THE ROLE OF SCIENTISTS FROM TOMSK UNIVERSITIES IN THE STUDY OF GOLD POTENTIAL IN SIBERIA

A. M. Kuzmin (TPI)

Geological studies of gold deposits in Siberia, almost until the end of the last century, were of a random character. Expeditionary studies covering vast areas provided material only for general geological ideas about the structure of the surveyed territories, and only incidentally touched on questions relating to gold deposits.

In the 1880s–1890s, a university and a technological institute—now the polytechnic institute—were opened in the city of Tomsk; their task was to train qualified personnel for industry, including mining.

In this same period, systematic geological studies began along the Trans-Siberian Railway and in the gold-bearing regions of Siberia. Leading professors of Tomsk higher educational institutions—V. A. Obruchev, A. M. Zaitsev, P. P. Gudkov, M. A. Usov, B. L. Stepanov, and L. L. Tove—took part, on assignment from joint-stock companies and private owners of mines and placers, in the study of individual gold-bearing areas and gold deposits. The bibliography of these scholars’ works and an assessment of their activity were fully reflected in V. A. Obruchev’s monumental work The History of the Geological Exploration of Siberia.

The leading role in solving the problem of the gold potential of Siberia in this and subsequent periods belonged to V. A. Obruchev. In his hands the problem itself acquired concreteness in the light of subsequent direction. For young geologists, V. A. Obruchev’s works will long retain guiding and educational significance.

With the coming of Soviet power and the reconstruction of industry, interest in Siberian gold grew rapidly; geologists were faced with the question of a comprehensive study of gold-ore areas and the expansion of searches for deposits of placer and primary gold.

Therefore, quite naturally, the role of scientific personnel from Tomsk higher educational institutions in the study of Siberia’s gold potential increased. Much labor and energy in the first periods of development of the Soviet gold-mining industry were invested by M. A. Usov, I. A. Molchanov, A. Ya. Bulynnikov, F. N. Shakhov, Yu. A. Kuznetsov, A. M. Kuzmin, B. L. Stepanov, I. K. Bazhenov, N. N. Gornostaev, and M. A. Zheromsky.

At present, the foremost specialist on the gold of Western Siberia is Professor of Tomsk University, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences A. Ya. Bulynnikov. His works address practically important questions of gold-ore formation, forecasting ...

and the assessment of a number of districts and deposits. Countless consultations, regular expeditions, and expert examinations of mines, dozens of essays on the gold-ore occurrences of Salair, the Mariinsk taiga, Khakassia, the Sayan Mountains, and the Kuznetsk Alatau, and the discovery of the “Nakhodka” deposit—all this provided the material for the writing of major theoretical works: “Gold-Ore Formations and Gold-Bearing Provinces of the Altai-Sayan Mountain System” and “General and Specific Features of the Gold-Bearing Character of Western Siberia.” These works present a classification of diverse gold deposits, elucidate their genesis and their geological-historical, physicochemical, petrographic-mineralogical features, develop the question of the source rocks of gold mineralization, and emphasize the role of small intrusions of diorites and syenites. The conclusions and materials of these works remain entirely relevant today and have great applied and scientific significance.

Under the direction of Professor A. Ya. Bulynnikov, major work is being carried out by staff members of the university’s Department of Petrography—M. P. Kortusov, V. A. Vrublevsky, A. I. Goncharenko, and V. N. Sergeev—on the study of intrusive formations in the gold-bearing districts of Western Siberia and of the material composition of a number of deposits.

Of great importance for the development of the geochemistry of gold are the theoretical studies of I. K. Bazhenov, professor at Tomsk University and Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences. The method of mineralogical-geochemical mapping of deposits that he proposed contributed to the identification of new ore shoots and concealed ore bodies at a number of gold-ore deposits in the Northeast of the USSR. His work on complex compounds and their role in geochemical processes is of exceptional interest. The hypothesis that metals are transported in the form of heteropoly compounds and other complexes explains the formation of telethermal deposits far from magmatic masses, the unusual course of changes in the acidity—alkalinity of solutions, and many other questions that cannot be explained from the standpoint of the hypothesis of the transport of metals in the form of simple compounds. His studies of the gold-bearing character of the Western and Eastern Sayan also deserve attention.

