THE GOLD OF SIBERIA

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 55, 26 August 1911, Page 9

THE GOLD OF SIBERIA

WEALTH WAITING TO BE WON. A SIBERIAN'S NARRATIVE. To the average reader the "Mines of Siberia" is an expression that raises visions of Russian political prisoners undergoing the tortures of manacled work in the lead and salt mines. But all the romance and tragedy of the great cold country of the Asiatic continent are not contained in its prison annals, nor have all its points of interest been covered by the writing of John Foster Eraser. There is at present in Auckland a man who was- born in Eastern Siberia, and who has something to say about the story of gold in that country. Mr. C. Rumkin is a native of the trans-Balkan province, and having spent his early life on the alluvial goldfields of Amur, he has come to New Zealand with the idea of taking up the study of electrical engineering. In the course of a chat re-

cently with a Star representative, he narrated something of the gold story of his native north, from which it appears that not only has Siberia experience/d all the excitement of gold rushes of the character of the famous Australian and Californian rushes, but that there yet remains in Eastern Siberia all the elements for making great fortunes in the mining of the precious metal. FROM WEST TO EAST. According to Mr, Rumkin, the history of mining in Siberia is full of fascinating stories. Western Siberia was pioneered by a firm of wealthy merchants of the Urals, who employed a Volga river pirate to conquer the Tartars and then, with Government assistance, exploited the mineral resources of the country. The Government assisted by populating the land with political prisoners, from which scheme originated the system which has become so notorious. The alluvial mines of Western Siberia were extremely rich, and up to the present the Lenski Company has a property whose annual return works out at over half an ounce of gold per cubic yard of wash. This company's output for last year was valued at £1,800,000. Later the wild country of Eastern Siberia was tested by a pioneer prospector who was sent out by the Government, and by private investors. His reports resulted in a great rush, and between 1870 and 1899 there were over 3700 claims pegged out. THE GOLDEN AMUR. The richness of the gold-bearing soils along the Amur and its tributaries was illustrated by Mr. Rumkin by a story of one of the old miners. He set out with reindeer and provisions on a prospecting trip, and eventually reached the river Borne, Here at one spot he washed out y 2 oz. of gold from his first dish, and from another place his trial pan-out resulted in a yield of 2y 2 oz of gold. His provisions ran out at this time, and he started back to get food and make good his claims to the ground. On his way back he struck a place where he picked up lOoz of coarse gold in five minutes. This find hastened his return to the nearest town, Blagoveschenski, 225 miles away, and he covered the distance in nine days. He returned with equal haste, only to find that news of the strike had spread, and that more than a thousand ravishers were working day and night shifts on his claims. He applied to the authorities, who sent out a squad of fifty soldiers. These drove off the claim-jumpers, but no sooner were the military out of sight than the jumpers were back again. Mr. Rumkin has compiled from the official records a list of the companies with an annual output of oewt to three tons of gold; thirty companies whose yield is lewt to oewt, and 140 companies whose gain is officially less than lewt. It is to be noted that he speaks in avoirdupois measure, because the Russian system of weights do not recognise any troy standard as we do. WHERE THE TREASURE GOES. He also throws grave doubt on the correctness of the official figures, which he considers under-estimate the value of the yields. Officially, the Amur goldfields have yielded in the last forty years 200 tons of gold. But the gold areas are almost on the Chinese boundary, and the rough gold is a free currency there. According to Mr. Rumkin, as much gold is sold to the Chinese as to the Russian Government laboratory at Blagoveschenski, the centre of the district. During the war with China the returns for the season 1900 at the Government laboratory increased by eight tons, which goes to support Mr. Rumkin's statement that this large amount of bullion would, had it not been for the war, have gone over the Chinese border.

THE GOLD SHARK. After thus illustrating the richness of ( the field, Mr. Rumkin furnished some in- j teresting sidelights on the methods of ] working and the conditions that prevail on the goldfields. The claims in the , majority of cases are from 400 to 500 , miles from the towns, and the period of working varies from four to seven months during the year, the ground being frozen over for the remainder of the time. The winter bime is utilised for stocking up the year's supplies, which are sledged up to the camps and stored in underground ice chambers. In the summer steamers periodically go up the rivers and streams to collect the bullion, 1 canoes of no great size being used to traverse the smaller streams. The bullion is put into small bags, and to each bag is attached a stout line terminating in a wooden float, for it is not unusual for the canoes to be capsized, and the floats are a necessary provision to enable the gold to be easily located and recovered. The selling of spirits on the goldfields is forbidden by law, but, as may be imagined in the case of mining population, the law is gloriously honored in the breach. With the universal free curency of gold, the gold shank of Siberia is as regular an institution as of past years was the illicit diamond buyer of the South African diamond fields 1 . Stocked up plentifully with kerosene tins of whisky, he plies a profitable trade amongst tho miners and others, exchanging his joyous wares for the precious metal. It can be realised that where the Government laboratory buys gold from any odd person at all, the shark has no difficulty in plying his trade without check, while, in cases where the officials become suspicious, he has a free outlet for the reward of his labors across the borders in China. The great distance of the claims from the centres, and the difficulties of transport, result in the gold being worked by primitive methods. Then, again, the original owners got their gold easily. So great was the richness of the virgin ground that it has become a proverb in the Amur region: "Lift the moss and pick lip the gold." These original miners became quickly rich by skimming the ground, ami retired with their wealth to Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the other desirable city centres of their native land, leaving (heir claims to old miners. These, lessees know nothing of modern gold-saving methods, and are content to use the plant they find on the ground, mostly (lie old-fashioned cradles and water-tables. Thus it is practically the antique pick-and-shovel mining that obtains. The mode of working is peculiar to Siberia. The lessee will employ a gang of Chinese or Korean workmen,'the terms being that these men give the lessees so many ounces a week, and keep

for themselves all that they find over and above the stipulated quantity —practically a system of sub-leasing. It can easily be seen that the real gold yield of the claims must, under the circumstances, be always more or less shrouded in mystery, and the astounding thing is that any official declaration of it is ever made ut all. The Russian official is up against the natural reticence of the miner, the devious ways of the heathen Chinese, the illicit operations of the shark, and the over-the-border jugglings of everybody, so that it is not illogical to suppose that it is but an attentuated percentage of the real gold-winnings that are in the end officially'declared. ALASKA OUT-RIVALLED. There are, Mr. Rumkin states, but very few dredges in Siberia. He can recall the first dredge going from Holland to Western Siberia, and lying there a white elephant, because its working was not understood. He is quite emphatic on the point that there is a golden future for the trans-Baikal (Amur) region, when once its possibilities are realised. At present only the dry gullies adjacent to the rivers are worked, and he considers that immense wealth lies in the actual' riverbeds, awaiting only the magic touch of the dredge buckets to bring into the world's great yellow currency. He instanced the case of a foreign syndicate taking over the tailings of one of the claims in the the Lena (West Siberia) district, and exacting therefrom by modern methods more gold than was taken from the original workings. Already one or two Americans, he states, have quietly got in within the last couple of years, and his prediction is. that ere long there will be opened up in the Amur a goldfield that will outshine all the glories of the great Yukon Valley workings.