Hello, dear readers! I propose to continue searching for places where a person thirsting for gold should go. These include ruslarek - natural.

Let's reveal the secrets of how to find gold in the river: where to look, how to mine it, what equipment to use. And most importantly, let’s name the rivers and streams in which the richest reserves of gold grains, and even whole nuggets, lie.

Experts classify river gold as secondary deposits, which were formed as a result of rock destruction under the influence of natural factors (mainly temperature changes) and washing away by water flows.

Scientifically, such placers of Au are called alluvial deposits, which are divided into three types:

• terraced;
• bottom;
• oblique.

To find terraced gold deposits, sometimes it is enough to get close to the bank, which is rich in the natural form of the precious metal. They are often found in river beds, both in deep streams and at the site of dry arteries. A “terrace” is a bottom that rises above the shore level.

Bottom deposits arise in the bedrock channel, that is, in the valley where river flow passes during periods of low water. The chances of finding them are higher in areas where the bedrock is shallow. And deposits of the third type should be looked for on a river spit, be it pebbly or sandy.

Is it possible to find gold in an ordinary river?

Particles of precious metal are scattered almost everywhere in Russia. You can look for them in any river that carries water from highlands to lowlands. Theoretically, in order to practice searching and find precious grains, there is no need to leave the Moscow or Leningrad region, much less the Caucasus or the Urals.

But in practice, the number of grains found will be negligible in monetary terms, unable to justify the expenditure of effort and time. If the task is to look for significant prey, you will have to go to the Far East or to the eastern part of Siberia - closer to the gold mines.

Life hacks for prospectors

Some tips on how to mine the yellow metal from the river to extract more:

1. The largest accumulations of Au are located in natural traps - near large boulders that block and sharply slow down the flow of small mountain rivers and streams. The lower such a “golden trap” is downstream, the more metal can be found, and the purer it is.
2. It is also profitable to look for gold in other places where the water flow slows down - at the mouths of mountain streams and rivulets, at turns (bends) of the riverbed.
3. The precious metal accumulates near any obstacles in the path of water - in holes and whirlpools under waterfalls, on shallows and spits, near fallen trees, ledges and other irregularities.
4. Bottom gold can be found not only in genuine bedrock, but also in false, representing a bottom of dense clay.

In other words, we must remember that gold is much heavier than water, streams do not carry it away, but drag it slowly along the bottom, and on the river you should look for places where it is easiest for grains of gold nuggets to freeze and settle.

Yellow metal satellites

The minerals most often found in rocks adjacent to the yellow metal are silver, quartz, galena, lead, and pyrite. The first is usually found with gold in some nuggets. The latter is especially often confused by newcomers with the sought-after value due to the shine and yellow color it possesses.

I note with regret that even having found these signs of presence, one cannot be sure that the location of the noble metal is also here. But even unremarkable pieces of minerals should be checked for the presence of a yellow sheen, the hue and color of which does not change when light is refracted. It indicates the presence of Au inside. If you notice such shine - congratulations, you managed to find gold!

Extraction technologies

Three main methods of extracting gold from the river, used by enthusiastic miners:

• dredge or minidrag;
• gravitational differentiation;
• metal detector

Dredge

The dredge pumps out the rock from the bottom, moves it into a special chute and washes it, separating the gold. Its negative impact on the environment is offset by its convenience for the gold miner.

Gravitational differentiation

Gravity differentiation is the process of grinding rocks containing gold. This is an industrial method of extraction, which is suitable for developing primary deposits, but is not suitable for private individuals.

Metal detector

The equipment of a gold miner includes a metal detector (metal detector) and a mini-dredge or a tray for washing rock.

You also need full equipment for going to the area where you are going to search and mine gold.

How to wash by hand

To wash gold with your own hands using an ordinary tray, you need a round or rectangular trough up to 40 centimeters in size and a sieve. If, after washing, at least one grain remains in the sieve, the miner can be congratulated: the placer has been found. If not, you need to try further. Of course, washing this way requires enormous patience.

The operating principle of the mini-dredge is the suction of sand and small particles of pebbles from the bottom with mechanical separation of gold from the rock. The disadvantage of using this device is that it creates a lot of noise, attracting the attention of conservationists. To mine precious metals in this way, I strongly advise you to first purchase a license, otherwise you will face problems with the law.

