Club Meeting

Mineral Collecting in Siberia!

Siberia is a treasure trove of gems and minerals.  This trip is an odyssey that covers thousands of miles along the borders of Russia, China and Mongolia.

 

*We arrive in Siberia at the city of Khabarovsk.  Here we sightsee for a day while we adjust for the time difference and arrange for travel to Irkutsk a thousand miles into interior Siberia.

 

*Irkutsk is located on Lake Baikal, reported to be the deepest lake in the world!  Our destination here are the marble quarries of Slyudyanka. We’ll spend a few days in this area exploring the old quarries searching for skarn zones that produce some wonderful minerals, like Blue Apatite, Scapolite, Sphene, Lapis Lazuli and many more.

 

*Next we’ll travel by the Trans-Siberian Railway and 4WD to the remote Transbaikal Mountains to the Malkany pegmatite district. Here we explore several of the pegmatite mines searching for gem minerals like Rubellite, Topaz, Morganite and more.

 

Food is scarce here so we take a day to go fishing in the local river.  Check out the equipment and techniques that the Russians use to put some food on the table.

 

*We continue working our way along the Russian-Mongolian border to the important Tantalum mine at Orlovskoye. This is a huge griesen type deposit that was formed by mineral bearing solutions from a granite formation.  We collect excellent examples of Zinnwaldite, Topaz , Amazonite, Golden Beryl and more.

 

The Orlovskoye mine is located in the autonomic state of Buryatia, a predominantly Buddhist area.  The Buddhist religion is now being re-established after the fall of Communism.  We’ll visit one of the local monasteries and get a rare inside tour by the monks.

 

*Next we travel to our last collecting destination, the famous gem mines of the Adun Chelon  Mountains. This area has produced some of the best Aquamarines in the world for over 300 years!  Here the mountains border on the famous steppes of Mongolia.  We’ll collect Aquamarine, Smoky Quartz, Topaz at several locations including the famous Sherlovaya Gora (which translates to “Schorl Mountain”).

 

*Done with our collecting we travel to the city of Chita, the capitol of the regional Oblast or state of Chita.  We do some sightseeing here while we wait for the signatures of officials which allow us to take our finds out of Russia.

 

*The odyssey comes to an end back at Irkutsk.  Before we leave for home we spend a few days sight-seeing around Irkutsk and the wonderful Lake Baikal.