In 1913 the prospector N.M. Chernichevich sent to the Imperial Academy of Sciences 30 samples of iron meteorites of different sizes and weights. The samples were found by the workers A.V. Rodakov, I.M. Petrov, and D.P. Afanasiev while panning for gold along the Chinge stream in Uryankhaysk district. V.G. Hlopin and the geologist O.O. Baklund investigated these samples. Baklund concluded that "the samples are not characterized by any peculiarities of iron having meteorite origin" and that "there are some indications that they formed from mafic terrestrial rocks". However, recent investigations by G. Perelman, C.A. Pogodin, A.N. Zavaritskiy, and L.G. Kvasha have demonstrated a meteorite origin of the iron samples from the Chinge stream.
The Chinge littoral gold field was worked by prospectors for 30 years. In that period large amounts of iron were found, and the prospectors used much of it for making nails, brackets and other prospecting equipment. The Meteorite Committee conducted systematic searches for meteorites along the Chinge stream in 1963 and 1986.
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