Professor A. M. Kuzmin of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute devoted much effort to the study of the gold-bearing character of Transbaikalia. In 1936–1939, with the participation of A. M. Nenakhov, he carried out geological mapping of a large area between the Darasun mine and the town of Shilka, and in 1938 he studied the Aprelkovo gold deposit, which in recent years, on the insistent recommendations of Professor A. M. Kuzmin, has become an object of first-priority exploration. Professor A. M. Kuzmin is currently providing scientific guidance for a number of works on gold-related topics. He heads the council of the interdepartmental laboratory of gold geology at the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute.

Since 1936, S. S. Ilyenok, Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, head of the Department of Petrography of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute and docent, has been studying gold-bearing deposits in various districts of Siberia. In the Kuznetsk Alatau he identified a group of gold-scheelite veins, on the basis of which industrial enterprises were opened. He examined the structural conditions of localization of mineralization in the northeastern and latitudinal ore zones of the Znamenny mine, and raised the question of the presence of buried placers at the boundary between the Kuznetsk Alatau and the Minusinsk Depression. In the North Yenisei taiga, S. S. Ilyenok identified the main regularities in the structures of the ore fields of a group of deposits (Eldorado, Proletarskoye, Buyan, and others), showed the character of zoning and the absence of a direct genetic connection with granitoid batholiths. He discovered two new gold-ore deposits—

— the “Olginskoye” and “Vershinka” deposits, and in the central part of Tuva—the “Khop-to” gold-ore field. In recent years S. S. Ilyenok, together with postgraduate students N. F. Stolbova, V. A. Saraev, and others, has been carrying out extensive work on the study of gold mineralization in Gornaya Shoria.

Among the general theoretical works of S. S. Ilyenok, one should note the establishment of genetic links between contact iron and gold-ore deposits, and the identification of two series of endogenous gold mineralization.

In 1961–1964, Associate Professor of Tomsk University and Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences E. N. Zykov, in close contact with geologists of the ZSGU expedition, studied the petrography, mineralogy, regularities in the distribution of skarn-ore bodies, and genetic features of the gold-ore deposits of the Sinyukhinskoye ore field in Gorny Altai. A close paragenetic connection was revealed between gold mineralization and copper-sulfide mineralization; general geological, structural, and mineralogical criteria were developed that facilitate further exploration of the Sinyukhinskoye ore field and the search for new gold-ore skarn deposits in Gorny Altai. At present, E. N. Zykov is conducting a detailed study of the material composition of the skarns and ores of the Natalyevskoye gold-ore deposit in Martayga.

Beginning in 1959, a group of engineers from the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, consisting of S. A. Chubarov, A. V. Matsyushevsky, L. B. Matsyushevskaya, V. M. Volkov, and A. I. Volkova, under the direction of Associate Professor and Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences G. V. Shubin, has been conducting work on the study of gold-ore deposits of Central Transbaikalia.

In these works the following questions are posed and elucidated: 1) the geological-structural positions of gold-ore deposits within Central Transbaikalia; 2) the geological, petrographic, and mineralogical-geochemical features of individual ore fields; 3) the genesis of ore deposits and their connection with particular magmatic complexes; 4) the zonality of individual gold-ore districts; 5) structural control in the localization of mineralization, with the identification of particular types of ore shoots and criteria for evaluating deposits and ore occurrences over area and at depth. Hydrogeochemical investigations are being conducted for the purpose of evaluating promising areas.

By the present time, a number of gold-ore deposits of Central Transbaikalia have already been studied: Ilyinskoye, Dybiksinskoye, Lyubavinskoye, and Khaverginskoye; other ore occurrences and deposits are being examined and evaluated. In carrying out all these works, great assistance is provided by the staff of the Zabaikalzoloto trust and, in particular, of the Lyubavinsky mine.

In the Kuznetsk Alatau in recent years, Senior Lecturer of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute and Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences A. F. Korobeinikov has studied in detail the geology of the Kommunar gold-ore field and the adjacent gold-ore areas. Detailed geological-mineralogical and physicochemical investigations of contact-metasomatic and hydrothermal formations, their genesis, conditions of localization, and connection with the intrusive magmatism of the district made it possible to determine the place of gold mineralization in the postmagmatic process of mineral formation and to outline the principal prospecting criteria and indicators for gold in the area studied. At present he is studying gold-bearing skarns in one of the districts of Tuva.

