Primorsky Krai is a real treasury of the Russian Federation. On its territory there are deposits of many minerals: coal, ores, precious metals and stones, building materials, oil and gas, mineral waters and healing mud, and much more.
This is a place in the country that needs special attention: in terms of detailed study, investment. And perhaps, in the near future, an impressive percentage of the total mining in Russia and the world will belong to the deposits of the Primorsky Territory.
A few words about the region
Primorsky Krai was founded in 1938, when, according to the Decree of the Supreme Council, the Far Eastern region of Russia was divided into two parts: Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krai.
The main center of the second was the city of Vladivostok. The total area of the Primorsky Territory is 164 673 km 2 . The population is 1923.1 thousand inhabitants.
China is located on the western part of the region, the Sea of Japan on the southeast, the Khabarovsk Territory on the north, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on the southwest.
From ancient times, it became known to the Russian people that a huge amount (both in variety and percentage) of the most valuable natural resources was laid in the land bowels of these places. Here is almost the entire table of chemical elements, as well as organic materials.
About what minerals are mined in the Primorsky Territory, where the main deposits are located, as well as about the extraction of coal, gold and other natural resources - in this article.
Mineral Brief
In Primorsky Krai there are many of the largest deposits of natural resources. Some of them are open and have been mined for a rather long time, but there are those that are only at the development stage (promising).
According to official data, today in Primorye:
- 322 deposits of solid minerals;
- 259 - construction materials;
- 78 deposits of fresh water and 10 - mineral;
- 3 deposits of therapeutic mud.
From this list you can get information on mineral deposits in the Primorsky Territory in a short form.
The wealth of the region
What is rich in Primorsky Krai? Minerals that are distributed over the territory of a given area, according to the official "List":
- anhydrite, siltstones, mudstones;
- breccias;
- boulders;
- pebbles, gravel, gypsum, clay, drywall;
- dolomites, diatomites;
- calcareous tuff, limestones;
- conglomerates, quartzite;
- chalk, marl, igneous and metamorphic rocks;
- flask, facing stones;
- sands, sandstones, sand-gravel and sand-boulder-gravel rocks;
- shell;
- sapromel, schists, loams ;
- thriving, peat.
As well as lead-zinc, polymetallic, tungsten, fluorite-rare-metal compounds, ores, boron oxides, cement raw materials, coal, gold, silver.
What is mined
In the Primorsky Territory, as a percentage of the total amount of natural resources mined in the Russian Federation, 18% of tin, 99% of boron products, 64% of tungsten concentrates, 74% of lead, and 92% of fluorspar are mined.
Extraction of minerals is underway in the Primorsky Territory, namely rare-earth metals (which are in great demand), bismuth, indium, copper, silver, zinc, gold (river valleys account for 60% of the output), Germany, and talc. The production of oil and gas, sapphires, diamonds, opals, corundum is forecasted.
In recent years , coal production has increased markedly . About 100 deposits of this natural material were discovered in the Primorsky Territory. Some of them are in working condition (work is underway to extract this natural material from the bowels of the earth), some are abandoned or not disclosed.
Coal
In the Primorsky Territory, coal and brown coal are mined:
- 30% of the total reserves are located in places that are difficult to reach due to difficult hydrogeological conditions;
- 70% are quite suitable and available for open cast mining.
Lignite deposits are located in Bikinsky, Artemovsky, Pavlovsky, Shkotovsky and other regions of the region.
And coal - in Partizansky, Razdolnensky and others.
Brown coal
The mineral resources in the Primorsky Territory are quite late (in terms of discovery), since the layers were discovered relatively recently.
The largest deposits of young brown coal of Tertiary age were discovered 45 kilometers from Vladivostok (in the northeast direction) - in the Artyomovsky district. They were first discovered at the beginning of the 20th century, but due to unsuitable conditions (bogging), there was no wide production (except for the small accessible sites).
In Artyomovsk, geologists discovered about 8 layers of brown coal. In total there are reserves (despite intensive production in recent years) of more than a hundred million tons.
Also, the second major place of extraction of this natural fuel material is the Suputinsky district (35 kilometers from Ussuriysk).
Here, deposits of brown coal in the upper layers of the earth in the amount of hundreds of millions of tons were discovered. Natural conditions make it possible to organize production in an open way - in quarries, which is economically and technically profitable.
Another promising place, where many hundreds of millions tons of brown coal are located in the bowels of the earth, is the Maykhinsky district.
Coal
This type of coal fuel in the Primorsky Territory was found in the form of early (anthracite) and later deposits.
Large locations of coal are available in the town of Suchanu. Here is the very first mine in the region for the extraction of this natural resource.
The second field is Verhnesuyfunsk, which is not far from Ussuriysk (in a north-west direction). Its area is about 4.5 thousand km 2 . Here, geologists discovered very large reserves of coal, which still require additional study.
