Asia
Since the decline in the Mexican production, Russia ranks fourth among the gold-producing countries. Most of the output comes from Siberia, which has long been a source of gold, the mines of the Altai Mountains being considered among the oldest in the world. The production of gold in Siberia from 1830 to date has been estimated by Russian authorities at approximately $1,000,000,000.
Maclaren[170] has divided the auriferous areas of the country into two distinct regions, the eastern and western. About four-fifths of the country’s production is derived from the former region, which extends in one fairly narrow auriferous belt from Lake Baikal to the southwestern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk.
[170] Maclaren, J. Malcolm: “Gold: Its Geological Occurrence and Geographical Distribution,” p. 210.
A number of dredges have been operated in the Ural district. The most promising property is the Riderlinsky, east of Omsk. In the southern Urals, most of the mines produce copper, pyrite, or zinc, the gold by-product making the profits. The Ridder mine, in the Altai Mountains, is the best-known lode mine in Siberia.
Placers are located along the Manchurian frontier on the Onon and Amur rivers. They are among the most important in Siberia and have produced over $100,000,000 in gold. The deposits of Irkutsk along the Lena River are the most important deposits so far exploited in Siberia and are probably the richest placers ever discovered. The district produces about one-third of the Siberian output. The placers are at present about worked out as drift mines, but will continue to produce with the installation of dredges.
Many engineers believe that Siberia is the richest remaining potential source of gold in the world. It has been estimated that the country will produce in the future, say in the next 30 or 40 years, about $6,000,000,000. The unsettled political conditions have greatly interfered with mining. Many of the mines were taken over by the Bolshevists, and although it is unlikely that any attempt at systematic mining will be made, they will probably be robbed of the richer exposed ore before they can be recovered by the owners.
India has long been regarded as a land of riches. Philologists have proved, to their own satisfaction, that Ophir, the source of the stores of gold of Solomon, was located there. In the deserts of northern India lived the gold-digging ants, described by the Greek historians and later writers and as yet unexplained. Present facts do not bear out legend and tradition. In 1913 India contributed only 2.6 per cent. of the world’s total production of gold, an amount hardly proportionate to the extent of the country. The land offers to the prospector an extremely uninviting field. It has been carefully prospected and its deposits have been worked assiduously for at least twenty-five centuries by a people possessing great patience and considerable mining skill.[171] The principal modern producing gold mines of India are in the Kolar field, where the main reef carries five large mines along its strike.
[171] Maclaren, J. Malcolm: “Gold: Its Geological Occurrence and Geographical Distribution,” p. 238-240.
Japan was one of the chief contributors to the stream of gold that poured into Europe during the sixteenth century. Portuguese and Dutch traders came to the islands to exchange European products for the gold mined by thousands of natives. The Japanese finally revolted against this domination of their trade and expelled the last of the Portuguese in 1624. A few Dutch were permitted to remain and to trade through certain ports, but under most humiliating conditions. Between the years 1601 and 1764, it is estimated that about 3,763,572 ounces of gold was exported from Japan. At the present the annual gold production of Japan, including Formosa, is about $6,000,000.