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Depth of gold occurrence. Where can you find gold? Signs of gold-bearing territories. Gravity differentiation method

Gold is a noble metal, the mining of which began in ancient times. It may seem that this material is now of no practical value. But even in the modern world, you can see cases of brutal bloodshed that are directly related to this metal. This article will talk about where you can find gold and how you can do it.

A little history

If we go back to the times of Ancient Rus', it is reliably known that lands containing gold were not discovered at that time, even despite the fact that the territory of the state was quite vast. Ruler Ivan III was obsessed with the goal of finding the noble metal and even invited specialists from distant Italy for this purpose. But to his regret, only a small piece of gold was found, which was only enough to make a small cross.

The next seeker was Ivan the Terrible. For the sake of gold, he even conquered Siberia with the help of a huge army, but he never achieved the expected result. The same fate befell all the other rulers of Ancient Rus'. But the turning point in the history of gold mining was the coming to power of Peter I. It was under the power of this ruler that the first items of clothing and jewelry that contained gold and precious stones began to appear.

The first gold nugget was mined in 1945 by a Russian peasant from the Urals who was building a house on the river bank.

While digging a hole, he found golden grains of sand. The peasant immediately showed the find to his friend, who was also a silversmith. The master confirmed that the nugget was genuine. Experts arrived at the place where the grains of sand were found and began further searches. But unfortunately, they left with nothing. And only two years after the discovery of the deposit, a decision was made according to which it was necessary to continue the search and dig a mine. This decision turned out to be more than successful.

At the bottom of the dug shaft, a large amount of gold reserves were found, which marked the beginning of larger-scale mining of the metal.

Where to look

The question of how to quickly and efficiently find gold in the ground, as well as in what places this should be done, worries many seekers. In fact, there are many places where gold particles are present, but they are contained in very small quantities. If you are serious about searching for a large mine, then luck may turn your way, but the likelihood of this is negligible.

A small part of the precious metal can be found in sea water. According to experts, if you separate all the sea water from the gold reserves, you will get about 10,000,000,000 tons of metal. This figure is simply shocking. But at the moment there is not a single way in which this could be done.

It is pure precious metal that can rarely be found in nature. Most often, gold is found with many impurities, from which the metal will then have to be purified. The most common place where you can find pure gold without impurities in large quantities is in quartz beds.

Under the influence of natural elements, such as wind or rain, layers can be destroyed. As a result of this process, a solid piece of gold nugget is formed. Also, gold reserves can be deposited in several types:

  • Eluvial deposits;
  • Residual deposits;
  • Bottom sediments;
  • Terrace deposits.

Residual deposits can be observed directly near the vein itself, which has been subjected to physical or chemical influence. Eluvial deposits are most often located at the foot of mountains.

This is what quartz layers look like.

Terrace deposits are in most cases found at the bottom of the river. After a certain time, the river erodes the land, as a result of which an additional bottom is formed. The old bottom rises above ground level, which is why it is called a terrace.

The terraces, which are several hundred years old, contain a very large amount of gold reserves. Bottom sediments form at the bottom of rivers in the form of precipitation. With the help of rain, gold moves along the river bed.

Ore development.

Today, the process of mining gold deposits is not much different from the extraction of all other metals and ores. First, a deep shaft is made, and then huge pieces of ore are lifted to the surface, which contain what started all these searches and excavations. At the final stages, gold should be separated from all unnecessary elements and impurities. To do this, the metal is ground to a powder state.

Searching for gold in Russia

There is practically no exact answer to the question of how to find gold in Russia even today. The most promising regions for searching are the Urals, Chukotka, Magadan, and Amur. It was in these places that nuggets were discovered, weighing 16 kilograms. Similar finds are still in the memory of local residents.

But before you go looking for metal, you need to find out whether it is in a particular place. All the necessary information can be provided by geologists or indigenous inhabitants who are well versed in the given territory.

Very often, the discovery of gold deposits is mentioned in newspapers, so in order to collect as much information as possible, you should turn to archival data.

Industrial mining sites.

There are also special geological funds that collect information about gold mining in a particular region. Such funds can be of great help in advancing the search for a profitable mine.

