A description of gold-quartz formation deposits in the Priamur gold province is presented. Prevalence of gold-quartz deposits defines metallogenic profile of the province and presence of numerous rich placers. Deposits are attributed to frontal, middle and near-bottom parts of the ore pipe. Frontal part of the ore pipe contains a major part of the deposits. They are small and consist of scattered quartz, feldspar-quartz and carbonate-quartz veins. The ore is characterized by erratic percentage of gold, bonanzas can be found. Gold is free, ranging from fine to big grains and small nuggets. It is associated with arsenopyrite, galenite, sometimes with antimonite. Among trace elements can be copper, mercury, antimony and arsenic. Prevalence of frontal deposits in the province points to significant prospects of finding a rich deep mineralization in the middle part of ore pipe. Middle part of the ore pipe contains intermediate and small deposits. Ore bodies are often represented by veined and veinlet-disseminated zones, sometimes zones of metasomatites. For gold-quartz ores, free native gold can commonly be found, usually of fine and very fine grain size. Among ore minerals, apart from arsenopyrite, pyrite and galenite, scheelite is frequently observed. Small deposits of near-bottom ore pipe are quite rare. Ore bodies are represented by quartz veins and zones of metasomatites. Gold is mostly free, of fine and super fine grain size. The prevailing trace element is mercury. Attribution of gold-quartz deposits to a certain part of ore pipe can facilitate more precise estimation of their pros pects. In its own turn, this will allow to choose more favorable objects for further evaluation.
The article discusses ore and placer gold deposits of the Priamur province formed as a result of the Late Mesozoic collisions of geoblocks of the south-eastern framing of the Siberian craton and the Amur composite massif. Metallogenic zoning of the province displaying metallogenic zones and ore-placer sites is described. The article shows that the Priamur province is one of the main gold-bearing provinces of Russia with the level of gold ore (about 180 tons) and placer (about 1132 tons) gold. The predominance of placer gold in gold mining indicates significant opportunities to identify new gold deposits.
Acting in Russia methodology of estimation and expert’s examination of calculated mineral reserves has been organized in the Soviet period, during development of the rigidly centralized system of the state planning and management. Since, 20 years there isn’t in the country any state monopoly (and financing) in the mining brunch and geological exploration. The new approaches are needed in procedure of estimating mineral reserves explored by the private enterprises. Anyway, functions, which the State Commission on mineral reserves (SCR) used to carry out in the Soviet time, remain nearly the same at present. Its full-scale authority, obligatory specifications are in clear contradiction with real economic relationship in the country. Computer modeling of ore bodies, composed on the base of geostatistical analysis of the exploration data, determines their natural contours and the ore grade distribution far more precisely than the formal index of the reserve’s category. There isn’t any necessity to approve in the SCR the so called group of the ore deposit complexity, nor the Technical-economic validation of limiting conditions. The mere procedure of the state approval of explored ore reserves ought to have the record keeping character.
Globalization of the world economy has started first of all within the mineral resources market which is dominated many years by transnational corporations. Expansion of mining areas through national borders, of partnership between domestic and foreign companies is accompanied by development of national and international standards for reporting of mineral resources and available ore reserves. There are, among the most authoritative codes, the Australasian JORC Code and the Model Code of Combined committee CRIRSCO. In Russia (USSR) the Classification of explored reserves has been approved by the State for the First Five-Year Plan – for purpose of the completely centralized record keeping of the country mineral resources. Since, during its «socialist evolution» this record system strengthened in Russia such principles of estimating explored ore reserves and expected resources which make difficult the adaptation of our Classification to standards and categories accepted in most of other countries. The step in this direction was made by drawing up the project of «Guidelines on Alignment of Russian minerals reporting standards and the CRIRSCO Template». As a consultation draft for comments, the document has been prepared by the group of experts incorporating leading professional researchers of FGU «GKZ», CRIRSCO, mining companies. It seems, this approach process will need the time and corrections of many factors in geological exploration practice, in the State system of record keeping for reserves and resources.
The Northwest region of Russia presents a variety of deposits and structural-formation conditions of their formation: the territory includes fragments of the Baltic crystalline shield, the East European platform, the Pre-Ural marginal trough, the Ural folding belt, the shelf zone of the Barents Sea. These structural areas differ in geological structure and mineralogical specialization, but also have a number of common features. From the position of system analysis, a hierarchical series of geological objects: mineral deposits and occurrences, ore fields, structural-metallogenic zones in their genetic unity is taken as elements. Combination of externally heterogeneous objects (hydrocarbon deposits, solid combustible, ore and non-metallic mineral resources) required the development of conceptual apparatus, theoretical and methodological foundations of the analysis of the general system of mineral resources of the region. The concept of ore formation as a conjugate process proposed by V.S.Golubev (1993) was used: ores with high content of components are formed in the highest gradient ore-forming systems, and the scale of ore mineralization manifestation correlates with the amount of heat entering the ore-forming system. Such conditions occur near the boundaries of different geospheres or local geochemical barriers. Deep (mantle) heat and mass flows determine the leading energy side of the process. Large syn-metamorphic mineral deposits, as well as large oil and gas fields, are controlled by local tectonic structures. Middle Paleozoic (DgZ) endogenous activation is manifested in the region, with which unique deposits of apatite-nepheline ores (Khibinskaya group), ore-metal and rare-earth mineralization (JIo vozersky massive), diamondiferous kimberlites of Arkhangelsk region, a number of carbonatite deposits of Karelian-Kola region are connected.
The principal key-targets of the Russian economical strategy concerning the oil and gas supply include, among others, the following ones: expansion of economical activities in the northern and eastern regions of the country; development of the new branch of fuel supply - from the oil and gas fields at the sea shelf, e.g., in the arctic seas; entry of Russian fuel export into the Pacific Asia fuel market.