There are also a number of small deposits of this natural resource that allow you to mine a small amount of coal.
From the bowels of the earth
At other deposits, minerals of the Primorsky Territory are mined in:
- Sikhote-Alin (northeast) - silver.
- Dalnegorsky and Krasnoarmeysky regions - non-ferrous metals.
- Pozharsky district - tungsten.
- Dalnegorsk - Bor.
- Khorolsky district - fluorspar, rare metals.
- The mainland slope of the Sea of Japan - phosphorites.
- Shmakovsky - underground mineral springs and therapeutic mud and so on.
Mining and processing enterprises
Minerals of the Primorsky Territory are seized and processed by a huge number of enterprises. Some of them:
- OJSC GRK Khrustalnaya - in 2012, at the auction, became the winner for the right to explore and mine tin (the Iskra deposit) and other types of ores. The director is Choi Gwang Heung.
- JSC MCC Bor is the largest mining and chemical enterprise that operates in Dalnegorsk on a unique deposit of borosilicate ores. It is currently the only active boron deposit in the Russian Federation (it occupies the 3rd place in the world). Reserves of this natural resource amount to about 160 million tons. Production provides a complete technological complex (production, enrichment, chemical processing).
- OJSC "Yaroslavl GOK" - production was founded in 1950 as a tin-processing plant. And already in the 60s he began to produce fluorspar concentrate produced at the Voznesensky and Pogranichnoye fields of the Primorsky Territory.
- Primorsky GOK OJSC - mining and processing of tungsten, copper, bismuth, gold and silver. The plant is located 230 kilometers from the railway station Dalnorechensk. Currently, tungsten concentrate provides not only Russia, but also Austria, Japan, the USA and other countries.
- AOOT Lermontovsky GRK - the production is located in the northern part of the Pozharsky district, not far from the Bikin railway station. This company extracts and processes tungsten ore, and also produces tungsten concentrate. Work is underway at the Lermontovskoye field.
Promising deposits
In the Primorsky Territory, deposits of both known minerals and new ones have also been identified. This information allows investors to create new mining complexes here, which will provide new jobs for local residents, as well as increase the economic condition of the region and its even greater significance for the whole country.
Traditional are the natural resources of the Lermontovsky mine (skarn-sheelite deposits). Also in the southern part of Primorsky Krai is the “Expedition Bay” (therapeutic mud deposit). Places where noble metal mining is promising.
There is information about the new resources of Primorye, which in the near future will also become interesting for mining companies: mercury, barite, antimony, manganese, pure quartzite, germanium, graphite, vermiculite, platinum and others.
Deposits of such precious stones as diamonds (Voznesenskaya Ploshchad), sapphires, placers of corundum, opal (Rainbow) have already been precisely identified.
In 2000, oil and gas production became fundamentally new prospects for the Primorsky Territory. According to forecasts, oil in the area - about 10-150 million tons.
The main deposits of oil and gas resources are located in the Khankaisk and Sikhote-Alin sub provinces. These are promising locations that are economically viable for investments in order to develop oil and gas production here.
Gold
Primorye is also popular with many gold-bearing deposits. In total there are about 50 such places in the northern and southern parts of the region.
According to official figures, every year about one ton of alluvial gold is mined here, as well as in the form of ore.
The most special and widely known deposit of this precious metal in the Primorsky Territory is Malinovskoye. It is characterized by a high rate of gold per ton. In addition to this metal, copper, lead, zinc, cobalt, cadmium are also found here.
Therefore, it is quite profitable to extract precious metal in the territory of the region, since there is a huge amount of it in the bowels of the earth.
Summary
Russian schoolchildren study in the 4th grade “Minerals of the Primorsky Territory” at the lessons of natural history. And they represent: how rich the Motherland is with its unique natural resources, and especially some of its territories, such as eastern lands.
Over the years and decades, a whole galaxy of authentic deposits of various natural resources has opened in Primorye, which allows us to consider the Far East the most powerful in the Russian Federation in terms of mining production.
Although, not only those, this area is rich. In Primorye there are valuable tree species: coniferous, broad-leaved, small-leaved forests and shrubs.
About 10 million cubic meters of wood are cut down here annually, and this is the norm (although there is evidence that in some areas this figure may be higher, and in others it will be zero - due to difficulties in accessing some forest stands).
Also in the Primorsky Territory grows lemongrass, ginseng, cedar, Manchurian apricot and other valuable plants.
Mountain rivers are of great importance for the manufacturing industry of the country and the region. Their hydropower potential is practically not used to its full potential.
And therefore, to the question: “What minerals are mined in the Primorsky Territory?” there is only one correct answer: "All the most valuable that exists in nature (in terms of all kinds of resources) is in this extraordinary eastern region of Russia."