TOP 10 Russian rivers rich in gold reserves

Prospectors with experience have compiled a truly golden top ten watercourses, where the treasure of the same name is most abundant - that’s where it’s worth looking for:

1. basin of the Siberian Lena River;
2. river length Bom;
3. Jalon Creek;
4. Millionny stream;
5. Unakha River (all in the Amur region);
6. the Bodaibo River in the Irkutsk region (the city of the same name with gold mines is even mentioned in Vysotsky’s “thieves’ lyrics”);
7. Bolshoy Chanchik River, a tributary of Bodaibo;
8. Alekseevsky stream in the Kamchatka region;
9. the Talga River in the Khabarovsk Territory;
10. the Sanarka River is the only one not in Siberia or the Far East, but in the Urals, in the Chelyabinsk region.

There are quite a lot of large grains on Bodaibo and in the Millionny stream; nuggets can still be found in other streams.

Conclusion

No matter how long and successfully industrial mining is carried out in places where gold deposits are located, it never sweeps away all the gold, leaving a healthy “catch” for private miners.

Gold-bearing regions of Russia.

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

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

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

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

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

Primary deposits.

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

Placers.

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

EXAMPLES OF PLACERS IN THE URAL.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

METHODS OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT OF PLACERS AND GOLD LOSS.

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

Equipment for small-scale gold mining.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Search for gold nuggets in technogenic placers.

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

Search on solid placers and in bedrock.

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

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

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

CONCLUSION.

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

Humanity has always been interested in precious metals. They began to be mined thousands of years ago and such work is still actively carried out. This is mainly done by industrial companies that meet market needs. They know exactly where and how to find gold, since mining is carried out at the main deposits. It is much more difficult for a simple prospector to discover a nugget

Search territories

In modern conditions, it is not difficult to find information about deposits of precious metals in a country or a particular region. Professional mining of gold and silver is carried out by large companies and holdings that have all the necessary documents for this. They attract specialists - geologists and mineralogists - to develop new deposits.

Professionals use special equipment and soil tests at different levels. After such work, the composition of the subsoil and the possibility of searching for gold are taken into account.

It’s a completely different matter when an ordinary person sets himself the task of finding gold in the ground. Searching on your own rarely brings success without knowledge or experience in gold mining. To carry out such work, you must purchase a license, otherwise mining will be illegal. The document is most often obtained from a gold mining company.

There are many places where gold particles are found, but in small quantities. In regions with large deposits, searches will be more successful if you try. In order for a prospector to be lucky, he must know the geology of the area, for example, information about the types of rocks.

Experts say that where rocks collide, gold most often lies. It also happens within the same breed. Such places are the most promising for gold mining. Experienced geologists suggest that there was previously high pressure and temperature at the “contact point” of the two rocks. Such conditions always contribute to the appearance of a concentration of precious metal. The search guide will be the change in color of the rock.

Gold deposits

In its pure form, yellow precious metal is very rarely found in nature. Almost always it contains various impurities. The metal must be cleaned from them.

The most common place where gold is found in large quantities and without impurities is in quartz formations. Due to unfavorable weather conditions, the layers are destroyed. This process promotes the formation of large nuggets. In nature, gold reserves are deposited in several types:

• eluvial;
• residual;
• bottom;
• terraced.

In the residual type, deposits are usually observed near the vein itself, which has been subjected to chemical or physical influence. This most often occurs at the foot of the mountains.

In most cases, terrace deposits are found at the bottom of rivers and streams. Water erodes the earth, which leads to the formation of an additional bottom. After some time, the old bottom rises above the ground level, after which a terrace appears. Such formations, hundreds of years old, are distinguished by their gold content in large quantities.

Bottom sediments occur in the form of sediments at the bottom of rivers. Gold moves along the river bed with the help of rain. In such reservoirs it is often mixed with black sand. The soil in them may look reddish, black or orange in color.

Mining locations in Russia

Gold mining is carried out in almost all countries of the world, including Russia. On the vast territory of the Russian Federation there is precious metal. The largest mines and mines are located in the Urals and the Far East. Most often, gold-bearing deposits are discovered together with platinum deposits, but the yellow metal does not occur in the natural environment with silver. There are several regions where to look for gold in Russia. These include:

• Chukotka;
• Ural;
• Amur River Valley;
• Magadan.

Large nuggets are found in these areas, the largest of which weigh up to 10 kg. Before you begin your search, you should carefully study the geological map of the area. It is advisable to talk with local residents who have the necessary information.

Most often, gold nuggets are found in pairs. You need to be observant and smart, because if one ingot was discovered, then there should be a second one nearby. Abandoned mines where previously . Reliable information is usually found in archives.

Modern technologies

Finding gold usually takes a long time. Sometimes they last for years and often without success. To properly organize the work, the digger must study the necessary literature and have special equipment. Everything together will contribute to a more productive and accelerated process.

Previously, gold was mined manually, panning it using trays. Today, large mechanisms with a large number of trays are used for this purpose. Such devices are called dredges; they flush water from the river. This design is designed to extract precious metal from river rock.

