Gold deposits of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) / Золоторудные месторождения СНГ

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which was formed in December 1991 upon the dissolution of the former Soviet Union (FSU), includes the former republics of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus (Byelorussia), Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine. The FSU was for many decades, until the end of the 1980s, the second-largest gold producer in the world after South Africa. Peak gold production in the FSU of about 290 t was reached in 1979, with a subsequent decline to about 220-230 t by the early 1990s. The signifi cant increase in gold production in the United States and Australia during the same period moved the FSU, and later the CIS, from second to fourth place among world gold producers. However, since 1991 an increase in foreign and domestic funds for development of new gold mines has led to a sharp increase in CIS gold production: by 2004 it was up to about 321 t, once again making the CIS the second-largest gold producer in the world (Fig. 1) after South Africa. At the same time, gold reserves of the CIS are now estimated to be the largest in the world. State-funded gold exploration in the FSU from the 1950s through the 1980s led to the discovery of approximately three hundred signifi cant deposits, including giant gold deposits such as Muruntau (of about 3,000 t, Uzbekistan); Sukhoi Log (1,952.9 t); and the world-class deposits of Nezhdaninskoye (560 t, Russia), Kumtor (458 t, Kyrgyzstan), and Bakirchik and Vasil’kovskoye (409 and 381 t, respectively, Kazakhstan), as well as many smaller deposits. These discoveries revealed new types of gold deposits such as sediment-hosted, veinlet-disseminated gold-quartz (carbonate)-sulfi de mineralization as at Sukhoi Log, and the gold (arsenic)-sulfi de mineralization of the Bakyrchik and Nezhdaninskoye deposits. These specifi c types may be practically unknown in other parts of the world. Most of the deposits found and thoroughly explored from the late 1950s to the late 1980s, except a very few (Muruntau, Amantaytau, Kumtor, Zun-Khalba, Kubaka, Julietta, and a few smaller), still await development. Success of gold mining in the FSU and in many of the current CIS countries has been and still can be adversely affected by laws classifying data on gold reserves and resources as “state” secrets. <...>