Author 1:

Name & Surname: German P. V.
Company: Institute of Human Ecology, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (Kemerovo, Russia)
Work Position: Senior Researcher
Scientific Degree: Candidate of Historical Sciences
Contacts: e-mail: lithos@mail.ru

Author 2:

Name & Surname: Savelieva A. S.
Company: Institute of Human Ecology, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences (Kemerovo, Russia)
Work Position: Principal Engineer

The Salair Ridge area (Prisalairie) is the territory adjacent to the Salair Ridge (northern border of the Altai Territory) and now being a part of the Kemerovo Region of Russia. This area is replete with traces of activity of the very first miners in the form of ancient mine workings dated back to the 3rd–1st millennia BC. Before the 17–18th centuries, these mine workings were clearly visible and served as an orientation cue for dowsers those days. Out of the dowsers, stands out Dmitry Popov who worked in the Prisalairie in 1780–1799 and discovered close to 30 mineral occurrences, which served the raw material base for the large Salair Mine.
The work is supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Project No. 13-11-42002, and the Department of Education and Science of Kemerovo Region, Humanitarian Scientific Research Support Agreement No. 8 as of April 1, 2014.

1. Geologiya SSSR. Tom XIV. Chast II (Geology of USSR. Volume XIV. Part II). Moscow : Nedra, 1967. 674 p. (in Russian).
2. Poleznye iskopaemye Kemerovskoy oblasti (Mineral resources of Kemerovo Oblast). Available at: http://krai.myschool44.edu.ru/poleznye_iskopaemye (accessed: August 25, 2014). (in Russian).
3. Salairskiy rudnik ukhodit v istoriyu (Salair mine becomes a history). Metallosnabzhenie i sbyt = Metal supply and sale. Available at: httр://www.metalinfo.ru/ru/news/63244 (accessed: August 25, 2014). (in Russian).
4. Mukaeva L. N. Gorno-poiskovoe delo Kabineta na Altae v dosovetskoe vremya (Mining and exploration of
Cabinet Mining Branch in Altay in pre-Soviet time). Gorno-Akltaisk : Gorno-Akltaisk State University, 2008. 344 p.
5. Saveleva A. S., German P. V. Ob odnom mestonakhozhdenii «chudskikh» kopey v vostochnykh predgoryakh Salaira (About one location of “chudskie” mines in Eastern foothills of Salair). Materialy III Innovatsionnogo konventa (Materials of the III Innovation convent). Kemerovo State University. Kemerovo, 2013. pp. 516–518.
6. Bobrov V. V. Kompleks bronzoliteynogo proizvodstva iz poseleniya Tanay 4 (po rezultatam raskopok 1993 goda) (Complex of bronze-casting production from Tanay 4 settlement (according to the results of 1993)). Obozrenie rezultatov polevykh i laboratornykh issledovaniy arkheologov, etnografov i antropologov Sibiri i Dalnego Vostoka v 1993 g (Review of results of field and laboratory researches of archaeologists, ethnographers and anthropologists of Siberia and Far East in 1993). Novosibirsk : Institute of archeology and ethnography of Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, 1995. pp. 36–38.
7. Saveleva A. S., German P. V. K voprosu o bronzoliteynom proizvodstve severo-vostochnogo Prisalairya v epokhu paleometalla: istoriografiya i problema rudnykh istochnikov (To the question about bronze-casting production of North-Eastern Prisalyare in paleometall era: historyography and problem of mine sources). Vestnik Kuzbasskogo gosudarstvennogo tekhnicheskogo universiteta = Bulletin of Kuzbass State Technical University. 2013. No. 6. pp. 160–165.
8. Shangin A. A. Opisanie Kolyvano-Voskresenskikh rudnikov s prakticheskimi zamechaniyami i rassuzhdeniyami proizvodstva razlichnykh rabot s planami rudnikov (Description of Kolyvan-Voskresensk mines with practical replacements and discussions of production of various works with mine plans). Moscow, 1808. 84 p.
9. Sorokin M. E. Rudoznatets Dmitriy Popov (Mineral explorer Dmitriy Popov). Geografiya Kemerovskoy oblasti: Prirodnye usloviya i resursy : uchebnoe posobie (Geography of Kemerovo Oblast: Natural conditions and resources : tutorial). Ilichev A. I., Solovev L. I. Kemerovo : Kemerovo Book Publishing House, 1994. pp. 183–187.