Associate Professor of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute and Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences V. I. Bazhenov developed questions of the mineralogy and structure of the Saralinskoye ore field in the Kuznetsk Alatau. A general geological study of this same ore field had earlier been carried out by members of TPI: Professor K. V. Radugin, N. V. Lyakhnitsky, and T. A. Nikolskaya.

Since 1962, under the direction of V. I. Bazhenov, engineers I. V. Kucherenko, A. P. Gribanov, and V. A. Rubanov have been conducting work on the study of gold mineralization at the Tsentralnoye, Natalyevskoye, Berikulskoye, and Komsomolskoye deposits of the Mariinsk taiga under a contract with the West Siberian Geological Administration. The work is aimed at a comprehensive study of the conditions of formation and the regularities in the distribution of gold mineralization in ore fields. As a result, new data have been obtained on the geological structure of the deposits, conclusions have been drawn concerning the structural conditions of ore formation, and a prognostic assessment of mineralization has been given for a number of deposits.

At the same time, members of V. I. Bazhenov’s group—V. A. Rubanov, L. F. Mitrofanov, and A. P. Gribanov—are studying questions of the gold potential of the Kedrovsko-Bambuysky ore district in the north of the Buryat ASSR. During the period 1964–1967 they studied and described the gold-ore deposits of Northern Buryatia and collected abundant material on the features of localization of gold mineralization. A tangible result of the work being carried out is the discovery of new deposits within the areas under study.

The behavior of gold in the oxidation zone of the quartz-gold-ore deposits of the Mariinsk taiga was studied by Candidate of Geological-Mineralogical Sciences A. D. Mikov, who identified zones of secondary enrichment at a number of deposits. Similar work is now being carried out by him at deposits in Transbaikalia.

The gold potential of the Mariinsk taiga has been studied since 1954 by Candidate of Geological-Mineralogical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute B. D. Vasilyev. He discovered the Natalyevskoye gold deposit in skarns, established the connection of industrial gold mineralization in the northeastern part of the Mariinsk taiga with the post-Batholithic Devonian gabbro-syenite complex of increased basicity and alkalinity, revealed zoning in the distribution of gold-ore deposits of various formational types in the fold-block structure of the district, and raised the question of the possibility of discovering, in the northern part of the Kuznetsk Alatau, Cambrian gold-polymetallic deposits of the Salair type. B. D. Vasilyev is head of the gold geology laboratory at TPI.

In recent years, in the search for gold mineralization and the study of ore-field structures, considerable attention has been given to geophysical work carried out in Transbaikalia and the Mariinsk taiga by staff members of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute: Candidate of Geological-Mineralogical Sciences L. Ya. Erofeev, I. P. Novikov, Candidate of Geological-Mineralogical Sciences L. A. Zashchinsky, and T. I. Turysheva, under the direction of Professor D. S. Mikov. An important place in the search for gold deposits is occupied by the hydrochemical method, developed by staff members of the Department of Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology of the Polytechnic Institute under the direction of Professor P. A. Udodov and his student L. L. Shabynin. Searches for useful minerals, including gold, are being successfully conducted in the Kolyvan–Tomsk folded zone by a group of staff members of the hydrogeochemical laboratory under the direction of Professor P. A. Udodov (B. M. Levashov, P. N. Parshin, and others).

From this brief listing it is evident that scientists of Tomsk higher educational institutions have taken, and continue to take, an active part in solving the problem of the gold potential of Siberia. The results of their work find practical application in the life of enterprises.

In terms of the composition and scientific training of their specialists, Tomsk higher educational institutions are able to carry out work at a modern level, comprehensively applying geophysical and hydrogeochemical methods.

research and can provide qualified consultations to employees of the geological service of gold mines on any questions.

In order to combine efforts and increase the role of the scientific community in carrying out research work on the problem of the gold potential of Siberia, as well as to ensure the execution of urgent work, an inter-university research laboratory for the geology of gold was established at the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute in 1965, with the active support of Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences Professor F. N. Shakhov.

The main objective of the laboratory’s research is the comprehensive study of the geology of gold-ore deposits and regions of Siberia, with the aim of developing theoretical questions of ore formation and the prognostic evaluation of deposits and regions.

The present conference has been convened on the initiative of this laboratory and should contribute to success in solving the problem of the gold potential of Siberia.