Nizhny Novgorod region: minerals and major wealth

The machine-building, chemistry, woodworking and pulp-and-paper industries developed in the Nizhny Novgorod region allow this region to be the industrial center of the entire Volga-Vyatka economic region. Although the region is relatively less rich in minerals, it uses its potential to the maximum.

Features of geographical location

The minerals of the Nizhny Novgorod region depend on its location and geological structure. And this is the central part of the East-European Plain. The Volga, flowing through the territory of the region, divides it almost in half. At the same time, the left-bank part is low-lying, and the right-bank part, which is a continuation of the Volga Upland, consists actually of highlands and low mountains. The Russian platform, which gave the area a crystalline base consisting of granite, quartzite and gneiss, is hidden under a thick layer of sedimentary rocks, the thickness of which exceeds one kilometer. Karst dips are widespread on the territory of the region . This territory has a very developed river network. In addition to the Volga, it can be noted its tributaries Oka and Suru, as well as more than nine thousand smaller rivers.

Brief Description of Minerals

In total, sixteen types of minerals have been discovered in the region, which are located on deposits discovered in the amount of more than four hundred. If we talk about the most large-scale minerals in the Nizhny Novgorod region, the list will be headed by construction materials. In addition, there are deposits of peat, titanium-zirconium and iron ore, phosphorites and loam, quartz sands and other materials. To all of the above, we should add that underground fresh water, which is also attributed to resources, has been practically explored in full. They are used for water supply to cities, exploit their mineral saturation for bottling and for medicinal purposes. There are also deposits of therapeutic mud, which is used in balneological purposes Nizhny Novgorod region. Energy-type minerals such as coal, oil, gas, chemical raw materials are absent in the region. But the use of an advantageous geographical position made it possible to compensate for the shortage of these materials for domestic consumption.

Raw materials for building materials

Such minerals of the Nizhny Novgorod region, as dolomites of the central and southern regions in thirty deposits, provide the area with building rubble, dolomite flour and raw materials for asphalt concrete mixtures. Most of the thirty-eight deposits for the production of brick and tile raw materials are currently suspended, but the workers provide domestic consumption with the necessary raw materials. The same situation with claydite clays and clays for the production of mineral wool. With building stones, too, complete order. Of the twenty-two places of their deposits, eighteen are produced. The same situation with construction sand. Thirteen deposits of eighteen are functioning, although their uneven distribution across the territory does not allow to ensure in full some northern and southern areas of the region. Of the three deposits of quartz sand in development are two - Sukhobesvodnenskoe and Razin, another - Surin - promising.

There are also three places of deposits of molding sand. Of these, only one of the largest - Burtsevskoye is being developed. Two more - Pervomaiskoye and Kulebakskoye - are in reserve with small reserves. The Ichalkovo deposit of saw-stones is also reserved due to small supplies of materials and production difficulties. But gypsum and anhydrite lie in as many as six places in the region, although only one of them is being developed - Bebaevskoye. Perhaps, these are the main stocks of building materials, which are rich in the Nizhny Novgorod region. Minerals used for construction, this is exhausted. The sodium salt in the Belbazhskoye deposit, as well as the refractory clays of the three deposits, was attributed to the reserve fund.

Water resources

Water resources are also not deprived of the Nizhny Novgorod region. Minerals of this type in this territory are present in large quantities. More than fifty deposits of underground fresh water have been explored in the region. With total reserves of more than two and a half million cubic meters per day, their use falls short of half a million, that is, less than twenty percent of reserves are used. In addition to Nizhny Novgorod itself, whose water supply is carried out directly from the Volga, almost all large cities and settlements of the region are provided with fresh underground waters.

Geological and hydrological components contribute to the formation of poorly mineralized mineral waters on the territory of the region. All the proven reserves of twelve deposits are in active exploitation.

Other minerals

But this is not all that the Nizhny Novgorod region is rich in. Other types of minerals, although less often, are also found here. Siderites and brown iron minerals, which contain a relatively small amount of iron ores, have spread to the south-west of the region. The thickness of the seams, located at a depth of up to fifty meters, is from one to sixteen meters. But their production was discontinued in the thirties of the last century due to depletion, although before that it was almost two centuries old. In zircon-rutile-ilmenite Lukoyanovsky deposit, or, as it is also called, Itmanovskaya placer, there are reserves of titanium and zirconium, the fifth largest in Russia. In addition, the placer is rich in chromium. Peat is found practically throughout the region.

But reducing its use for industrial purposes leads to the closure of many places of its development. And when it is summed up, what minerals are in the Nizhny Novgorod region, it should be noted once again that there are no deposits rich in hydrocarbons here.