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. Despite the fact that the region is relatively not rich in minerals, it uses its potential to the maximum.
Features of geographical location
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, which is a continuation of the Volga Upland, consists actually of highlands and low mountains. The Russian platform, which gave the region a crystalline base, consisting of granite, quartzite and gneiss, is hidden under a thick layer of sedimentary rocks whose thickness exceeds one kilometer. Karst dips are common in the region . This territory has a very developed river network. In addition to the Volga, one can note its tributaries Oka and Suru, as well as more than nine thousand smaller rivers.
Brief Description of Minerals
In total, sixteen types of minerals were found in the region, which are located in deposits discovered in an amount of more than four hundred. If we talk about the most ambitious minerals of the Nizhny Novgorod region, building materials will head the list. In addition, deposits of peat, titanium-zirconium and iron ore, phosphorites and loams, quartz sand and other materials are found. To all of the above, it should be added that underground fresh water, which is also referred to as resources, has been explored in almost full volume. They are used for water supply of cities, exploit their mineral saturation for bottling and for medicinal purposes. There are also deposits of therapeutic mud, which the Nizhny Novgorod region uses for balneological purposes. Minerals of the energy type, such as coal, oil, gas, chemical raw materials, are absent in the region. But the use of a favorable geographical position made it possible to compensate for the lack of these materials for domestic consumption.
Raw materials for building materials
Minerals of the Nizhny Novgorod region, such as the dolomites of the central and southern regions in thirty deposits, provide the region with building rubble, dolomite flour and raw materials for asphalt mixtures. Most of the thirty-eight deposits for the production of brick and tile raw materials are currently mothballed, but the working ones provide domestic consumption with the necessary raw materials. The same situation with expanded clay clays and clays for the production of mineral wool. With building stones, too, complete order. Of the twenty-two places in their deposits, eighteen are produced. The same situation is with building sands. Thirteen of the eighteen deposits are operational, although their uneven distribution across the territory does not fully ensure some of the northern and southern regions of the region. Of the three deposits of quartz sand, two are under development - Sukhobezvodnenskoye and Razinskoye, and one more - Surinsky - is promising.
There are also three locations for foundry sand deposits. Of these, only one of the largest is being developed - Burtsevsky. Two more - Pervomaisk and Kulebak - with small reserves are in reserve. The Ichalkovsky sawstone deposit is also reserved due to the small reserves of materials and mining difficulties. But gypsum and anhydrite occur in as many as six places in the region, although only one of them, Bebyaevskoe, is being developed. Perhaps these are the main stocks of building materials, which are rich in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The minerals used for construction are exhausted on this. Sodium salt in the Belbazhskoye deposit, as well as the refractory clays of the three deposits, were attributed to the reserve fund.
Water resources
Water resources are also not deprived of the Nizhny Novgorod region. Minerals of this type are present in large quantities in this territory. Over fifty underground freshwater deposits have been explored in the region. With total reserves of more than two and a half million cubic meters per day, their use does not reach half a million, that is, less than twenty percent of the reserves are used. In addition to Nizhny Novgorod itself, which is supplied directly from the Volga, almost all major cities and towns of the region are provided with fresh underground water.
Geological and hydrological components contribute to the fact that weakly mineralized mineral waters are formed in the region. All proven reserves of twelve deposits are under active exploitation.
Other minerals
But this is not all that is rich in Nizhny Novgorod region. Minerals of other types, although less commonly, are also found here. Siderite and brown iron ore, which contain a relatively small amount of iron ore, are widespread in the south-west of the region. The thickness of formations 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 exhaustion, although before that almost two centuries had been conducted. The zircon-rutile-ilmenite Lukoyanovsky deposit, or, as it is also called, the Itmanovskaya placer, contains reserves of titanium and zirconium, the fifth largest in Russia. Besides them, the placer is rich in chrome. Peat is found almost throughout the region.
But reducing its use for industrial purposes leads to the closure of many places of its development. And when summing up what minerals are in the Nizhny Novgorod region, it should be noted once again that there are no hydrocarbon-rich deposits here.