When working with rocks, gravity differentiation technology is used. After extraction, the composition is taken to special mills, where it is crushed under the pressure of large balls of strong cast iron. The resulting mass is sent to a centrifuge to separate pyrite. It contains particles of gold.

More modern technologies make it possible to extract gold from almost empty mines, but such methods are unlikely to be suitable for the average miner. Many people use a metal detector, which reduces search time and increases work efficiency.

Application of a metal detector

Metal detectors began to be used abroad 40 years ago. For independent searches, it is advisable to use the most modern device with high sensitivity, since it can find even a very small piece of gold. If the tool points to something, then you should carefully examine the area. To do this, the sample is washed and studied. Conventional metal detectors react to ferromagnets and do not find the noble metal in its pure form.

The device should not be used for searching in water. It is considered to be ineffective in such an environment. However, it is in areas with mountain streams that deposits of precious metal can most often be found.

Metal detectors from the best brands allow you to detect gold deposits at a depth of up to 1 meter. Such devices significantly expand the possibilities, but you also need to be able to calculate the places where nuggets may lie. These are mainly gold-bearing areas in places of small mountain streams, where valuable metal falls from the slopes. It is carried away by water, and then, due to its high specific gravity, it sinks through pebbles and sand. As a result, .

These places look like rocks; they used to be the bottom of a stream. They end up on the surface when the water chooses a new, deeper channel. Places like this nearby are always worth exploring. If there are quartz boulders or polished pebbles in or around the water, then this is a good sign.

Whatever place is chosen to search for a gold-bearing vein, this issue must be taken seriously. Otherwise, all the effort, time and financial costs will be in vain.

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.

Since ancient times, rivers, streams, waterfalls and beds of dry water streams have attracted gold seekers to their banks. Most prospectors are attracted by the opportunity to get rich quickly, but there are also those who are driven primarily by sporting interests. If a person is wondering how to find gold in a river and where to look for it, he should study the basics of geology, hydrology, collect all possible information about the search location and arm himself with the necessary equipment.

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 metal particles seeping through dense rock layers 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.

How to wash - manual extraction technologies

To determine the presence of gold in rock, prospectors use traditional iron or plastic trays. It is preferable to use a plastic tool: it is lightweight and does not leave fingerprints. The optimal tray diameter is 20-40 cm. Additionally, a sieve with a cell size of 12 cm is purchased.

A sure sign of the presence of gold deposits is if at least one grain gets into the sieve. A negative result does not mean the absence of precious metal: you need to try again. Beginners still use pans to pan for gold, while experienced miners use mini-drags.

This device helps to significantly increase labor productivity. In terms of operation, it resembles a vacuum cleaner. Rock is pumped into the injector from the bottom of the river, which then enters a special chute. There, gold is separated from other solid elements by washing. Minidrags differ significantly in power and performance. Large devices are capable of processing a ton of material per hour.

Top 10 Russian rivers rich in gold reserves

Gold can be found in the following places:

1. Lena River basin. Over one and a half hundred years of industrial production, about 1.5 tons of precious metal were mined here. There is still enough gold left in abandoned deposits for private miners.
2. Bom River (Amur Region). The yellow metal is found throughout the Bohm. In some places, prospectors find gold deposits where it lies right in the riverbed. Nuggets are often found, the largest reaching 300-400 g.
3. Millionny Stream (Amur Region). Placers of gold were accidentally discovered by smugglers at the end of the 19th century. In the first month, we managed to wash about 650 kg of metal.
4. Unakha River (Amur Region). Mountain river with fast flow. Gold is found where the bottom is exposed.
5. Jalon stream (Amur region). The rich part of the seam (more than 2 kg of gold per 1 ton of sand) has already been developed, but there is still room for enthusiasts with metal detectors.
6. Bodaibo River (Irkutsk region). The alluvial gold here is large. There are grains with a diameter of 8 mm or more.
7. Bolshoy Chanchik River (Irkutsk region). Tributary of the river Bodaybo. The riverbed has already been dredged, but large nuggets are still found.
8. Alekseevsky stream (Kamchatka region). Famous for large nuggets weighing up to 1 kg.
9. Talga River (Khabarovsk Territory). It has been exploited since the end of the 19th century, but large nuggets are still found today.
10. Sanarka River (Chelyabinsk region). Here were the richest deposits of precious stones and metals, which had been mined since the end of the 19th century. Currently, there is no industrial gold mining in Sanarka.

Those wishing to try themselves as a private miner should remember that they must purchase the appropriate license. Otherwise, fishing will be illegal.