166 SIBERIA. 



this reason llio cxisljn-,' miiios arc not in a position to yifld llic ^ann; amount of nifMai a- 

 formerly. 



'I'll!' iiiiiuimi i)|' .silver and lead in lli<' ori-s is siihjcci id lm'^i tlii.-iuatiun-. In Ih In • 



ores till' amount i.l silver varies JVoni •/» ><' 10 zoloiniks pe, pi.ud ul ore, and the amount ol 

 lead IVom (; to JL' poinids per pond of oie, or 15 to 30 per >-<'\i\. 'J'jn- pyritie oies aii; very 

 murli pduici. 'I'lie ann.unl n| cupper ill tlie ores, sineltnl at the Soiizounsk works, is I'rom 

 5 to 10 |ier eeiii. Vei V many id the silver mines are aeeDimicd (|uiti' exhausted and tlii'i'- 

 I'ore their exploitation lias heen entirely slopped. Anions these it is impossible to avoid 

 mcntioniiif/ the Zineino^'oisk mine, whiiji for a period of some seventy years yielded over 

 50,000 |iuiiils nl' silver. Oiher mines were worked Im a mnrh sIkhIimI pi-rind and alter L'iviiiL; 

 several thousand ponds of silver were round to he exhausted. 



At till' present time the most prudnetive mines are the Zyiianovsk in the Znieinoguisk 

 re/^iion anil the Salaii'sk mines in another poiliun id' the Altai leirion. The lii^i named now 

 yields alioui :)00.(X:0 ponds of ore, and the jattei which, during' the (■if,'hties, yielded from 7W,000 

 to one million ponds of ore, in 1S91 ija\e uniy 395,400 pouds. The Zyrianovsk deposit is now 

 coiisicU'red the most productive id all the deposits of the Altai. It lies in the south-eastern 

 peitiiin id' the rei^iiiii on tin; river Maslianka, 12 versts distant riuni llie leCi hank nf lie 

 river Boukhtarma and 70 versts from the river Irtysli. The Zyrianovsk deposit is about 3-l''J 

 versts from the nearest silver smeltinu' works, the Zmeievsk w'orks. The Zyrianovsk deposit 

 has yielded mure than 4;") million ponds of assorted ore containinii over 45,000 pouds of silver 

 and over 2,500,000 pouds of lead. 



The Salairsk deposits, which are now exploited by two mines, the Salairsk 1st and 

 Salairsk 2nd, are very thick and extensive and f^uarantee a supply of ore for smeltinu for 

 a very louii tinH\ but the ores of these deposits are poor in silver. Only two eopper mine- 

 are now in work, the Souiiatovsk and the Chudak. These mines are situated in the southern 

 portion of the region, not far from the Irtysh; but at a distance of 400 versts from the Soii- 

 zounsk copper smelting v^'orks. At the Sougatovsk mine, besides ore, a cement copper is obtained 

 from the mine waters. The ores of the Zmeinogorsk region were smelted at four works, 

 the Barnaoiilsk, the Pavlovsk, the Loktevsk and the Zmeievsk, but the first three of these 

 are now closed. The Salairsk region contains the Gavrilovsk silver smelting works. 



The statistics respecting the amoiuit of silver smelted at the Altai works, show that at the 

 beginning of the present century over a thousand pouds of this metal were annually smelted 

 during a period of many years. Such was the position of the works at the time of the liberation of 

 the serfs, an event which in 1862 produced a complete revolution in the economic order of 

 the country, and changed the conditions of the mining industry in this poorly populated region. 

 During the first years following the liberation of the serfs, the production of the Altai works 

 remained almost as bi^fore, thanks to the energetic production of rich ores from previously 

 prepared workings in the Zyrianovsk and Talovsk deposits. The increased price of labour led 

 to a considerable reduction in the amount of preparatory and exploratory diggings, whii'h 

 had the necessary censequeuce oi gradually decreasing the stores of ore and of subsecpiently 

 reducing its actual production. The abolition of obligatory labour not only raised the wages 

 at the mines, but also considerably increased the cost of transporting the ore, and this 