If the places where gold reserves were found weighing 50 grams or more have become known, then nuggets several times heavier can be found there.

Based on everything that was said above, it should be concluded that before going to a specific region in order to start searching for precious metal there, you need to carefully check all the data, analyze the information, and view all photos and video materials.

How to search correctly

Finding gold is a very long process that can last for years. It is unlikely that in the first days of searching the digger will find something worthwhile. In order to somehow speed up this process and make it more productive, it is recommended to study a large amount of literature that can teach you how to properly organize your searches.

It has already been said that gold is found in quartz strata. To detect them, you need to pay attention to certain signs that are characteristic only of such deposits.

Gold dredge

After many years, the technologies used to mine gold in ancient times have not changed much. All that has changed is the work of mechanized machines instead of human labor.

Today, few people are engaged in gold mining using trays, since this method is no longer relevant and widespread. But the technology has survived. Today, many people use a huge machine that has a large number of trays.

A dredge is a device used to flush water from a river. It is this huge and noisy structure that is capable of extracting precious metal from river rock. Although this method is very effective and profitable, it has a very negative impact on the environment. After dredging, river beds are left in a deplorable state. But in order to know how to find and then safely extract gold from the river, it is recommended to use dredging as the easiest way to mine gold.

Gravitational differentiation

This gold mining technology involves grinding rock that contains the metal. After these rocks have been loaded onto trucks, they are taken to special mills. Inside these mills, huge stones crumble under the pressure of large balls made of strong cast iron.

After crushing, this entire mass is placed in a centrifuge, in which the earth and stones are separated from the pyrite. Pyrite contains particles of valuable metal. Very often the shine of the mineral is mistaken for real gold.

Modern mining technologies

Today, technological progress has made significant strides forward. With the help of the latest technologies, gold is extracted even from poor and almost deserted mines. Balanced deposits are also created.

In order to establish the use of heap leaching, it is enough to spend one year of work. In addition, it is a very profitable investment. Within a year, the mine owner will be able to hold entire bars of precious metal in his hands.

Searching with a metal detector

There is an opinion that it makes no sense to continue gold mining in ore that has already been mined. After all, in order to find a few grams of metal, it is necessary to process a whole pile of rock, and this is a huge amount of work. The question arises: how to find gold, with the most accurate determination of its location?

On average, there are about five kilograms of pure gold per ton of land. If these data are correct, then metal mining becomes unprofitable. But there are certain places where quite a large amount of precious metal accumulates. Such places are called deposits. They are found by geologists who have relevant knowledge in this area. In such local accumulations, the gold coefficient is several times higher than usual.

In the deposits you can find nests and columns. These are places in which there is much more metal than in all others. The efficiency of mining can only be seen when the amount of precious material is calculated relative to the ton of rock that was processed. In order to learn how such calculations are made, you can study the corresponding video.

To find such deposits, a metal detector is used, which is widely used for such purposes. It significantly increases the level of efficiency and reduces the duration of search work. If the metal detector indicates something, then the sector must be carefully checked and, perhaps, even a soil sample must be taken and the rock washed.

Many years of practice have proven that gold nuggets are never far from each other. If one was found, then it makes sense to look further, since there should be more similar specimens nearby.

Metal detectors were first used about forty years ago in foreign countries. Today you can see instruments that have excellent sensitivity, which can indicate even a small piece of metal. The device shows exactly how to quickly and accurately find gold in nature.

Scientists geologists tested dozens of instruments that searched for an identified object in a variety of conditions, both on land and in deep reservoirs. The test results proved that the metal detectors performed well and that they can conduct full-scale searches.

During the research conducted in the Irkutsk region, geologists managed to find more than a hundred nuggets, the total weight of which was more than 1 kilogram. Most often, such specimens are found on the surface of industrial dumps, and not on the surface of the earth, as is usually shown in movies.

There are different types of terrain that have unique prospects for mining, so searches should be carried out wherever possible. To avoid mistakes, there is a more proven and reliable option. Where gold can be found, mining must have already been carried out previously or continues to this day. Places where gold has never been mined do not present any prospects or opportunities for further exploration.

It is important to consider that excavations had already been carried out before your arrival. Therefore, if even highly qualified specialists could not find anything, then you are unlikely to be luckier than them. But there are also exceptions.

