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SPbU Find May Lead to Discovering Gold in Kyrgyzstan

The research group of Saint Petersburg State University (SPbU) revealed that it had discovered the remains of an ancient island arc in the Kyrgyz Tien Shan. The island arc was formed in the Cambrian ocean about 500 million years ago.

This is confirmed by the find of adakites, as reports St Petersburg University's Press Office. These are the volcanic rocks named after Adak Island, which is part of the Aleutian island arc in the North Pacific Ocean.

Dmitry Konopelko, Head of the research team, Associate Professor at SPbU, says there is a high chance of finding valuable ores in the area. As he emphasises, large ore deposits are often associated with adakites, an example of which are the famous copper and gold deposits in Chile.

St. Petersburg's school of thought is undeniably the world's leading in studying the Tien Shan geologic formation, with first discoveries tracing back to the mid-19th century. Then Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky became the first European who explored the Tien Shan mountains and provided the systematic description of the 'Mountains of Heaven', as their name translates from Chinese.

The recent find stems from the unique composition of granites that captured the scientists' attention during regional mapping work. Additional research was carried out in conjunction with research partners from Novosibirsk State University and other countries - the UK, Australia, and Belgium. Their joint research efforts led to the discovery of previously unknown fragments of the island arc complex.

It is worth reminding that a team of researchers from T. Gorbachyov Kuzbass State Technical University, joined by Bauman Moscow State Technical University, have been developing robotic dump trucks.