Compared to many other parts of the world, Mongolia is remarkably rich in minerals. More than 6,000 large deposits have been discovered, numbering at least 80 different minerals (Husband & Songwe, 2004, p. 3). The most economically significant of these are gold, copper, molybdenum, and fluorite. The country also has extensive coal reserves, combustible deposits, and gemstone occurrences. Apart from limited hard rock (lode gold) deposits, Mongolia is particularly rich in placer gold (alluvial deposits). These deposits have originated elsewhere and been moved to their more recent locations, often by the force of water or sand. Since placer gold is not geologically integrated with its matrix, it is relatively easy to extract and does not require further crushing, milling, or the addition of chemicals such as mercury or cyanide. Instead companies use various forms of opencast mining and tunneling to extract the placer gold. In areas where water is available, a method known as “hydraulic...
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High, M. (2014). Gold Mining in Mongolia. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_9903-1
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