Geologists are interested in areas that have vast volumes. They do not pay attention to distant corners. Therefore, if you look hard enough, you can find small amounts of gold nuggets in those distant corners.

It is better not to skimp on buying a metal detector.

Small streams high in the mountains are another promising place where you can get metal. Light pebbles are carried away by the current, while heavier ones remain and accumulate at the bottom of the river.

Is it possible to find gold using a regular, amateur metal detector? Naturally, it is possible, but it is better to use a tool that costs 30 thousand rubles or more, since it greatly simplifies the task.

Finding gold is hard work. Sometimes months of fruitless efforts and research pass in search. Russia is far from being the last among the countries that have deposits of this precious metal. Moreover, in recent years it has ranked 5th among gold-mining countries.

Geologists advise looking for precious metal only where it can be found, and for this there are a large number of ways to find metal in the form of flakes, nuggets, gold sand and placer gold. Precious metal may be found in areas where mining companies have operated.

It can be on the surface layer, in the middle of mountain streams or on a raft, in bedrock, or rock cracks. But you shouldn’t look where searches have never been carried out; the likelihood of finding precious metal there is almost zero. When a person finds even a small pebble of gold, he understands that his labors were not in vain, so he should not be discouraged. Great luck, geological knowledge and a good tool will increase the likelihood of a find many times over.

Basic signs of gold

It is very easy to confuse gold with another mineral if you do not know some of its features. Everyone knows that it is yellow and shiny. But, besides gold, pyrite and chalcopyrite have such characteristics. Nuggets can be yellow with red and greenish hues.

The natural material is malleable and can be forged. It does not oxidize, but dissolves in hydrochloric or nitric acids. If you look for gold in ores, you first need to focus on the fact that the metal grows together with other minerals. It will not clearly crystallize like pyrite and chalcopyrite. The noble metal is often found fused with quartz, appearing like a grain or plate.

Alluvial gold is characterized by grains in the form of hooks or wires. In this form, natural material is found in the form of small grains and various kinds of nuggets. If we consider its dimensions, we can distinguish the following categories:

  • finely dispersed (up to 10 microns);
  • visible (0.01-4 mm);
  • nuggets (from 5 g to 10 kg).

To distinguish it from pyrite and chalcopyrite, you need to pay attention to the color. The pebble is viewed from different angles. From any angle, gold will not change its original shade. Pyrite will give itself away by changing its color. Its bright yellow color will fade to gray upon inspection. Gold can be checked with a knife; it will not crumble like pyrite and chalcopyrite, but it will leave grooves or lines on it.

If doubts have not been dispelled after the procedures, you can test the metal using sulfuric acid. Gold's color will not change, but pyrite and chalcopyrite will change it. Pyrite in areas of impact will turn black, and chalcopyrite will turn red.

Precious metal deposits

There are many places where you can find gold. But to a greater extent, gold ores are formed in mountainous and watery places. Near the mountains, in depressions, young gold deposits are found. Gold veins accumulate in places of faults and cracks in mountains, rocks, and are located along the line of mountain rivers. They come from the bowels of the earth through special channels (fault zones and igneous rock dikes). The total length of such veins can reach several hundred meters, and sometimes reach up to 2 km.

In search of gold, prospectors find pure deposits of gold veins and complex places of formation of non-ferrous metals. In the second case, placer deposits of gold are formed due to the properties of the precious metal to dissolve and oxidize under natural conditions. Gold can come into contact with other minerals and form where sulfides and granitoids come into contact with limestone. Vein deposits are located at different depths, so they are divided into 3 categories:

  • low temperature;
  • medium temperature;
  • high temperature.

If there is a placer gold deposit nearby, then there are also vein channels in the area. The precious metal is sometimes an integral part of the gold-polymetallic zone, then silver, zinc and lead are combined with it. In Cretaceous sedimentary formations, in depressions and conglomerates, gold-bearing veins are found in places of faults and large cracks.

In these zones, the metal is found in generations with different types of quartz, sulfides and other minerals. But the largest areas for extracting priceless metal are stockwork areas. Gold, along with sulfides and quartz, is scattered in areas of large cracks in the form of inclusions or veins in the rock. Such deposits can be very long and large. Therefore, in such zones, metal mining is organized industrially, where ordinary miners can search for gold quite effectively after completing all the work.

