Discovery of bonanza Ulaan Gold Placer under the world-class Tuul Gold Placer.

World Placer Journal - 2003 - Volume 3. The 'Ulaan Placer' - a major gold paleoplacer under the Tuul Placer of Mongolia. Robin Grayson¹, Minjin Batbayar² & Dr. Baatar Tumenbayar³ (1) General Director of Eco-Minex International Co. Ltd. (2) Geologist of Eco-Minex International Co. Ltd. (3) Exploration Director of Eco-Minex International Co. Ltd.
*"The Ulaan Placer extends along at least 40 kilometres of the Tuul Valley, and is an attractive additional target for placer gold prospecting and mining."*		ABSTRACT The Tuul Valley of the Zaamar Goldfield is the largest gold producing region in Mongolia, nearly al being placer gold. Most of the gold production is from recent (Quaternary) alluvial placers of the Tuul River, its terraces and its side-valleys, with the >52km Tuul Placer as the most persistent and economically most important. A second type of gold placer, slurry-deposited solifluction placers have been recognised in the Tuul Valley at Ikh Alt Mine by Tumenbayar & Grayson (2001) and interdigitating with normal alluvial placers on the Toson Terrace by Tumenbayar, Batbayar & Grayson (2001). who recorded prolific solifluction placers in the Sergelen Goldfield near Ulaanbaatar. A third type of gold placer is evident, but has received scant attention in spite of its growing economic importance: a red stiff silty clay with dispersed sub-angular stones, apparently deposited in an arid red-bed environment, possibly as mudflats or even as laterites. Clear evidence for fluvial deposition has not been seen. The red clay is mapped as part of a regional sheet of red clay of Neogene age deposited in a continental environment. Regional uplift in Late Neogene times stimulated erosion of most of this cover, but it persists in topographic lows and in small down-faulted basins. The red clay is not everywhere a gold placer. However there is a well-developed axis of economic paleoplacer corresponding fairly well to the course of the Tuul Valley, and it appears to be continuous, or it has been so in the past. For this economic axis the name 'Ulaan Placer' is proposed. ('Ulaan' is the Mongolian word for 'red'). The Ulaan Placer has been examined being mined at the following mine-sites, from south to north: dry pits of Ikh Alt Mine; South Dredge of Shijiir Alt; North Dredge of Shijiir Alt; small dry mines of Shijjir Alt close to the North Dredge; Er-Shi-Ju Mine; the large dry mine of Altan Dornod Mongol; and the Bayangol Dredge of Altan Dornod Mongol. Winter prevented further reconnaissance mapping, but extensive red clayey gold placer was also seen further north close to Tsaagan Bulag. The Ulaan Placer extends along at least 40 kilometres of the Tuul Valley, and is an attractive additional target for placer gold prospecting and mining. DOWNLOAD ABSTRACT GO TO NEXT ABSTRACT
	GOLD CLAY BALLS... Red clay balls rich in gold are found in the oversize at the rear of the 3 Bucket-Line Dredges in the Tuul Valley. The view shows red balls at the rear of the North Dredge.
	...YET MORE GOLD IN CLAY BALLS ... Washing red clay balls from the rear of the South Dredge swiftly produced visible gold. Systematic testing is required.
	BLASTING ULAAN PLACER WITH A WATER JET ... Dr. Tumenbayar tries out the Russian-style water cannon to blast the Uul Placer into a slurry at the Shijir Alt Mine.
SLUICE WASHING ULAAN PLACER ... After blasting the red clay with water cannon to disperse it, the resulting slurry is pumped up to the top of a traditional Russian-style elevated PgSh sluice. Settling the gold is difficult due to the clay content - note that an extra length of sluice has been added to the left.