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

So Russia acquired its own gold deposit. The main difference was that mining began from an ore deposit, and not from a placer, 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 poods of gold were mined.

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

The Urals is the wealth of Russia, because this region amazes with the content of minerals. 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, magnesite. There are deposits of precious and semi-precious stones in large quantities.

Gold deposits in the Urals and their map

Gold deposits in the Urals and their map excite 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. In smaller quantities, the mines are represented in the Orenburg region, the North-Western and Volga districts, Bashkortostan. The bulk of the deposits are gold and complex mines, but the share of placers does not exceed 17%.

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

The most popular primary deposits are:

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

Among the promising alluvial 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 a collision of two tectonic plates, which led to the formation of mountains and minerals in them. Especially a lot of gold is found in lava masses. In fact, they are the main source of the precious metal in the Urals.

Features of prospecting and mining of gold in the Urals

Features of the search and mining of gold 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, therefore it is available only to large companies. On placers, gold is found in large quantities in the ground, which is why its industrial production is not the most profitable business. That is why there are crowds of prospectors who use artisanal methods.

It is worth knowing that anyone can look for and mine gold in the Urals. For independent gold mining, it is necessary to draw up a contract 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 way to deliver gold is an agreement with the company. However, the price is not always happy.

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 Territory), mountain slopes, as well as places where rock masses move.

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

It can be concluded that the Urals is one of the richest regions for prospectors for gold, as well as other precious metals and stones. In principle, any person, with a little perseverance, time and desire, can find gold in the Urals. The main thing is to legalize the production and believe in yourself.

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

Good day! We know a lot about the American gold rush - the unorganized mining of the precious metal by miners, 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 the tragic fate of the indigenous population of America - the Indians - played their role.

Gold deposits in Russia We were not spared by the general obsession with wealth. The Russian gold rush lasted from the beginning of the 19th century and covered Siberia and the Far East - at that time deaf, undeveloped territories.

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

Metals with atomic mass more than 55 units (heavier than iron), which cannot be formed inside stars, result from gamma-ray bursts - energy releases 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 plunged under the surface of the Earth and formed the core.

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

Magma is heterogeneous, it solidifies unevenly - refractory substances coexist in it with fusible ones, and the latter continue to circulate inside the solidified former. This is how gold veins are formed inside the rock.

Classification of gold deposits

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

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

Indigenous

Primary deposits are the very fragments of magma ejected to 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-bearing ores with copper, quartz, iron compounds, sulfur, polymetallic alloys are common.

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

Alluvial

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

Until the end of the 19th century, gold was mined mainly from placer - by washing (grinding), which is possible due to the relative gravity of gold. Lighter impurities were washed out with water, leaving gold sand in the washing trays, which was melted down 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 history of mankind is metal produced over the past 150 years.

Map of gold mining

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 lay in areas where magma often came to the surface of the land - now there are mountains and hills, and in Magadan. Therefore, gold is almost not looked for in Central Russia.

There are separate alluvial deposits in the Kostroma region, on the Chabra and Chachevaya 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 provinces:

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

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

Deposits of the Urals and Trans-Urals

The Ural gold province is the fourth in the Russian ranking. It yields to the Baikal-Vitim, Altai-Sayan and Verkhoyansk-Kolyma provinces. The development of the Ural deposits began in the 18th century, and by the end of the 20th century, more than 300 mines were 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 - mostly alluvial, that is, accumulated in river beds, "alluvial". 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 Bolshie Koty, modern deposits with picturesque names Sukhoi Log and Chertovo Koryto.

Single prospectors were content with working in a stream with a shovel and a tray, organized groups dug orts - underground tunnels that eventually connected to 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, the tunnels and passages kept collapsing, burying people under them. No one knows how many such mass graves survived - the comrades of the dead put up an impromptu monument and left, refusing to develop a deadly mine.

The most famous deposits

Dry Log

Sukhoi Log is a deposit in the Lensky gold ore region (Irkutsk region). In its depths there are 2500 tons of gold and 1500 tons of silver (according to rough estimates). The concentration of pure precious metal in the ore is low, there are areas of 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 the ore is 2.7 g/t.