Types of metal deposits

The most common gold deposits are quartz veins, created by nature over many years. Over time, these veins were destroyed by external factors, and both quartz and gold were washed away by sediments into rivers. At the bottom there was a constant movement of stones, which crushed and rolled around the metal. Due to the fact that the noble metal is heavier than other minerals, it was deposited in certain areas of the ducts. With just one glance at the size and degree of rounding of a sample, specialists can determine its travel history and the location of the main vein.

You can successfully search for gold near a river only if the map contains marks on the main places of deposits, which can be both at the bottom of the river and near it. Near the river there are residual deposits formed due to the weathering of the vein. Some pieces of vein and nuggets moved a certain distance from the main location, but did not fall into the reservoir. These formations are called eluvial. When looking for terraced metal deposits, you can find formations above the water level (old bottom) and at a great distance from the current riverbed, sometimes they are found even high in the mountains. The last place where gold is formed is the bottom of the river, where the metal was washed away by water from the main vein.

Gold is several times heavier than other minerals, so its movement along the bottom occurs only under the strong influence of water masses over short distances. The movement occurs in the area of ​​the river that is between the bends. Large stones become an obstacle to gold, so it is better to look for gold under them at the bottom of the river. As the river widens, the flow speed decreases, so gold can settle in such areas.

Gold content of quartz

Quartz is the most common mineral and forms in veins with many metals and minerals. In the search for the noble yellow metal, it plays a major role because the appearance of quartz can reveal the location of the gold. To correctly read quartz, knowledge of the properties of the gold-bearing sample is necessary. This mineral comes in a variety of colors and shades; it can be transparent, black, white, or gray. You can search for gold in quartz in several types:

  • corn;
  • nest;
  • veins;
  • germination;
  • invisible dispersive.

If ore minerals were in quartz, but were leached, then the quartz has signs of sponginess. When the process of sulfide decomposition occurs in a gold-bearing vein, quartz crystals acquire yellow, cherry-red, or shades similar to them, which indicate that the mineral is fermented. If a prospector in search of yellow metal sees banded quartz with powdery layers or with the inclusion of tourmaline and sulfides, it means that representatives of low-temperature or high-temperature layers are somewhere nearby. Such zones may contain gold.

Yellow metal satellites

Some prospectors, in search of wealth, focus on the companions of gold, and there are many of them. Quartz, adularia, silver, pyrite, galena, platinum - all these minerals are found with gold. The only problem is that the presence of one of the gold satellites in the ore does not always indicate the presence of a noble metal in it. Sometimes gold ores consist of fused quartz, lead and gold, sometimes gold, quartz and antimony, and sometimes a combination of gold, silver, quartz and feldspars.

Even about silver, the most common neighbor of gold, it cannot be said that it always indicates the presence of the yellow metal in ores. But when a nugget is found while searching, it is almost always mixed with silver. In some cases, the share of silver reaches significant figures, but sometimes this part is negligible. The ideal ratio of gold and silver in ores occurs mainly in volcanic zones. They can be in Kamchatka or any other Far Eastern region.

Rich places in Russia

Russia is rich in different types of deposits, so you can search for gold in almost all its regions. Skarn, hydrothermal deposits and gold-quartz formations are scattered in different regions of the Russian Federation. Approximate list of areas and types of gold deposits:

  • Siberia (Olkhovskoe) - skarn type;
  • Ural (Berezovskoye), Transbaikalia (Darasunskoye) - gold-quartz-sulfide formation;
  • Pacific ore belt - volcanogenic hydrothermal deposits;
  • Transbaikalia (Baleyskoe, Taseevskoe) - gold-quartz-chalcedony-sulfide formation;
  • Northeast Russia (Karamkenskoye) - gold-silver-quartz-adularia formation;
  • Yakutia, Magadan, Transbaikalia, eastern Siberia - alluvial placers;
  • Chukotka, Ural, Magadan, Bodaibo, Amur and Taximo are golden nuggets.

