Though some have asserted that these tiny structures are merely debris left behind from test rockets being launched from nearby Plesetsk space station, a report from the Moscow Institute determined that they are far too old to have come from modern manufacturing.
Particular attention should be paid to the final conclusion reached by the Moscow institute. Report No. 18/485 states that the age of the deposits and the results of the tests give a very low probability to the assumption that the origin of these unusual, thread-shaped tungsten crystals is of a technogenic cosmic nature, due to the rocket take-off route from the Plesetsk space-station over the polar part of the Ural region.
In plain language: these objects cannot have originated from earlier test rockets or similar fired from Plesetsk. The key word of the report comes finally to the point: The data obtained allow the possibility of an extra-terrestrial technogenic origin.
Matveyeva, E.W. Conclusions on the finds of threrad-shaped tungsten spirals in the alluvial deposits of the Balbanyu river. ZNIGRI Analysis 18/485 of 29 Nov. 1996