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

Berezovskoe

Berezovskoye deposit - 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 industry. In 1748, the village of Berezovsky appeared at the mine - now a satellite city of Yekaterinburg. The Berezovskoye field is being developed underground.

Vorontsovskoye

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 by an open 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 the ore is 1.7 g/t.

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

Which deposit is the largest

The largest gold deposit in Russia is Sukhoi Log, already mentioned above. It has not yet been developed in full force and has long been considered unpromising due to the fact that mining is complicated by uneven, in some places low grade of gold in the ore. People have yet to master it.

Who owns the main gold production in Russia

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

• OJSC Polyus Gold;
• JSC "Polymetal";
• JSC "Vysochaishy";
• HRGM;
• JSC "Yuzhuralzoloto";
• GK "Petropavlovsk";
• OAO Severstal;
• Kinros Gold.

How and where can you develop gold ore manifestations

In many countries of the world (Australia, Finland, some US states), the government has solved the problem of private artisanal mining simply by resolving it. It is enough to buy a license, and welcome with a tray to the stream. Mined citizens are allowed to use at their discretion.

In Russia it is different. It is almost impossible to legalize as a gold miner, art. 191 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is in force, and the found metal is subject to surrender to the state. The draft law on freedom and issuance of licenses has been considered in the State Duma since 2009, but has not yet been adopted.

A lone miner should focus on a map of alluvial deposits, which are numerous in the Urals and Transbaikalia. There are abandoned mines, the residual deposits of which are not of interest to industrial developers. You can find gold in river basins:

• Sanarka;
• Lena;
• Bodaibo;
• Big Chanchik;
• Talga and others.

Conclusion

If the law on liberation is adopted in Russia, perhaps for some of us, diligence 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 thanks for staying with me!

In the economy of every country important role plays the development and extraction of natural resources. One of the priority areas is gold mining, because this metal has always been a measure of the wealth and stability of the state. The gold mines of Russia are beneficial for the enrichment of the state and serve as a place of work for many citizens of the Russian Federation.

Many centuries ago, our ancestors drew attention to the properties of gold, which served as an impetus for the start of mining this metal. Over time, technology has improved, and today gold mining is one of the most profitable and developed industries. A gold mine is an enterprise that develops deposits of gold-bearing raw materials. Russia has huge reserves of gold and ranks fourth among all countries in the world in this indicator. The peculiarity of the mines of Russia is their big sizes which makes mining more productive and cost-effective.

Gold mining provinces of Russia

History of development of gold deposits in Russia

Probably everyone has heard about the great gold rush in the middle of the XIX century in California, Klondike or Alaska. But few people know that in Russia at about the same time, thousands of people lived a dream of fabulous wealth, thinking about where to look for gold. After the adoption by the Senate of a decree that allowed private individuals to freely engage in gold mining, people poured en masse into the sparsely populated areas of the Urals in the hope of finding a gold mine. I must say that often such activities brought the expected results. Settlements began to be built around the deposits, trade developed, researchers gathered to expand the mines. In general, it was the Siberian gold rush that contributed to the flourishing of the region and helped it become one of the centers of the country's industry.

Geography of gold mines

Most of the deposits are located in the Far East, in the Amur, Magadan regions, Khabarovsk and Krasnoyarsk regions. Gold is also sought in Russia on the slopes of the Urals, which has a strategic advantage in terms of geographical proximity to Europe, developed infrastructure and transport system. It was here that gold mining began back in 1745, which makes the Ural mines the oldest in Russia. If we evaluate the gold deposits in the country in terms of resource potential, then they can be grouped into gold-bearing provinces. List of the most promising regions:

1. Baikal-Vitim province (1700 tons).
2. Verkhoyansk-Kolyma province (780 tons).
3. Altai-Sayan province (750 tons).
4. Koryak-Kamchatka-Kuril province (500 tons).

The value of gold mines.

