results of research by the Liga-Sert laboratory, multiple excesses of the maximum permissible concentration for copper, which is an associated mineral in the mining of silver and gold, were recorded in the samples. The maximum was a twenty-fold increase. Currently, the ecologist has sent requests to conduct a detailed inspection of the enterprise’s activities to the leadership of Rosprirodnadzor and Rosrybolovstvo.

COMPARABLE TO AMMONIA

Meanwhile, even before the sensational film, TSG Asacha JSC was repeatedly brought to administrative responsibility as representatives of supervisory authorities, although fines for a legal entity whose net profit at the end of 2021 exceeded 2.2 billion rubles are measured in hundreds of thousands of rubles. Only as part of a dispute with the Far Eastern Interregional Department of Rosprirodnadzor about the hazard class of the enterprise’s waste disposed in the tailings dump, it was possible to additionally charge and recover 138 million rubles. Since 2016, “Alarming Glow” has assured inspectors that waste of hazard class 5 is stored in tailings dumps, but an examination showed that the sludge is comparable to ammonia and ethanol (hazard class 4). The Arbitration Court of the Kamchatka Territory ordered the company to transfer a multimillion-dollar fine to the budget.

Inspections by Rosprirodnadzor and Rosrybolovstvo in 2021 showed that TSG Asacha continues to operate in violation of project documentation and Russian legislation. At the stage of approval by supervisory authorities and the public, the investor assured that water from the mining and processing plant through the disposal system will pass through filter channels and treatment facilities. Only after this was it planned to dump it into the Vichaevskaya River. Instead, the liquid, without proper purification, from the filter channel through the side body of the sedimentation dam by gravity flows into the Ireda stream, which after a few tens of meters flows into Vichaevskaya. The supervisory authorities issued an order to the legal entity, requiring them to eliminate violations regarding water discharge no later than the end of August 2021.

“Last week I met with the management of the mining and processing plant. They practically did not comply with any of the instructions. Only public hearings were held. There is not even a technical specification yet for the project to improve the tailings dump. They plan to increase the height of the side by one and a half meters. The company is talking about a new founder and intentions to improve the situation. If previously they were completely silent, with the new leadership they say what they will do. But so far there is not even an agreement for the development of project documentation,” says Sergei Mylov, head of the Environmental Safety Organization.

"OUT OF SIGHT…"

In Russia, the practice has become more frequent when gold mining enterprises change owners and management companies due to environmental problems. Social activists linked the transition of the gold mining company to the management of the Cypriot Stanmix Holding Ltd in September of this year with the claims of environmentalists and supervisory authorities. The ultimate beneficiaries of the offshore are not disclosed, but earlier “Prime Gold - Bulletin of the Gold Miner” reported that the main owner of the Kamchatka gold miner was Horvik Ltd, which is associated with the owner of Highland Gold Mining Vladislav Sviblov. Shortly before these messages, the name of TSG Asacha JSC. True, Trans-Siberian Gold (TSG) was previously considered affiliated with Sviblov.

In 2021, another large gold mining company, Polymetal International plc (Polymetal JSC), also resorted to a scheme to change the owner of a “problem asset”. Through “Gold of the Northern Urals” in the Sverdlovsk region, the holding owned the Saum Mining Company LLC, which began developing the deposit of the same name in the north of the region near the city of Ivdel.

Until recently, this area was preserved in its original form, since not only were there no industries or large settlements, but there were not even dirt roads - only small Mansi settlements that lead a traditional way of life for the indigenous peoples of the North (INN). In 2021, activists of the public movement “Peaceful Residents” took water samples from rivers in close proximity to a quarry being created for the extraction of copper, gold and zinc. The test showed good quality of water in the rivers, while the liquid from the artificial stream that flowed from the territory of the quarry under construction exceeded the maximum permissible concentration for aluminum by 64 times, for copper by 15 times, and for zinc by 1.7 times. At the same time, no treatment facilities were built at the field at that time that could protect the rivers from wastewater from the mining operation.

Later it turned out that the structure of JSC Polymetal sold a majority stake to an unknown Ulyanovsk LLC Novella with an authorized capital of 10 thousand rubles. True, the gold miners retained both the right to take away all mined ore for processing and the possibility of repurchasing shares. A year later, after the completion of inspections and the start of construction of treatment plants, the Russian legal entity of the Polymetal group returned 100% ownership of the Saum Mining Company.