Many geologists are constantly in search of minerals; they skillfully use geological knowledge and can find gold even in places where an industrial base has been operating for many years, and then also miners. Where, it would seem, everything has already been dug up and dug up, people have almost reached the magma, but still 50 g or 100 g of gold can be found.

How to choose a place?

Before starting to look for gold, experienced trackers study a map of the area. It is necessary to examine the geological composition of the area: what fossils were found, their location and search method. Gold in Russia is found in different forms, but if there are gold placers in the surveyed area, then the place is suitable for survey. This can be either an industrial area or a non-industrial area.

It should be noted those areas where industrial bases have worked or where quartz is present in this area. It is necessary to consider the valleys that form the tributary of the river. The valley is divided into 3 parts: upper, middle and lower. It can be noted with greater confidence that gold will have to be looked for in the upper part of the valley, but there have been cases when gold-bearing places were located both in its middle and lower parts.

It is easier to search for gold based on the characteristics of the deposit when the bedrock is not under sediments and sediments. For example, quartz gold-bearing veins appear as ridges and ridges on the surface of the surveyed area. Quartz can also be in the form of placers, blocks and fragments of a characteristic white or brown-red color. If you look for gold in elongated depressions or clearly defined troughs, you can find stockwork ore deposits. When conducting a survey of a steppe area, the search for gold should be carried out in a place where there are the most thickets, or in a place where there are the least amount of them.

Necessary tool

Attentiveness, geological knowledge and a metal detector can help in the search. This equipment is quite expensive and will quickly pay for itself, but not all models will cope with the task. Moreover, you need to know how to use and set up a metal detector, since it is very sensitive to the soil, which itself will create interference. The metal detector detects large nuggets at shallow depths (up to 1 m), and the smallest ones at a depth of up to 15 cm.

A special feature of working with such products is its excessive sensitivity, which is caused by a large amount of minerals and iron in the soil. The device should not be configured for a specific type of metal; it must be operated in the mode of detecting all metals without exception. Iron, like gold, produces the same sound, so it is better to stop and test the ground rather than continue searching for gold to no avail. It is necessary to listen to the soil using headphones, so you should be extremely attentive to changes in noise.

The number of false signals coming from the ground depends on the sensitivity level setting. When the sensitivity of the metal detector is low, a person hears deeper sounds of ground testing. The result of the work also depends on the ground balance setting. Ideally, the headphones will display background noise as the metal detector probes the soil, the sound may decrease or increase.

To adjust, you need to turn the knob responsible for ground balance. Every 5-7 m you will have to adjust this function, since the mineralization of the soil may be different. To search for large-sized gold on fairly strong mineralized soil, it is necessary to use a negative setting, which will reduce the sensitivity of the metal detector to small nuggets. And, conversely, when searching for small nuggets, the adjustment is made in a positive direction. The best tuning method is a small sample of gold or lead.

When listening to the soil, the metal detector coil should be kept as close to the surface as possible. When a signal occurs, listening is carried out in all directions from the possible location of the nugget. If gold is present, the signal will be heard in all directions, and if the signal is only triggered in a certain direction, then it is not gold. The last step of the test will be to raise the coil above the intended location. If the sound suddenly fades away, it means the signal is false, and this place does not even contain metal.

Tray - equipment for beginners

Washing trays are used for taking samples, but those miners who have not yet mastered all the intricacies of searching use the tray as a means of extracting gold. Professionals work with a metal detector because up to 100 g of gold can be collected in a week of panning. But they are still used today. The choice of tray determines the efficiency and speed of work.

It is inconvenient to look for gold with a metal tray. There are greasy hand marks on it; they can only be removed by annealing the tray. The metal is corrosive and cannot be tested with a metal detector or separated from magnetite and gold. All the negative aspects of a metal tray are completely absent from a plastic product, and a green tray is an ideal product in which gold flecks are very clearly visible.

In searches, trays with a diameter of 15-40 cm are used, but a tray with a diameter of 40 cm will weigh approximately 10 kg in use. Therefore, the best option would be a tray with a diameter of 35 cm. In addition to the trays, you need to purchase a plastic sieve (mesh size 12 mm). Rinse should be 300-500 m higher from the river mouth. A good sign would be if at least 1 piece of gold gets into the tray, but if nothing is found during washing, this is not a sign that the stream is hopeless. If there are large nuggets in it, then there will be very few small gold pieces.