The gold mining industry makes an important contribution to the wealth of the country. Gold is a commodity whose price hardly changes due to inflation or market volatility. That is why states are trying to provide themselves with a sufficient amount of precious metal, which is stored in the country's gold and foreign exchange reserves. Therefore, a constant level of gold production makes the Russian economy more resistant to market events. Do not forget that the gold mine generates vacancies for workers of various specializations and levels of education. At the same time, it must be remembered that, according to researchers, the explored reserves of gold, at current production rates, will last only for several decades, therefore, it is necessary to develop other sectors of the extractive industry.

The GeoKniga resource has a map section. Geological maps of Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, part of Poland. Sufficiently detailed geological maps of Bulgaria and Romania, the Central Asian states.
I will describe the work with the resource on the example of the Moscow region. If anyone has any questions please write. Sometimes I do not have time to respond to letters from readers.
Opening the resource geokniga.org/maps

On the left there is a scale with "+" and "-" to zoom in and out of the map. Press the plus sign and correct the map with a pen. In my example, this is the Moscow region. We choose a map with the Varavinsky ravine, a walk in which we described earlier.

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

Together with maps of scale 1:200,000, maps of scale 1:1,000,000 are included in the list.

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

In addition to the map, there is also an explanatory note in it. We download the same explanatory note and read it 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 pebbles laid in those days still lie, then fifty years is an age of nothing. And if we talk about the deposits of the Cretaceous period in the Varavinsky ravine, then this is more than 60 million years. As it lay down in those days, so everything lies.

The history of gold mining in the Tambov region has its roots in ancient times. Suffice it to recall the Mordovian legend about the white shepherd guarding the gold placers on this land, even before the arrival of the Slavs.
In this article, the reader will get acquainted with publications that were published more than 100 years ago. These works tell about the facts of gold mining in the Tambov province.

Description of mineral deposits discovered in the Tambov province from 1799 to 1848.

About the gold-bearing sands near the city of Morshansk in the Tsna River

The city of Morshansk is located in the Tambov province, on the left side of the Tsna River, at a distance of 81 versts from Tambov, in which in 1820 the Jesuit of the Roman Catholic Church, Pater Gandoroni, was secretly mining gold on the left bank of the Tsna River, which was found out in 1827 already a year, serving under the police chief, court adviser Zalutsky and brought to the attention of the authorities at the beginning of 1833. As a result, Ober Giten von Walter Voendorf was sent to discover these gold-bearing placers, who reported that although he was ordered to find out from Pater Gandoroni himself where he mined gold, but since this Pater was sent abroad back in 1828, he did not could find out nothing, and therefore began to do reconnaissance on the left side of the Tsna River, 3 versts from the city to the confluence of the Kersha River and in the Tsna itself, and throughout this space, both in river sand and in coastal sediments, equally, on the right side of these rivers, he found very fine gold, which is contained in a hundred poods of sand up to 1/8 of the spool and not much more.
The property of the gold-bearing layer is as follows: from the surface below the peat, the layer of which is from ½ to 1 ½ arshin thick, there is a layer of alluvial sand of yellowish, and sometimes grayish color, up to ¾ arshin thick. It is followed by a layer of clay, blue and sometimes gray color up to 1 arshin thick. Both of these layers do not contain gold. Beneath this layer lies sand, consisting of quartz, trap, shale, and part of porphyry, which, by their roundness, indicate the remoteness of their deposit.

YouTube video

The upper part of this layer contains more gold than the middle and lower ones, but it is impossible to go deeper into it more than 1 ½ arshins, due to the inflows of underground water. G. Voendorf, as can be seen from the above, was searching for gold along the Tsna River only in the space from the city of Morshansk to the Kersha River, and a little in this river. I did not test other rivers flowing into the Tsna from the right side, nor did I explore the Tsna itself from Tambov, on the occasion of an illness that happened to him.

All this was reported by the Treasury Expedition to the local governor in October 1834, and he informed the Minister of Finance with a promise to send a mining engineer for an accurate study of the Tsna River as soon as the opportunity presented itself. But that this was done is not evident from the deeds.

About the test for gold r. Kersha

In 1826, the Gorsky district chief delivered to the governor various breeds taken from the river. Kersh, containing, in his opinion, gold. These rocks were tested by a mountain expedition and turned out to be composed of: a) taken from the origins of the Kersha, from alluvial clay that came from the destruction of sedimentary rocks of the flat formation, (note Z. Margiev. "Fletz" - mountain, German layer, layer, slate.

