N e w s

Last year only 7 out of 9 registered gold-mining artels in the Altai region were operating, at a quote of 167 kg they have extracted only 110 kg of gold said Mr. Yuri Berezikov, the Chairman of the Commitee of the natural resources of the region. According to his words, as the Altai youth informational agency reports, the work of gold-diggers was complicated by the specificity of gold extraction in the region, in particular, low consistence of gold in local placers – on the average 0.5-0.6 grams/m2, as well as the low linear productivity of the deposits. Besides, the development of the field is restrained by the small number of the found gravel and golden ore deposits. The perspective of the gold extraction development in Altai region is tied up, first of all, with the golden ore development, because large investments would result in the substantial extraction for several decades. However, because of the funds shortage, artels continue to work only with gravel gold. At that, the question was set about the creation of the financial and industrial group in the Altai region, that would organize the development of the gold, and it was not positively settled. The only investor for the gold mining artels is Altaisberbank. The 8 gold mining enterprises have declared the extraction of 170 kg of metal for the year 2000. According to the expert evaluations, only 110-130 kg will be extracted. The forecasted resources with a different degree of reliability are evaluated by 15-18 tones. Before it was planned to increase the extraction of the gravel gold up to 500 kg with active investments, and in the future up to 1 ton a year. There are only small deposits of the gravel gold in the Altai region with the stock of only 100-200 kg. The largest deposit Mungaiskoye contains only 450 kg. There are no explored deposits of the golden ore in the region. The forecasted resources are evaluated by 500 tones.

The Source: Finmarket