Mineral Composition of Ores and Primary Processing Products of the Ancient Mikhailovsky Mine (Central Orenburg Region)

The Southern Urals was and remains one of the most important centers of mining and processing of copper ores located on the territory of modern Russia. Here, since ancient times, the various types of Cu deposits were intensively developed in the Bronze Age, as follows disseminated sulfide ores in apoultramafic metasomatites (Ishkinino, Vorovskaya Yama, and Novotemir mines), massive-sulfide ores (Bakr-Tau and Bakr-Uzyak mines), copper-porphyry (Elenovka and Novonikolaevsky mines), sulfide-carbonate-quartz veins (Nikolskoe and Tash-Kazgan mines) and copper sandstones (Kargaly mines) (Zaykov et al. 2005), and two mining and metallurgical centers were divided in the Southern Urals: the west (Cis-Urals) and the east (Trans-Urals) (Chernykh 2002).