CHAPTER XIV.

SIBERIAN GOLD-MINING.

It is not my intention to go into very intricate details regarding gold-mining in Siberia, but would rather give a few personal observations of what is undoubtedly a very interesting phase of Asiatic life, inasmuch as gold-mining in that country is very different to what it is in any other part of the world. The Minusinsk district, in which we were now located, though not by any means the richest in Siberia (that distinction being held by the mines of the Lena district, in the province of Yakutsk), is nevertheless looked upon as an extremely promising province. The richness of the Lena district is considerably counterbalanced by the high price of provisions, labour, and material there, and its inaccessibility. The Minusinsk district, on the other hand is the most remarkable in all Siberia for its cheapness, while transportation is fifty per cent. lower than on the Lena watershed. From Krasnoiarsk, where the trunk line of the Siberian Railway passes, there is steamboat communication in the summer with Minusinsk itself, and, as I have already said, the gold-bearing district extends from there southwards to Chinese territory.

The majority of the mine-owners in the district were, I found, of very humble origin, and it may be said, with the exception of one man, Kuznetsoff, not one works on a large scale, while the majority have started without initial capital whatever. The consequence of this is that the works are generally of a mean character. Machinery is of the most primitive order, and what there is is so badly and unscientifically made that in all cases some twenty per cent., and in many cases fifty per cent., of fine gold is lost. Hydraulicing is quite unknown, and the chemical process has never been tried thoroughly, the nearest approach to it being the fixing, on some of the Kuznetsoff mines, of amalgamating plates in the sluices.

Most of the mine-owners, being without initial capital, are forced at the onset to resort to tribute work, which is done by men who provide their own food, tools, and houses, and erect their own washeries. These men are given so many “archines” of land to work, and the gold obtained they sell to the mine-owner for from three to four roubles per “zolotnik” (about one-seventh of an ounce, Troy), the miner re-selling the gold to the Government at its current value, the price of the zolotnik varying from four and a half to five roubles. But the damage which is done to the property by tribute labour is enormous. The men work in gangs of three or four, burrow and scratch like rabbits here and there, and dump their tailings wherever it is most convenient to do so (frequently on new ground); so that before the whole of the mine can be worked out, the virgin alluvial has to be got out from under tons of débris. This improvidence on the part of the tribute workers naturally ruins mine after mine. The men are content to get a zolotnik per man per day, and in order to obtain this erect fast sluices, and put over an enormous amount of alluvial so as to get the big pieces, complacently letting the fine gold escape. One of the mines we saw during our stay had been worked for some forty years mainly by tribute labour, and the consequence was that although the property was by no means worked out (it extended some three and a half miles up a rich valley) it was impossible to make a profit out of it on account of the thousands of tons of tailings which encumbered the remaining portions of unworked ground. And this is no single instance. The Mining Department is continually hammering away at the mine-owners to exercise more system in their work, hinting broadly that not only are they losing themselves but that the Government suffers.

I have already said that the machinery used is of a primitive character. The tribute workers use the box-sluice, or “Long Tom.” This is a wooden structure from twenty to thirty feet long, tapering from two feet at its top to one foot at the bottom. It is generally erected on the level of the stream, and, as most of the tributaries of the Yenesei have a very rapid current, the drop is pretty acute. There are no riffles or cross-pieces in the sluices to catch the fine gold, but an iron plate pierced with half-inch holes is set at the end, and through these holes the gold drops by its own weight into a shallower undercurrent sluice, where a slow stream of water carries away the lighter sand and leaves the gold exposed. The “Long Tom” constructed by the Siberians is, however, so unscientifically made that it would be hopeless to expect it to catch all the gold.

The machine of the mine-owner is a more elaborate, but at the same time far from ideal structure. The sluice-house is built up over the stream, and usually contains three wide box-sluices, dropping one into the other, the last one being riffled with one or two bars. The length of the run would not be more, on the average, than forty feet, while the angle is such that the water flows in a perfect swirl from start to finish. At the back of the house, and above the sluice-boxes, an iron cylinder, pierced with half to three-quarter inch holes, is erected on a wooden axle. The cylinder tapers from one end to the other, and at its largest end a shoot is erected, under which the carts, which carry away the big boulders, can be backed. The cylinder is revolved by water power, carried along an aqueduct which varies in length according to the fall of the stream. Into the cylinder at its smaller end the auriferous sands are pitched, water at the same time being conducted upon it by pipes along the axle, and thus the whole mass is churned up. The boulders and stones which will not pass through the holes gradually roll down the declivity of the drum to its larger end, and thence into the shoot, while through the holes the fine sands containing the precious dust fall into the sluices below. At the shoot end, the collectors of the boulders carefully examine the stones for the presence of any nuggets; but, as a general rule, the wealth of the alluvial consists in the small pieces which pass through the holes. If the sluices were longer, and the angle so arranged that the water flowed smoothly and evenly over them, there would not be much to object to in this system, but the miners acknowledge that fully twenty per cent. of fine gold escapes into the tailings, without endeavouring in the slightest to remedy the defect. Amalgamating plates, or even a judicious use of mercury, would prevent much of this loss, but these appliances are almost entirely ignored.

It is the very cheapness of labour and material in the Minusinsk gold region which is accountable for the absence of modern mining machinery, and the unscientific method of washing. In nineteen cases out of twenty the present gold-miners have been washers, who, having at some time or other hit upon an unclaimed gold-bearing spot, have applied to the Mining Department for permission to work it. Instead of getting capital they have invited tribute workers to extract the gold, until, after a few years of rigid economy they have saved enough money to erect a machine and can continue the work by ordinary labour. Meanwhile, the value of the mine has been woefully depreciated by the methods of the tribute workers.