Horizontal seam useful rock) in which nothing metallic was found. b) from the middle part of the Kersha River, from hardened clay containing particles of pyrite and gold-bearing pitch; and c) At the confluence with the river. Tsna, made of solid sand feldspar with gold inclusions, (note Z. Margiev. Spars are minerals that easily split into plates. The term is of Swedish origin. “Field” - due to the frequent occurrence of fragments on Swedish arable land) having quartz grains in impurities. These rocks in the local region are ordinary, and, partly having voids, colored with iron oxide, which came from the destruction of pyrite).

About the gold deposits of suspects in the Kirsanovskaya Valley

The Kirsanovskaya Valley is located in the current Kirsanovskiy District, through which the Vorona River flows, originating in the Penza Region. Mine surveyor sent in 1828 (note by Z. Margieva.

A specialist in the exploration and geological development of mineral deposits) Kun, for a geognostic description of the Tambov province, wrote: The crow flows into many rivers. Mr. Kuhn, in the absence of manual workbenches, could not make a satisfactory test of this new valley for gold.

Due to time, this valley was also not subjected to any research, although several times after that mountain officials were sent in that direction, including only Voskoboinikov, who was sent to the Tambov province in 1832 to explore the bowels, tried to look for gold placers in Kirsanovskaya and its side valleys, but nowhere did he discover large quantities of them, but only small nuggets and gold-bearing sand with a small content.

About gold-bearing placers suspected in the Polnaya and Surena rivers flowing into the river. Voronezh

The Voronezh River is located in the current Michurinsky District, 72 versts from Tambov. Mountain rank XII class Adolf Kuhn, as well as an official who oversees the progress of work inside the sand mine of the local landowner Guryev, who traveled in 1828, in his description, by the way, says that the Polnaya and Surena rivers flowing from the southeast side into the river . Vornezh, courts according to local regulations, may contain a large number of gold deposits. After that, their origins were repeatedly examined and described by various mining officials, but in none of these descriptions is it found that anyone made an attempt to find gold in the places indicated by Kun, although local peasants and Mordovians have been mining gold in those places since ancient times.

About gold in the river Lesnoy Tambov
The Lesnoy Tambov River, flowing through the Tambov forests, was tested in 1831 by the gittenfelwarter Leiman, who found in it, as well as in its marshy banks, consisting of clay and sand sediments, the presence of gold in the form of the finest sparkles. The sands in the river and coastal sediments consist mainly of phallad or slate (note by Z. Meshcheryakov. A black clay slate difference that easily splits into thin layers) and vein quartz, containing copper and iron pyrites and lead sheen, i.e. rocks from which this river sand and silt consists.
The Lesnaya Tambov River and its bank sediments, as can be seen from the reports, were only subjected to a light test, without determining the amount of gold, which, according to the accepted rule, is one hundred pounds. This discovery was reported to the governor in the same year, but in order for these placers to be subsequently tested with accuracy, that of the cases is not visible.


On testing for gold ores found in the headwaters of the river. Tsna

Since then, as is known from the history of the Tambov province, engineer Ignatiy Trofimovich Zherebyatyev discovered gold ore there, precisely at the villages of Ponzari, Belyaevka and Sadovaya, and brought this to the attention of the local governor in July 1883. He presented two samples of ore lands, explaining that the ores taken from these lands were sampled by the Greek Ilya Georgov Katakli, and, according to his certificate, they turned out to contain natural gold.
The state expedition, having received from the governor a memorandum from Prince Chicherin, without samples of the land, and having seen from the resolution on it, which was ordered to transfer it to Oberberghauptmann 5th class Osipov, believed that the samples of the land were at Zherebyatyev, and therefore asked him to notify what the merits of those works and where they are located.