ENDS IN THE WATER

In the summer of 2021, social activists again went to the rivers of the North of the Sverdlovsk region to check their condition. It turned out that things were far from positive. Samples were taken directly from the Sauma River, several streams near the quarry and directly from the drain. According to a chemical analysis of the composition of water, which was carried out in the Ecosorb laboratory, in samples from the Sauma River, an excess of the maximum permissible concentration for copper and lead was recorded, respectively, by 10 and 5 times. The quarry drain contains 67 times more manganese, 30 times more copper, 21 times more aluminum, and 5 times more lead.

“At the request of one of the activists, an on-site inspection of the deposit was carried out by Rosprirodnadzor in mid-September. But they were not dealing with the presence or absence of treatment facilities, but checking the facts of discharges from the quarry into the river. Unfortunately, JSC Polymetal was informed about the inspection the day before (in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, supervisory authorities must inform the owner of the facility within 24 hours before the start of the inspection. – Ed.)

. Rosprirodnadzor did not find any drains at the site; overnight, the entire edge of the quarry along the forest, where something was leaking, was dug up,” Egor Nikolaev, an environmental activist from the Sverdlovsk region, shared his judgment.

The Ural representative office of the Polymetal holding company refrained from commenting on the situation around the Saumskoye field. The publication’s source from the Ivdel city administration reported that the company is completing the process of commissioning treatment facilities; industrial production at the field has not yet started.

According to the Nizhneobsky territorial department of the Federal Fisheries Agency, the mining enterprise is also working on the artificial reproduction of aquatic biological resources of the rivers of the Ob-Irtysh basin. In particular, on September 15, in the north of the Sverdlovsk region, the Saum Mining Company released more than 12 thousand fingerlings of sterlet into the Lozva River as compensation for damage caused to aquatic biological resources and their habitat during the development of the Saum copper-zinc deposit.

WITH AN EYE ON INVESTORS

“I would separate these two cases. Regarding TSG Asacha, there may be a real sale taking place. Or, at a minimum, a change in the ownership structure for tax optimization,” says FG FINAM analyst Alexey Kalachev.

In his opinion, a change in the formal owner, or the transfer of ownership to offshores, essentially does not change anything for the Kamchatka mining and processing enterprise “Trevozhnoe Zarevo” in terms of claims and collection of fines from the Russian legal entity for environmental violations. The company is not public, is not listed on exchanges, and therefore may not care about its ESG profile. Things are different with Polymetal International plc. Its assets are located in Russia and partly in Kazakhstan, it has a primary listing in London, for which it is registered on the island. Jersey, and has an official office in Cyprus.

“Many companies in the sector around the world are doing this to attract foreign shareholders. For such players, it is very important to comply with the principles of sustainable development, including environmental parameters of their activities. The attitude of institutional investors represented by foreign investment funds depends on this and, ultimately, the capitalization of a company largely depends on this in our time. In order to formally comply with “green” standards, today it is quite acceptable to move “dirty” assets outside the company’s perimeter,” analyst Kalachev emphasized.

WHERE IS THE MONEY?

For deoffshorization, Russia has created special internal offshore companies in Kaliningrad and the Far East. However, even within state corporations today there are structures registered in foreign, including offshore jurisdictions. “This is a long-standing practice that provides investors with legal protection and optimization of the ownership structure under international law. The authorities can encourage the transfer of ownership to Russian territory, but cannot force it,” Kalachev recalled.

Meanwhile, representatives of fiscal authorities are currently looking for ways to uncover schemes for transferring “gold money” abroad. A procedural precedent was created in the Chelyabinsk region in the recent past. We are talking about the business scheme of JSC Yuzhuralzoloto Group of Companies (YGC). The ultimate beneficiary of the company is Konstantin Strukov, who ranks 55th in the ranking of the richest businessmen in Russia according to Forbes.

In 2021, Interdistrict Federal Tax Service No. 24 for the Chelyabinsk Region assessed additional taxes on Yuzhuralzoloto on income received by a foreign organization from sources in the Russian Federation, as well as penalties for late payment. In total, we were talking about more than 30 million rubles, which should have gone to the budget of the Russian Federation, but instead were transferred to the balance of two Cypriot companies. Gold miners tried to challenge this decision in the Arbitration Court of the Chelyabinsk Region.

According to the court, to prepare the evidence base, representatives of the fiscal authority sought help from foreign security officials, including representatives of the competent authorities of Latvia, who disclosed information about the real holders of bank accounts of Cypriot companies.