The alluvial deposits of the Minusinsk district do not vary to any great extent in richness; the average being generally under one ounce to the ton. This is, compared with alluvial working in Australia, Africa, and California, rather poor, but the cheapness of everything must be taken into consideration as a big set-off. Men cost in the winter twelve to fifteen roubles (25_s._ to 31_s._) per month, and in the summer eighteen to twenty roubles (38_s._ to 42_s._ 6_d._) per month. Wood is abundant, and costs nothing except the labour of cutting it. Provisions are likewise very cheap; bread, meat, eggs, hay, and such like necessities being cheaper in the Minusinsk valley than in any other part of Siberia.

Mining material and provisions are generally carried from the townships to the mines during the winter, so that the ice on the rivers can be taken advantage of. The cost of transport is twenty-five kopecks (6½_d._) per pood per 100 miles. The pood equals 36 lbs. 6 ozs. English. The Minusinsk mining region covers about three hundred square miles, so that an approximate estimate of the cost of transport can be made.

One of the great features about the district is its great suitability for hydraulic working. Water is everywhere abundant, and the cost of erecting a modern hydraulicing plant would be undoubtedly very much cheaper than in any other gold district. The alluvial deposits are eminently suited for such work, and where virgin ground is touched, all things being equal, hydraulicing ought to increase the profits on the Russian methods by twenty-five to thirty per cent. For purposes of comparison, the Russian gold-seeker looks to a profit of twenty-five per cent. on whatever small capital expended. With labour-saving machinery, and the ability to tackle five or six times as much stuff in the summer as under the Russian system, it stands to reason that the initial cost of machinery would soon be wiped out and the increased percentage of profit obtained.

To show how arduous the Russian method of working is, there is one mine in the Minusinsk valley which has been worked for upwards of thirty years. The claim is three miles long by a quarter of a mile wide. During the thirty years an average of thirty men per year have been employed in gold washing, and the mine has already yielded gold to the value of about £400,000. Even after thirty years, yet one-third of the claim is virgin soil. With hydraulicing methods, and with no more men employed, the mine could have been exhausted in two or three summers.

There is no working for quartz gold in the Minusinsk region, and but very little in any other part of Siberia. There _are_ quartz deposits, and the alluvial strata shows indication of the proximity of reefs. Want of capital, want of machinery, and lack of enterprise have, however, prevented the exploitation of this profitable branch of the gold-mining industry so far.

We were very much struck to find the enormous number of mines the owners of which were most anxious to get rid of them, although their gold-books showed that even under primitive conditions the various properties were showing handsome profit. It was strange to interview sheep-skin clad moujiks who had rich mines to sell, and who could not work them themselves simply by reason of their lack of capital or their ignorance as to the right way to go about the work. Fancy prices were asked at first, only to come down to an “old song,” when we evinced no anxiety to buy.

Most of the worst features of gold-mining in any part of the world are to be seen in Siberia. Stealing and murder are of frequent occurrence, in spite of the large number of Cossacks which are employed to keep law and order. One great grievance of the miners in the Syansk Mountains is the stealing propensity on the part of the workmen, and the open dishonesty which one owner shows to the other. For instance, an owner will give his tribute workers, say, three and a half roubles per zolotnik of gold obtained. The tribute worker, however, hands over only a portion of what he finds, reserving the remainder for sale to a neighbouring miner, who will probably pay him four and a half roubles for it. Thus many of the miners prefer to work on the tribute system instead of getting an ordinary wage. Even the paid labourer steals his master’s gold, to sell it to some neighbouring miner; but as each owner adopts precisely the same methods, and the utmost secrecy has to be maintained, duplicity is rampant all over the fields.

Various prices were asked for mines, from 50,000 roubles down to 20 roubles. Another plan freely offered is to rent an existing mine with option of purchase, the rent demanded by the owner varying from 200 to 300 half-imperials per pood of gold obtained. The half-imperial is 7½ roubles paper currency, and equals approximately 16_s._ The value of a pood of ligature gold ranges from £1700 to £2200, the general average value being about £2000.

On the whole, while the Russian mine-owner may make, what is to him, a fortune out of gold-mining, the general prospect for foreign capital in the Syansk Mountains is not a very alluring one if the workings are continued on Russian ideas. There is plenty of gold in the district, but an enormous quantity of alluvial has to be moved before it can be won, and while this removal yields a profit to the Russian owner, that profit would perhaps be wiped out if on top of the ordinary expenses such as those to which the Russian miner is subjected are placed director’s big fees, large salaries for engineers, and other expenses which are generally incidental to British gold-mining companies. The men who have made fortunes in Siberia are the owners who have in the first instance taken an active part in the working, and have generally superintended the business themselves. The overseers, engineers, and such-like officials work for salaries which would not buy the clothes of similar individuals in Western Australia or South Africa. One of the mines we visited, belonging to the Kuznetsoff group, had a responsible manager at a salary of 1500 roubles (£160) per annum. It would, however, be in buying groups of mines, and by working with enormous numbers of men and with the most modern machinery, hydraulicing, or otherwise, that the Siberian gold-fields might be made to pan out as profitable and with far less risk than that usually experienced in the hunt for the precious metal in other countries. To work on a small scale one must adopt the Siberian methods, and the foreigner’s chance of doing this at a profit is not enhanced by the fact that he is likely to be cheated and robbed far more than his Russian compeer.

[Illustration: TRIBUTE WORKERS IN THE SYANSK GOLD-MINES.]