ILLICIT PLATINUM MINING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000500330069-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 19, 2010
• Sequence Number: 69
• Publication Date: January 13, 1954
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/19: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500330069-7
U.S. OffIcials Only
CONFIDENTIAL
SUBJECT Illicit Platinum Mining
were only concerned in - ` - - --- ---- shortest getting the maximum production in the hortesperiod
od
of time and Were indifferent to the long-term results.
2. The bench.. were being worttrjd by the local peasantry under government license.
The farming season is short in the Urals and the peasants engaged in mining dur-
Ing the off season. The worked in small - pa of five, seven or nine and
the kulak 50X1-HUM
Soviet mining regulations at that time permitta private placer mining by hand
methods under government license but required all platinum recovered to be sold
to the government. '1'hq gitIvato operator having selected a claim made applica-
tion to the Authorities for a permit to work it. In him application the operator
was required to state the values disclosed by sampling. Before a permit was
U,9, Offlclale Only
CONFIDENTIAL
DI SIA I rVT1ON > STAT( AeYt .-T-7 MA,( I Aie L- rei ORR EV
Tole report is for the use within talc UDA of the Into111genco oomponeut. of the Departments or
Agencies Indlt.tad above, It Is not to be transmitted overseas without the concurrence of the
originating onfce through the Aesiatant Director of the ollloe of Collection and Dlesemination, CIA.
raa ne. t
op g.te chemen for the workings Was a riverbed
about 125 la_n from Sverdlovsk. As soon as the
dre Se Was Operable the Ooviet, engineers insisted on working straight down the
suoneeded in getting t on four or five da s
before thM d A l
'
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
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lr tq 511th UAtal, nine V.l.1.1,,1 .r t,p, ~I. .lcri.,, sal
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
DATE DISTR./ Jan 1954
NO. OF PAGES 2
NO. OF ENCLS.
SUPP. TO
REPORT NO.
In 1927 the Soviet ftrc.t five year plan WAS about to be put into execution.
Among other Scale the plan Culled for an increased output of platinum and in
order to most this gnat the Oovie a creed that one of the dredges
that they had purchases) had to be operating by a cer-
tain date, 12 Oct 27, The Soviet
~4+1e erecting the re qe
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/19: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500330069-7
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/19: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500330069-7
iaaued a government inspector checked the values reported In the app,li.cati'-,n_.
When the application had been inlued and the operator had instailt:3 h!~'.
al'.ce and sluice box the government inepector again caller and :a~uied the
sluice box Be that it could not be opened without breaking the peel. Th?~-, at
intervals the sluice b.,x would be opened by the inspector and the rlut_inus:
which had been recovered would be turned over to the authorities at the 1?:6al
price.
illicit recovery r or or the w
was U8$20 thousand worth ui? platinum concaa
The Russian peaoant, despite hie reputation as ignorant and stupid, is to
fact an extremely shrewd person. To circumvent the mining regulations, the
peaoant applicant for a permit would always understate by at leas', or.-half
the values shown on sampling. How the a licant prevented the government
inspector from discovering this not know but appa:?ently ht
had means of doing so. After h13 official equipment was in and th'. _i1u1,.(-
box was sealed, the operator would add a second illicit sluice box below the
official one. When he calculated that the official box contained sufficient
platinum to meat hie understated values, he would proceed to flood through
the official box and make his recovery in the lower unofficial box. The
operators were expert ens h to in
the official box. the
To sell the illicit platinum) (made annual trips to Vladivostok. ~.?.111v
for a holiday) in midwinter. . ~::.,.
wan considerable ehips,inp, -it of Vlsdivoetok at that time and the F*.obl. m -hc J l
not have been difficult.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/11/19: CIA-RDP80-00809A000500330069-7