But G. Osipov, after many repetitions, did not answer this until 1838. In the same year, he wrote that he did not receive any ores from Prince Chicherin, and Chicherin himself appeared to him, despite the fact that he was ordered to be expelled from the mining department, the Moscow City Police in the same 1833.
Prior to this, it was in 1832 that a resident of Belyaevsky, Rykov, who had a Greek scientist in the ore-searching party, was presented to the governor by an ore called gold, and gold smelted from it. This gold-bearing ore, according to Rykov, was found by him in the river. Osinovka at its confluence with the river. Tsna (but where exactly is not explained), on testing which it turned out that it contains copper pyrite, with signs of gold. This circumstance made it necessary to collect information on how the presented gold was smelted from pyrites.
On testing for gold ores discovered near the town of Rasskazovo

In 1835, ore was delivered to Major General Wolf, located 4 versts from the present town of Rasskazov, on the road to Tambov, in which, according to the report of Major Shitnikov, gold is contained, as the local resident Agapkin approved him in this. This ore was tested and turned out to be ocher sandstone, which did not contain much gold, but only a lot of zirconium.

About the gold ore discovered in the Talinka River near the village of Novaya Lyada

In February 1843, the headquarters of the Separate Lancer Corps sent to the Russian Treasury Chamber a sample of gold ore found in the Tambov province, near the village of Novaya Lyada, on the right side of the Talinka River, which flows into the Lesnoy Tambov River. The test sample in the assay tent turned out to be a gold nugget containing quartz crystals in impurities. One spool of this sample contained 82 1/3 parts of silver. Such a rich discovery aroused the intention of the authorities to send a mining engineer to explore this deposit.

Looking at the map of the Tambov region, it turns out that the Talinka River has its beginning in the forest and, as it flows, takes in more than 20 streams. Then it carries its waters to the river. Forest Tambov. From which it is concluded that the Talinka River, leaving the forest and flowing through the plains of the Tambov region, before flowing into Lesnoy Tambov, at a distance of almost 30 versts, should, according to known laws, wash away the golden placers of sand and precipitate them on a flat place of its course.

And that this will certainly happen is convinced by the fact that this free mine of runaway peasants is located near this river. And this mine is not new, but came to the surface along with others, which is partly eroded by waters, and partly eroded.

Commercial gold discovered on the territory of one of the world's largest deposits of rare earth metals near the town of Rasskazovo (Tambov Region) is suitable for artisanal mining. IAA Russian Jewelery Network, citing Tambov sources, has already reported that it is currently conducting an additional search for gold in this territory.

The Geological Service of the Main Directorate of Natural Resources of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation for the Tambov Region pays special attention to solving problems related to the involvement in the commercial operation of the Tambov Central deposit of ilmenite-rutile-zircon sands with a high gold content, the reserves of which in 1972 were classified as balance, that is, profitable to develop.

In 1994, JSC Mining and Industrial Company TsNA-1 received a license for the right to use subsoil for the purpose of further exploration and further development of the reserves of the northern part of the Eastern section of the Central deposit. The area of ​​the licensed section is 7.45 sq. km. to the unallocated subsoil fund.In the course of additional geological study of the area of ​​the licensed area, a higher content of useful minerals and gold in the ore sands was established.The studies carried out at TsNIGRI and GIREDMET found gold in the ore sands and determined the possibility of obtaining gold-bearing concentrates suitable for the extraction of marketable gold • The presence of gold and the possibility of its industrial extraction increases the economic value of the deposit.

However, for the final conclusion, it is necessary to carry out a complex of systematic and mineralogical and technological studies of the gold content of ore sands over the entire area and section of the Central deposit. The phosphorite horizon located in the upper part of the ore layer also requires further study. To reduce costs, it is advisable to consider the option of mining the deposit by dredging. In this case, it is necessary to obtain more reliable data on the hydrogeological conditions of the entire deposit near the town of Rasskazovo. Together with the administration of the region, a greater amount of preparatory work has been done to transfer 123.84 sq. km. deposit area. A license was issued for the right to use subsoil for the purpose of geological exploration of the Central deposit.

Its owner is OAO Mining and Metallurgical Company Norilsk Nickel. Geological additional study of the entire area of ​​the deposit will allow obtaining new data on hydrogeology, developing modern technology for enrichment of both titanium-zirconium sands and phosphorite ore, which, together with the optimal scheme for developing the deposit (by hydraulic mining), will significantly reduce operating costs for the extraction and processing of gold sands.