Where to look for gold? Most people who want to try panning for gold go to any river and try to look for gold. To test, simply take regular soil and, after washing one or two trays, move to another place. Another place is chosen according to the same principle - where it is more convenient to approach the river and where it is easy to dig with a shovel. And again there is nothing in the tray. After walking around like this for a day, another newly minted prospector, coming home, puts the tray in the closet and forgets about it. It’s good if it’s a tray worth 2000-3000 rubles, and not a dredge worth more than a hundred thousand. You can still come to terms with the loss of money spent on a tray, but the amount spent on purchasing more serious equipment is already difficult. And yet people still strive to buy expensive equipment as quickly as possible. After all, the Internet is filled with pictures about how kilograms are mined.
And to find gold you need to understand it. What is gold? Where and how can I find it? Today the customer needed to photograph stones and an idea came to mind. Lay out the river bottom from stones. This is roughly what it looks like, only the pebbles are laid more densely and covered with sand.

The real bottom of a stream or river looks something like this.

For those who have ever fished with bottom tackle, they know perfectly well how sinkers get stuck in rocks. Sometimes you have to cut the line. Personally, I use the rig with a drop sinker at the end of the line and two hooks above. I select the weight of the load so that it can be dragged on a flat surface. As soon as the sinker hits a hole or hits an obstacle, it stops. When bitten, it starts moving again. In recent years I have been fishing on the Moscow River and using weights of 21-30 grams. The river current is 0.5 m/sec. Due to the fact that the sinker has the shape of a droplet, it rolls along the bottom with a stream of water for some time. The first obstacle and the sinker freezes. A flat sinker of the same weight goes down immediately and does not move. The bottom of the Moscow River is where I catch something like clay. There are no stones.
Now let's go back to the bottom of the rocks. But first you need to collect grains of gold and nuggets. I take out a box with weights and take different-sized weights. Lead has a density of 11.3 g/cc. Gold has a density of 19.3 grams per cubic cm, and if with impurities, then 15-16 grams per cubic cm. This is about one and a half times heavier than lead.
It turns out that each such grain of gold will weigh one gram.

A nugget of this size will weigh 15 grams. Finding one like this is already happiness.

Now let’s see what grains of gold actually look like.

These are shapeless grains. Naturally, these will not roll like a lead sinker. Someone will say that these grains can move through the body of water in a strong current. I'm talking about configuration now, not size. Larger gold also has the same clumsy and flattened shape.
We throw grains of gold to the bottom of the river.

Where did they swim or maybe they were dragged along the bottom to the first hole? They immediately hid under the stones. They didn't go anywhere. Those interested can do the same with lead weights in a stream and see where they go. Maybe they will be dragged for half a meter and only then they will get stuck between the stones.

This is so you can see where the gold goes. Now look how a nugget can get hidden under a stone.

So he will stand like this and until the upper stone is washed away by the current, the nugget will remain under it. In the next photo I wrote the weight of the stones that press the gold and nuggets.

This is provided that one stone is pressing, and not two or three. In order for the right nugget to move from its place, the stone pressing it must float away under the pressure of water. So what speed must the water move so that such a stone can move? Not less than 1.5 m/sec. I wrote above that the speed of water flow in the Moscow River is 0.5 m/sec. And so that there would be an understanding that in mountain streams the water speed is 6.0-10.0 m/sec. If you go knee-deep into a river with a water speed of 2.5-3.0 m/sec, it is almost impossible to stay on your feet. But the stream flowing at a constant speed, as it were, angles the bottom of the river and the vibrating pebbles are placed tightly. Gold flecks are naturally found in cracks. They don’t crawl anywhere, much less swim. So they lie until some kind of flood, which is capable of moving this mass of stones. And only when the entire mass of stones begins to move will the gold pieces begin to move. But such flows of water have not been observed since the glaciation. So, just as gold was laid down in ancient times, it still lies between the stones. Vibration during floods only causes it to sink deeper and deeper. The main placers of gold were formed at a time when huge water streams flowed. During the formation of continents 300-200 million years ago. Based on this, we need to look for gold deposits. More precisely, all the deposits have already been found, and for a prospector one can put it more precisely - look for small deposits.
In this article I wanted to clarify that gold does not simply move along the bed of modern water flows. It remains the same as it was in ancient times. Grains up to 1-2 mm in size can be transported by flood waters, but at the first opportunity they will get buried under stones. And these distances will not be measured in kilometers. Even small grains, if they slip 1-2-5 meters in a strong flood, then this is already a lot. They will hide under a pebble and be hit by another stone or sanded down. And for those who want to determine by roundness how far the gold has drifted from the ore, they should look at the bottom of the river. If the river bottom is slightly rounded with stones and gold, then they traveled no more than one kilometer.

