Altai Gold Rush

The Altai Gold Rush, a mountain range in Siberia whose name comes from a Turko-Mongolian word meaning "gold coin" (cf. Altun), peaked in the middle of the 19th century, after having begun in the previous century, when silver deposits were also exploited for their gold content.

History

The Ore Altai is found mainly in the region between the Tcharysh and Irtysh rivers. For precious metals, the Altai, considered the natural southern limit of Siberia, has two mineralogical regions. The Nerchinsk, with its gold-bearing sands, had silver mines in operation since the years 1720, penalized by the extreme poverty of the ore and worked by populations of the Finnish race, on the extreme borders of Siberia and then exploited by Akenfi Demidoff. That of the Alataou mountains, where gold mining is much more recent, sees its expansion date back only to 1830.

"A considerable quantity of gold and silver from the mines of Siberia, the region of Nerchinsk and the mountains of Altai] arrived by the last sledges," says the Gazette de France of April 4, 1772, taking news from St. Petersburg, Gold and silver from the mines of Siberia, the region of Nerchinsk and the mountains of Altai]"'. Their greatest prosperity was reached around 1765, and it was gold that was sought at the beginning of the following century, by the chemical dissolution of silver, mined in Kbolivano-Voskressenski, and in the vicinity of Nerchinsk, where 12 mines annually supply 3000 poods (one pud represents 16 kilos) in 1838, i.e. 48 tons of silver. The Altai, a word which means "the golden mountain range" in Turko-Mongolian, is also found in rich mines at Schlangenberg, Smeinogorsk, Ridderski and Syrianowski. This Altai gold rush was followed by a Ural Gold Rush, which lasted a little longer.

In 1829, the German naturalist, geographer and explorer Alexander von Humboldt led a scientific expedition to the Altai, in order to study terrestrial magnetism and geology. Organized by the Emperor of Russia, it counted among its members the scientist Plato of Chihatcheff, (1802–1892), author thirteen years later of the first two ascents of the Pic d'Aneto, summit of the Pyrenees The exploitation of the gold districts of the Altai was then shared between individuals and the Russian crown. By reserving for itself the western side of the chain, the latter has handed over the eastern side to the efforts of private industry. The 20% to 25% duty levied for the benefit of the Tsar of Russia, however, encourages some of the gold extracted to be concealed, as much as possible: only a fifth of the production is declared, according to an engineer's estimate.

Alexander von Humboldt calculated that the gold production of the whole of Russia accelerated between 1823 and 1838, thanks to the mines of the Altai, with an average of 15.2 tons of gold per year. In 1836, 293 golden poods (one pood is equal to about 16 kilograms) came from the Urals and 104 poods from the Altai. The following year, in 1837, the Altai gave 160 golden poods and the Ural 309 poods. In 1844, layers of gold sand of the same type as those of the Urals were discovered in the Altai, the production of which was distributed to the east by the Popof house, which specialized in the trade of Inner Asia. As a result, in 1845, the Urals yielded only 5 tons of gold and the Altai 16 tons. The year 1847 was the peak of gold production in Russia. The Mining Administration shows a figure of 28.5 tons for the combined results of the Ural and Altai.