And the involvement of a domestic investor represented by OJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel will ensure stable financing of a set of works for the geological study of gold and titanium-zirconium ores of the Central Deposit, aimed at determining the cost estimate of the subsoil area and the feasibility of its development. Continued geological study of the entire area of ​​the Central Deposit and the subsequent development of the deposit will contribute to the strengthening of the mineral resource base and the economic development of the Tambov region"

When, in the early 1990s, the general public became aware that the village of Nikolskoye in the Rasskazovsky District stood on sands saturated with rare earth metals, the message was perceived as a sensation on an all-Russian scale. Enthusiastic optimists predicted dollar rains for the Tambov region, followed by prosperity and a sharp jump in incomes of the population. However, people and equipment have not yet disturbed the deposits.

Almost 20 years have passed, and the deposit, which received the not very original, but pathetic name “Central”, remains just a geological landmark of the region. It was explored back in the middle of the last century, but geological maps at that time were classified with the same care as the military ones. Due to secrecy, the inhabitants of the village of Nikolskoye did not even suspect that their ordinary-looking sands contain gold, ilmenite, rutile, zirconium and other metals of the titanium group of the Mendelev Periodic Table. .

They are called rare earth because they are extremely rare. They are used in metallurgy to produce high-grade steel and are in high demand on the world market. The second discovery of the deposit happened due to the loss of rare-earth metal reserves in Ukraine. That's when the need arose for rare earth metals from their own geological stash.

The deposit "Central" occupies over 12 thousand hectares, the thickness of the ore layer, located at a depth of 3 to 22 meters, reaches six meters. The complex development of only a quarter of these volumes with the associated production of phosphate fertilizers requires the construction of a mining plant and a processing plant, and the creation of infrastructure. But when specialists, being in a sober mind and firm memory, calculated the amount of investment required for the industrial development of only a small part of the field, the timing of the rapid economic dawn of the Tambov region had to be pushed into a vague prospect.

However, the regional authorities, mindful that the reserve does not rub their pockets, made a fuss and in the 1990s staked out "Central" - they created a state investment corporation to develop the deposit. It was assumed that it would open the gates for the inflow of foreign capital, create conditions for the accumulation of funds from various sources. The corporation intended to collect, study and form packages of business proposals in order to familiarize investors with them for the implementation of projects under the guarantee of the administration.

The structure of the regional corporation provided for the provincial mortgage center, through which the debts of some turned into cash for others. In fact, the regional authorities created a kind of return mechanism that guarantees the protection of a potential investor. And in order not to get involved with budget money, the Tsna-1 mining company was created in Tambov, which received a license for exploration and partial development of the deposit.

And potential investors, including foreign ones, who literally and figuratively probed the soil near the village of Nikolskoye, frequented the Tambov region. Even investors from distant Australia took aim at Centralny, but cooperation ended at best with vague protocols of intent. Serious investments were required, and profits were hidden in an unclear perspective.

In 2004, specialists from the Tsna-1 mining company came to the conclusion that the reserves of rare earth metals in the ore sands of Tsentralny were significantly higher than expected. According to updated calculations, 887 million cubic meters of ore sands contain 4% ilmenite, rutile and zirconium. Geologists have suggested that the sands also contain gold in industrial concentration. By coincidence, it was at this moment that ecological problems arose at Tsentralny, which were actively fueled by the owners of arable land, under which placers of not only rare, but also very rare metals lay. .

Mild gold rush symptoms appeared in the region. Fuel to the fire (more precisely, gasoline) was added by the unexpected disappearance CEO mining company "Tsna-1" Anatoly Kakotkin. On May 25, 2004, the Leninsky district police department of Tambov received a statement about his disappearance. And a few days later, employees of the Tambov District Department of Internal Affairs discovered the charred corpse of a man in the forest near the village of Tregulay, in which experts identified the body of Kakotkin. A criminal case was initiated under the article “Murder”. However, the investigation has not developed a single convincing version of what happened, and its circumstances are vague. It turned out only that the criminals doused the body with gasoline before burning it. Of course, a version was also developed that the murder was connected with professional activity Kakotkin.