THANKS TO INTERPOL

SGC attracted loans from Ugold Limited (Cyprus, is the main shareholder of the gold mining company) and Meldexx Leasing Mining Ltd (Cyprus, controlled by the first offshore company). In the case of Ugold Limited, the Russian enterprise had to transfer 15% of the interest rate on loans paid to the shareholder as taxes; the tax on the income of the second company should have been 20%, since the money went not to Cyprus, but to companies from the Virgin Islands. Instead, referring to the agreement between Russia and Cyprus, Yuzhuralzoloto transferred only 5% of the income of Ugold Limited to the budget, and did not report to the tax authorities at all on transactions with Meldexx Leasing Mining Ltd.

Tax officials managed to prove that offshore companies were just a lining, thanks to which funds were transferred in transit to other assets associated with Konstantin Strukov and his team. Moreover, Russian top managers of the Southern Gas Company were listed as the leaders of the Cypriot companies. In particular, the names of Roman Berger, who for a long time was the managing director of Yuzhuralzoloto, Larisa Ivleva (a member of the board of directors of YuGK) and Konstantin Strukov himself, appeared.

As one example, the Federal Tax Service provided several banking transactions from Ugold Limited accounts. “Cash in the amount of 324,999.25 USD and 4.57 million USD transferred by JSC “UGK” to Ugold Limited, then in the amount of 4.88 million USD are transferred to Berasheer Assets Ltd (British Virgin Islands),” it says in the court materials. Funds from SGC were transited through the current account of Ugold Limited to an organization registered in the offshore zone of the British Virgin Islands, with which Russia does not have a double taxation agreement.

The court also presented information about the affiliation of Konstantin Strukov and Berasheer Assets Ltd. The source of information is said to be certificates provided to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Chelyabinsk Region from the Interpol National Bureau of Great Britain, which connected the Chelyabinsk oligarch and the Ugoid Foundation. The latter, according to tax authorities, owns a Virginia business structure. A similar transit of funds was carried out when paying interest on loans from the Cypriot Meldexx Leasing Mining Ltd. True, the beneficiary of this company is already called Evgeny Kuznetsov, who is the founder of the Southern Gas Company with a tiny share of 0.005%.

In the courts of appeal and cassation, Yuzhuralzoloto’s lawyers insisted that the affiliation of the company’s top managers with Cypriot offshore companies had not been proven. “There is no documentary confirmation of the information received about the beneficial owner of the Ugoid Foundation, due to the fact that the letter from the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Chelyabinsk Region from the Interpol National Central Bureau contains some information that is not confirmed by primary sources, which in turn does not allow the use of the information contained in this letter as proper evidence, including circumstantial evidence,” the company’s lawyers said in the appeal court. However, these arguments were not recognized as objective.

In September, the Arbitration Court of the Ural District, during the consideration of the cassation appeal, decided that the tax authorities’ evidence was justified, thereby confirming the transit of funds from a gold mining enterprise from Russia to the Virgin Islands through Cyprus offshores.
Authors: Maria SHAROGLAZOVA

Big Chanchik River

About ten years ago, the bed of the Bolshoy Chanchik was mined using a scoop dredge. But according to geological data, large gold remains on Chanchik, and there are nuggets weighing several kilograms, which can be found with the help of a good old metal detector.

Bom River

The Bom is gold-bearing along its entire length. Gold in placers is large, nuggets weighing 10-30 grams are often found, less often up to 400 grams. In some places, gold lies right in the riverbed in crevices between shale rocks. Sometimes a very large amount of gold accumulates in such “nests” - up to one and a half kilograms.

Alekseevsky Stream

The gold here is large (nuggets weighing up to 1 kg), well rounded, and often fused with pieces of quartz. The largest nuggets are found at the top of the stream, under large boulders. A team of 2-3 people can easily pan for more than 300 grams of gold here.

Where to look for and pan for gold

Noble metal carried by water flow is called alluvial metal. Such gold breaks off from the bedrock under the influence of gravitational forces, weathering and chemical attack. Placers of precious metal are terraced, bottom and spit.

The first signs of the presence of a deposit are often found along river banks. A water stream with a strong current gradually cuts deeper and deeper into the surface of the earth, forming terraces at the upper level. Large deposits of terraced gold can be found not only near existing rivers, but also in places where streams have long since dried up.

Bottom deposits are formed as a result of the seepage of metal particles through dense layers of rock to the bedrock bed. Experts recommend looking for gold where the bedrock is shallow. On the river bank, mining from placers located on sand or pebble spits can bring success.

The noble metal does not always reach the bedrock. It can become stuck in dense clay if the current is not strong enough to wash it away. Gold is heavier than clay, but it cannot penetrate through several layers of well-compacted material. In this case, the precious metal must be looked for close to the surface of such false bedrock.

