RESOLUTION

of the Conference on the Study of Gold Deposits in Siberia, Dedicated to the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute

Tomsk
April 16, 1966

The conference heard and discussed 49 reports on the problem of the gold-bearing potential of Siberia and the Far East, presented by the following organizations: Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, Tomsk State University, the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (Novosibirsk), the Institute of the Earth’s Crust of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (Irkutsk), the Far Eastern Geological Institute (Vladivostok), TsNIGRI (Moscow), SNIIGGiMS (Novosibirsk), the Krasnoyarsk Branch of SNIIGGiMS, the Transbaikal Scientific Research Institute (Chita), the Sverdlovsk Mining Institute, the geological administrations of West Siberia, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Buryatia, and Chita, and the gold-mining trusts Zapsibzoloto, Krasnoyarskzoloto, and Zabaikalzoloto.

The conference notes the high level of activity of scientific workers and geologists of the production organizations of Siberia working on the problem of strengthening the raw-material base of the country’s gold industry. The level of research into the geology of gold deposits has risen, especially in production organizations; the connection between scientific research and production organizations has improved; and the range of questions being studied has broadened. Geological institutions of Siberia have carried out extensive work over many years to generalize and systematize materials on gold-bearing potential, with the compilation of regional maps of gold-bearing potential and forecasts. The geological-structural, petrographic, and geochemical study of ore fields under exploitation has improved. Certain successes have been achieved in the study of the geology and regularities of the distribution of gold-bearing placers. Work of a methodological nature has intensified. All this indicates that the collectives of geologists of Siberia working to strengthen the gold-ore base correctly assess their tasks in light of the Directives of the Twenty-Third Congress of the Communist Party concerning the five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the country.

At the conference, questions were discussed concerning the regional metallogeny of gold, the genesis of gold-ore deposits of various formation types, the regularities of localization of mineralization within ore fields and deposits, questions of methods for prospecting for primary and placer deposits, and many others.

The new factual materials and research results presented showed that the task of studying the raw-material base of the gold industry is being solved methodologically correctly, with a broad comprehensive—

... in the use of existing methods of investigation and at the contemporary scientific level.

At the same time, the conference notes the need to intensify research on a number of questions raised in the reports and presentations of its participants.

1. It is necessary to strengthen prognostic-metallogenic studies of gold, with the aim of moving toward the compilation of large-scale maps of ore clusters and districts, especially near operating mining enterprises.

2. It is necessary to further deepen studies of ore-bearing magmatic complexes and the assessment of their potential prospects, taking into account the entire diversity of forms of association of gold mineralization with magmatic and metamorphic processes.

3. The conference draws the attention of geologists to the need to intensify studies of certain types of gold mineralization that are acquiring, or may in the near future acquire, important economic significance: gold-bearing skarns, gold-bearing conglomerates of Precambrian and other formations, quartz-magnetite vein zones, listvenites, etc. Attention should be paid to long-developing ore-bearing tectonic structures of a major order.

4. Making use of modern methods for determining low gold contents (radioactivation analysis, etc.), it is necessary to begin the systematic study of disseminated gold-bearingness in sedimentary, volcanogenic-sedimentary, metamorphic, and magmatic formations, with the aim of establishing the primary sources of gold for different formational types of its deposits and the regularities of gold migration.

5. Detailed petrographic and mineralogical-geochemical studies of gold-ore districts, ore fields, and deposits should be regarded as urgent, with the application of facies and formational analyses of magmatic and metamorphic formations and mineralization; it is necessary, especially for operating ore fields, to strengthen structural and morphogenetic studies and the study of the zonality of mineralization, with the aim of assessing the prospects of deep horizons and improving the criteria for prospecting for hidden mineralization of various types.

6. In a number of cases it is necessary to carry out special mineralogical studies, accompanied by the study of the physical properties of minerals and of their typomorphic features for deposits of various types, with the aim of improving the technology of gold extraction and resolving genetic questions.

7. Alongside the successes achieved in the geophysical study of gold-ore districts, there is a felt insufficiency in the use of geophysical methods in the practice of prospecting for and exploring gold deposits of various types. It is necessary to introduce geophysical methods more widely—and, in particular, radiometric methods—at all stages of the study of gold-ore districts and deposits; to intensify work on generalizing the available results of geophysical investigations for the principal gold-ore districts; and to develop and introduce new progressive methods of ore geophysics.

8. In organizing prospecting for gold, the integrated application of various methods is necessary; the development and introduction of hydrogeochemical methods of prospecting for gold should be strengthened, and work should be conducted toward improving existing methods and developing new effective methods of prospecting.

9. It should be recommended that production organizations more widely apply production-scientific ties with higher educational institutions and scientific institutions of Siberia, with the organization of contract work and work based on creative cooperation using collective investigations. More broadly put into practice—

[[unclear: beginning of word]] the conduct of joint scientific-research work on the generalization of materials from exploration and exploitation of ore fields.

1. It is necessary to make use of the possibilities offered by the latest nuclear-physical and other methods of investigating matter at the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute (radioactivation analysis, determination of absolute age by the method of F. S. Zakirova, etc.), in view of the availability of unique equipment and the development of the newest techniques.

2. The Conference recognizes the need to create a permanent commission for the study of the gold-bearing potential of Siberia, with the aim of coordinating and organizing joint research work, methodological consultations, organizing the exchange of experience among collectives, organizing periodic scientific conferences, and publishing materials and works on the gold of Siberia. The Conference considers it expedient to create the permanent commission in the historically established scientific center for the study of the gold-bearing potential of Siberia—in the city of Tomsk, at the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute. In this connection, the Conference draws the attention of the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Specialized Education of the RSFSR and the Ministry of Geology of the USSR to the need to strengthen the scientific-research base of the inter-university laboratory for the geology of gold deposits at the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute.

3. The composition of the permanent commission for the study of the gold-bearing potential of Siberia shall be approved in accordance with Appendix 1.

4. The permanent commission shall be charged with seeking opportunities for publishing the materials both of the present Conference and of periodic thematic collections on the geology of gold.

5. It is considered expedient to hold the next Conference in the city of Tomsk in 1968.