Three to five kilometers is probably the life limit for gold. Then they simply stop their life path under the influence of sand and stones.
What about nuggets? How nuggets move under the influence of water. No way. Where the gold mine collapsed, the nuggets were deposited there. But more about that next time.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It is the largest in area in the Amur region and is distinguished by high gold contents in placers. The greatest prosperity of the area dates back to the period from 1873 to 1900, when gold mining operations were carried out by large gold mining companies. Over the years, 63.6 tons of gold were mined. Of these, 28.3 tons of gold were extracted from the Dzhalon Creek basin alone and 22.7 tons of gold from the Dzhalta Creek basin (near the village of Kirovsky). Until 1945, at least 150 tons of gold were mined in the Dambukinsky region, and this figure is rather an understatement, since a significant part of the gold remained unaccounted for.

On the Jalon stream, with a team of 78 workers, they panned 3 poods and 20 pounds of gold daily (60 kg per day).

Talga River

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 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.

Unaha River

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.

P.S. : Gold is widely distributed in the surrounding world; the metal is present as a chemical element even in the human body. But in terms of content in the earth’s crust, the precious metal is only in 61st place: its share by mass is less than 0.000001%, the reason for this is its dispersed state in nature.

They began searching for gold using metal detectors abroad about 40 years ago, ever since sufficiently sensitive metal detectors appeared that were capable of finding small gold nuggets. In Russia since 1996. Finding a gold nugget is a great pleasure - it is a beautiful and valuable find. The cost of a gram of gold as of 01/01/2013 is 1650 rubles per gram. A nugget, in addition, is an interesting geological object that can indicate a deposit or a rich gold-bearing vein. In addition, hunting for gold nuggets is an unforgettable journey.

I first picked up a metal detector in 1996, while conducting research work on the introduction of metal detectors to geological enterprises in Russia. We, employees of the research institute, needed to evaluate the possibility of using metal detectors in geology. We compared different metal detectors, tested them in different conditions, and carried out experimental work. As a result of the research carried out, it turned out that metal detectors are excellent for exploration, identification and search for rich areas. During three business trips to the north of the Irkutsk region, we found more than a hundred nuggets, and proved that modern metal detectors are excellent for finding nuggets. Our production amounted to more than a kilogram of gold.

On an open surface, nuggets are found mainly in cinema. Over many years of practice, I saw only one small nugget at the bottom of the stream. He lay in a shallow puddle on the surface of the rock. (see photo) Honestly speaking, without a metal detector I would have passed by without noticing it. Nuggets are more common on the surface of dumps left after the development of industrial deposits. According to geologist V.N. Klepikov, several hundred nuggets were collected (and officially handed over) in Kolyma in the 50s, although at that time even the word “metal detector” was not yet known.

In the surface layer at a depth of up to 20 cm, which can be examined with a simple, relatively inexpensive metal detector for searching for nuggets, for example Eureka Gold, X-Terra 705, CTX3030, there are more nuggets than on the open surface, and in a layer 50 cm thick there are even more of them. But at such a depth they can only be detected by the professional metal detector GPX 4800 and GPX 5000.

The best modern metal detectors of the GPX series provide detection depths of large nuggets up to one meter. This expands the search area, but you still need to be able to calculate the places where nuggets lie at an accessible depth. This is the main condition for success.

I will try to tell you where to look for gold nuggets.

When I went on business trips, first with my father, Boris Konstantinovich Kavchik, candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences, we studied the area using geological reports and selected several promising places in one area. We were not able to find nuggets everywhere; only one of the 3-4 planned sites was successful. If gold was easy to find, it wouldn't cost so much.