Particles of yellow metal move only where the flow speed is high. In mountain streams and rivulets you can try your luck near large boulders, where natural traps form. In these places, the current slows down sharply and the golden sand sinks to the bottom. Such “pockets” most often form in front of and directly behind large boulders. A more attractive trap is the one downstream, where the gold is purer.

The most interesting areas to search are places where the strength of the flow decreases. At bends in the riverbed, gold in rivers moves under the influence of centrifugal forces. On the outside of the stream the flow is faster than on the inside. Accordingly, the sandbars and spits at the beginning of the inside turn are good places to explore.

The flow moves most powerfully during the spring flood. At the same time, the channel expands and changes its boundaries. It is useful to measure its width and calculate the core of the river, taking into account its bends. Metal particles always follow the shortest path. When the river returns to its original state, searches should be conducted along the calculated trajectory.

The speed of the flow slows down sharply at the point where the tributary flows into a lake or other river. Accordingly, the zone of potential gold deposition will be the beginning of the mouth. You can start your search in the area where the river exits the mountains onto the plain. The optimal place is the area where a stormy stream flows into a river.

Of interest to gold miners are waterfalls, under which a whirlpool and a pit form. This is a kind of natural filter for gold sand and nuggets. First of all, you should pay attention to the area where the flow exits the pool. Sometimes gold can be found right where the water falls. It is also recommended to examine the boulders.

Gold is 19 times heavier than water. It does not float, but drags along the bottom of the river. Therefore, it is necessary to look for the noble metal where barriers are erected in the path of the flow. Cracks and caverns, boulders, fallen tree trunks, shallows, spits, ledges and irregularities, holes and whirlpools are the main places for prospectors to explore.

Yellow metal satellites

The list of minerals that coexist with gold is quite long. Silver is most often found together with the noble metal. Other satellites: platinum, quartz, adularia, galena, pyrite, lead. The combination of these elements with gold can be very different.

However, the presence of these minerals does not always indicate the presence of yellow metal. But if a nugget is found, it always contains silver. Its share can range from a few tenths of a percent to significant amounts. The optimal ratio of the two precious metals is found in volcanic rock.

Necessary tool

Prospectors use special equipment to identify gold. The most traditional device is a metal detector, which allows you to probe the soil to a depth of 15 cm to 1 m. The main problem is its excessive sensitivity. The device is not tuned to yellow metal, i.e. the signal from iron and gold will be the same.

Today, more advanced special instruments have been developed that make it possible to search for nuggets at a depth of up to 1 m. This gold probe is equipped with a probe with a sensor device. A signal about the presence of a precious metal is given by direct contact with it. Unlike a metal detector, this equipment is not sensitive to soil type.

Searching with a metal detector

To search for gold in the ground and river beds, you must correctly set the sensitivity of the metal detector. The number of false signals that the device gives depends on it. It is also necessary to configure the ground balance function. This parameter will have to be adjusted every few minutes, since the composition of the soil is constantly changing.

When working with a metal detector, the coil should be kept as close to the ground as possible. When a signal is received, it is recommended to “listen” to the soil in all directions. If the sound fades quickly, then the signal is false. A similar check is carried out by lifting the coil up.

Jalon Creek

The most profitable mine in the Dambukinsky gold-bearing region. The first samples showed up to 2.5 kg of gold per ton of sand. When the rich parts of the gold-bearing layer were mined here, its surface, after the rains washed away the sand, shone with nuggets that were easily visible to the naked eye.

Millionny Stream

The rich placer was found here by accident: in 1896, a pack horse belonging to a group of alcohol carriers (smugglers who delivered alcohol to the mines in exchange for gold) fell into a ravine. When they began to pull her out, nuggets were found at the bottom of the stream. The placer turned out to be very rich - in a month they managed to extract more than 640 kg of large gold. When the government found out about the illegal mine, the black miners were dispersed, but since then they have not been able to find the source of the nuggets.

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The gold content of the Talga River basin has been known since 1893. The exploitation of placers was carried out by miners mainly using the pit method. And over half a century (from 1893 to 1949), actual production amounted to at least 2800 kg. You can still stumble upon palm-sized nuggets here to this day. Millionny Stream

The largest tributary of the river. Bryanta. Unakha is a typical mountain river with a winding bed and fast current. Where its rocky bottom comes to the surface, whole placers of precious metal are found in the crevices of the rock. Gold was mined by miners with trays and scooped out with ladles from ferries. Modern miners come here with metal detectors.

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