Mineral resources of the Komi Republic: sandstones, quartzites, aluminum ores, coal deposits, natural stone materials

The Republic of Komi is a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, part of the North-Western Federal District.

general information

The region is located in the European part of the country, in the extreme north-east, west of the Urals. The area of the republic is 416.8 thousand square kilometers. The largest cities are Syktyvkar, the capital of the republic, Vorkuta, Sosnogorsk, Inta, Ukhta, Vuktyl, Usinsk and Pechora. The Republic of Komi borders on the Yamal-Nenets, Nenets and Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrugs, the Arkhangelsk, Kirov and Sverdlovsk Regions, as well as the Perm Krai.

72% of the region is covered with forests. Along the eastern border of the Komi Republic stretch the Ural Mountains. The rest of the subject is bogs, tundra with reindeer pastures and forest-tundra. There are two large rivers here: Vychegda and Pechora. The Republic of Komi is rich in deep lakes.

The Republic of Komi is located in the temperate and subarctic climatic zones, so here long, cold winters, and summer, on the contrary, are cool and short. Often there are sharp changes in temperature and atmospheric pressure, cyclones, heavy precipitation.

The subject is inhabited by representatives of 130 nationalities! 65% of them are Russian. In second place are the representatives of the Komi people, their 24%. Here also live Belarusians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Komi-Izhemtsy, Chuvash, Mari, Bashkirs, Mordvins, Udmurts, Nenets, Komi-Permyaks and others.

History

Until the end of the XV century, the territory was part of the Novgorod Republic, and then withdrew to the Moscow state. From here first they exported furs, and in the middle of the 18th century, oil began to be extracted near the Ukhta River. Due to the harsh climate in the region at that time there were few residents.

In the early 30-ies of the twentieth century, coal was discovered in the Komi Republic, but it began to be mined during the Great Patriotic War. In the same years, a railroad was built for the export of timber, oil and coal.

After the collapse of the USSR in the 90's of the twentieth century, a crisis occurred in the industry of the republic.

Natural resources

The minerals of the Komi Republic play an important role for the country. On the territory of the region is a large coal basin, oil and gas province and basins of oil shale - the republic is rich in fuel and energy resources.

The subject has large reserves of combustible gas and shale, peat, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, rare, dispersed and rare-earth metals, precious metals and diamonds. Titanium, manganese, chromite and aluminum ores are widespread.

Non-metallic minerals of the Komi Republic can be used as mining, mining, piezo-optical and quartz raw materials. Here there are materials for metallurgy, jewelry, stone-stone and mineral-building raw materials.

The forest industry is very developed in the republic. The area of all forests is 38.9 million hectares. Also in the Republic of Komi there are many mineral, fresh and industrial underground waters.

Combustible minerals

The most important natural resources of the Komi Republic are combustible minerals. Particularly it is necessary to distinguish coal-bearing deposits. The vast majority of them are concentrated in the Pechora coal basin. There are 213 billion tons of geological reserves of coal, of which only 9 billion have been explored.

In the territories of the Nenets Autonomous District and Komi, the Timan-Pechora oil and gas province is located, 60% of its resources are oil. Its geological reserves are 4 billion tons. There are also almost 3 trillion cubic meters ^of hydrocarbon gases.

On Timan, near the village of Nyamed in the Izhma River basin, there is an industrial deposit of asphaltites - solid natural bitumen. It is the product of a strong hypergene change in oil at the surface of the earth. Asphaltites accumulate at oil outlets in the form of reservoir deposits. The Timanskoye deposit is considered one of the richest in Russia.

Peat is a sedimentary rock, formed by the accumulation in the swamp of undecomposed remains of plants. Peat bogs make up more than 10% of the entire territory of the republic, therefore there are large peat reserves - about 1 billion tons.

Oil shale deposit - four basins: Bolshezemelsky, Izhma, Yareng and Sysolsky. Combustible shales are sedimentary minerals, consisting of organic matter and mineral (siliceous, clay, etc.) parts.

Mining chemicals

Mineral resources of the Komi Republic are also represented by mining chemical raw materials. These include, for example, phosphorites. They are developed in Pai-Khoi, the Polar Urals, Timan, as well as in the basins of the Vymi and Sysoly rivers.

As early as the 12th century, salt production developed in the region. Industrial reserves of the deposit of rock and potash salt are located near the village of Seregovo and amount to 2.7 billion tons. Each year about 6,000 tons of edible salt was extracted from it.

In the Republic of Komi there are two deposits of barite, natural barium sulphate. The reserves of the Khoylin deposit are almost 40 million tons, it is located near the city of Vorkuta. The Palminskoye field has less reserves - around 17 million tons.

On the North Celtma River on Southern Timan, a small deposit of native sulfur was discovered.

Mining and raw materials

In the Ural-Novaya Zemlya province, large deposits of fluorite are known - calcium fluoride, a transparent or translucent stone with glass shine and a variety of colors. The largest of the explored deposits is the Amdermskoye, the remaining reserves are more than 1.5 million tons.

Deposits of rock crystal in the mountains of the Subpolar Urals were discovered in 1927. As a piezo-optical raw material, crystal began to develop in the early 1930's. On the Northern Timan in the agate tonsils there are small crystals of crystal.

Natural stone materials

In the region there are natural stone materials, for example, limestone and dolomite - carbonates of magnesium and calcium. The largest field to be developed is the Belgopskoye. It is located in the Ukhta district, its reserves are more than 15 million m ³ .

Gypsum - a natural stone material, a mineral from the sulfate class - is mined in two deposits. At Ust-Tsilemsky its reserves are 70 million tons, on Izhma - more than 150 million tons.

The Republic of Komi is rich in sandstones, quartzites and crystalline rocks. For example, on the Middle Pechora there is the Voiskoe deposit, which has large reserves of quartz glass sandstones.

Stone-colored raw materials

Another group of minerals in the republic are limestone stones. These include, for example, rubies, prenates, quartz, amber and garnets. In the Subpolar Urals, there are jewelery varieties of quartz, in the Polar Urals - rubies, and in Northern Timan - prenites, silicates of aluminum and calcium.

Marble, agate, nephrite, serpentinite, jadeite and jasper belong to ornamental stones. On Timan and the Polar Urals reserves of agates are explored, on Pai-Khoe - jasper. In the Polar and Subpolar Urals, you can find marble rocks: gray - near the railroad Seyda-Labytnangi, yellowish and gray - on South Timan and near Halmer-Yu station. Manifestations of serpentinites were found in the basins of the Bolshoy Patok, Vangyr and Kos'yu rivers in the Subpolar Urals, and deposits of jadeite and nephrite were found in the Polar Urals.

The minerals of the Komi Republic are even represented by diamonds. Here they are found in Devonian and Paleorospant, less often in Northern and Middle Timan in modern placers, rare finds have been found in the Northern Urals.

Ore Minerals

In the region there are large deposits of titanium ores, about 30% of all reserves of the CIS countries. The most explored deposit is Yaregskoye. The content of leukoxene is 20-30% here.

In the Republic of Komi, aluminum ore is distributed . A large bauxite-bearing province was discovered in Middle and Southern Timan over the past few years.

Gold ores often occur in the Polar and Subpolar Urals, as well as on Timan. The most interesting are industrial placers of gold on Timan in the headwaters of the Tsilma, Nivshiery and Pizhma rivers and in the Kozhym river basin.

Conclusion

The Republic of Komi is rich in oil, gas and coal. Due to the volume of combustible minerals, the region can be called the main fuel base of the North of the European part of Russia. In addition, the subject of forest and water resources are concentrated.