Areas promising for nuggets come in different types and, accordingly, you need to look for them in different places.


It is most reliable to search in areas where gold mining has already been or is currently underway. Areas where gold has never been mined are less or completely unpromising. You need to take into account that gold has already been looked for before you and this is a huge plus. Professional geologists walked around all the streams and mountains. They worked for years, in large teams, and if they didn’t find anything, then you won’t find anything either. There are, however, exceptions. Geologists were not interested in small and remote areas, but were looking for areas for industrial gold mining. In geological reports you can find information about small objects, sometimes old-timers can tell you about gold mining. But geologists' reports are more reliable, although they are extremely difficult to obtain.

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 specific gravity, sinks through sand and pebbles, accumulates and forms gold-bearing placers. Choose places to search where the raft comes close to the surface. Such places in mountain rivers are found quite often in the form of rock formations, see the photo “Gold-bearing rock formations on the Sredny River (Buryatia)”. Their surface was once the bottom of a stream. Later, the stream washed out a new, deeper channel, and the former bottom appeared on the surface.

If the surface of the raft is cracked, then the gold remains in the cracks. The entire surface of the raft and the areas adjacent to it must be very carefully examined with a metal detector. It is also advisable to examine the accessible surface of the raft next to the riverbed, even 10-20 meters above the water. These are sections of ancient river valleys called basement terraces, and their surface could once have been the bottom of a river.

In Russia there are more areas where you can look for nuggets than in all other countries of the world combined and stretch from the Urals to the Far East.

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, however, it is very difficult to pull out a nugget from under the water due to the strong current and cold water.

Promising places in the form of bedrock outcrops are the easiest to find, but they are not found in all streams. If there are no visible bedrock outcrops, you have to explore the entire stream blindly, hoping for luck, maybe you’ll be able to “get” a nugget somewhere.

A stream can be preliminarily assessed using additional criteria. If there are quartz pebbles or quartz boulders in the stream, then the stream is more promising for gold. The fact is that gold is most often formed in quartz veins. The quartz is destroyed, the gold is released from it and slides down the slope into the stream. Quartz also ends up in the creek and is easy to see. The presence of quartz in a stream is a good sign, although it is ambiguous. If there is quartz, then there may be gold, but not necessarily. A lot of quartz veins do not contain gold. However, if there is no quartz in the stream bed, then most likely there is no gold in it.

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 a scratch remains, then the fragment is quartz; if there is no scratch, then it is another mineral.

Another criterion for selecting the most promising streams is washing the rock with a tray, the professional term for spot testing. You can watch how to work with the tray in films on the treasure hunting video website www.kladtv.ru in the “Gold Mining” section.

The washing of the rock should not be carried out at the very mouth of the stream, but 200-500 m above the mouth. If at least one piece of gold is caught in the tray, this is a good sign. It is very 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 fact is that the tray “catches” only small gold. And in nugget streams there is little fine gold and it may not get into the tray. Sometimes in nugget places we washed 10 trays and all without gold. But if gold gets into the tray, then the stream needs to be examined first and very carefully.


It is better to choose streams for examination that are short in length, up to 10-15 km. These may also be the upper reaches of larger rivers. Nuggets are inactive and are not transported over long distances by the river. Usually, the further from the sources, 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. We also found small nests, which I will tell you about another time on our website www.kladtv.ru

Even the smallest nugget indicates that there may be a rich gold-bearing nest in the stream. In addition, the nugget fell into the stream, most likely from quartz veins located on the slopes. The veins can also be quite rich and profitable for mining. The appearance of a nugget carries useful geological 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 vein.

In addition to river beds, there are also other promising areas for searching for nuggets. The most reliable are pebble dumps of waste placers. It was in them that we found most of the nuggets. I'll try to talk about dumps another time.

Rudolf Kavchik. YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/RudolfKavchik

Film 1.

Equipment for gold mining that you can easily make with your own hands and, most importantly, completely free. A passage or butara or a sluice, called by different names, is an ancient and effective equipment for gold mining at a price of zero.


Movie 2

The film is about where to look for gold and gold nuggets.