Meeting on Kolyma: towards the discovery of the gold content of the Chersky Ridge

Abstract

One of the outstanding results of the Indigirka (1926) and Kolyma (1929-1930) expeditions of Sergei Vladimirovich Obruchev was the forecast of the presence of an extensive gold-bearing belt in the Kolyma-Indigirka interfluve area of the Russian northeast, which later served as the “main foreign currency producing shop” of the country. According to the authors, the decisive role in this discovery was played by the meeting of Obruchev with Yury Bilibin. The meeting took place on the bank of the Kolyma River in July 1929. The forecast was based on information about the regional gold content of most of the Chersky Ridge, obtained in both Obruchev’s expeditions (1926 and 1929), and the discoveries of industrial gold placers made by the Bilibin’s expedition (1928-1929) in a small area of the southeastern end of the Ridge.