The Czech Republic (its official name is the Czech Republic) is located in Central Europe. Its territory has common borders with such states as Slovakia, Austria, Poland, Germany. The area of the Czech Republic is 78 703 square meters. km This territory has rich natural resources and mineral deposits. What are these resources and how are they located on the territory? How is mining in the Czech Republic? It is these issues that require careful consideration.
Relief and minerals of the Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is characterized by a diverse relief represented by plains, rolling hills and mountain ranges. In the Czech Republic there are medium-high mountains, which are indicated on the map as:
- Czech forest;
- Czech massif;
- Krkonoše;
- Upland Czech-Moravian.
Mountain ranges extend along the borders of the Czech Republic. In a relatively small area, there are 16 mountain ranges and 400 peaks. The mountains of the Czech Republic have a lower height than the Swiss, but they are located in denser frequent ridges.
The country has no access to the sea, but about 15,000 ponds and small lakes are located on its territory.
Forest resources
According to the international rating, the Czech Republic is considered the most wooded country in Europe. Forest, which occupies about 30% of the entire country, is an important resource for industry. Coniferous species can be called the most common tree species (in percentage terms they occupy about 60% of the total forest area). Coniferous forests are mainly represented by firs and pines, deciduous forests consist mainly of oak and beech groves.
Czech Minerals Briefly
On the territory of this country there are not a large number of mineral deposits, and many of the available have already exhausted their resources, and their development has already stopped.
In the list of Czech minerals:
- uranium ore;
- iron ore;
- oil;
- natural gas;
- lead;
- zinc;
- copper;
- silver;
- precious and semiprecious stones (garnet, jasper, agate, sapphires, rubies);
- coal and lignite;
- sand.
Coal mining
Coal is one of the most common types of minerals found in the Czech Republic. The development of deposits is important for the country, because this material is the main fuel resource.
According to rough estimates, coal reserves reach about 13 billion tons. The Ostrava-Karvinsky basin can be called the largest mining region of such minerals in the Czech Republic - it accounts for almost 70% of coking coal from all the country's reserves. The quality of coal mined here is also an order of magnitude higher. This is explained by the composition in which a small amount of sulfur is present.
Smaller coal deposits are also located close to cities such as Brno, Kladno and Pilsen.
Brown coal is also represented in fairly large volumes. The largest brown coal basin is called the North Bohemian. Here is more than half of all Czech brown coal reserves.
A distinctive feature of coal deposits in the Czech Republic is the high spatial concentration of reserves, which makes it possible to use an open method of development. This, in turn, can significantly save money on the development of Czech minerals.
Oil and natural gas
The Vienna Basin is the area on which oil and gas fields are concentrated and actively developed. Most of them are small in volume. The largest oil field called Grushki, gas is Visoka.
Currently, the search for new gas and oil deposits is in full swing. Territorial development work is underway in the Pre-Carpathian Trough near the slopes of the Czech Massif (in the southeastern part). During this time, the Zavod gas field in the Vienna Basin and the Zhdanice oil field were discovered (according to preliminary estimates, there are about 1 million tons of oil here).
Metal ore
The number of metal ore deposits in the Czech Republic is insignificant. Moreover, the largest of them, which gave the lion's share of the ore, to date have been completely or almost depleted.
Most deposits contain poor phosphorous iron ores. They have a metal content of less than 30. Ore Mountains are the main occurrence of minerals such as rare and non-ferrous metals.
Polymetallic ores in the Czech Republic are distributed in Pribram (Pb, Zn, Ag were mined here), Kut-on-Gora. Deposits Cu, Pb and Zn were discovered near the Yeseniki mountain.
The Czech-Moravian border is known for a very large deposit of copper-nickel ore, Stare Ransko, but the ores here are poor.
Other Earth Resources
The reserves of uranium ore in the Czech Republic are quite large. Their deposits are located in the Ore Mountains. In the last century, a large number of polymetallic ores with a high content of native silver were mined. This indicator was achieved thanks to the uranium-polymetallic deposit located in Central Bohemia. It was she who supplied the whole country with raw materials. In addition, there are smaller deposits that are being actively developed now. They are located in the areas of Pribram (in Central Bohemia), Zadni-Khodov (district of Western Bohemia) and Hamraion-Jezere (locality in Northern Bohemia).
As for silver, it was a by-product obtained when working in copper, uranium-metal, as well as lead-zinc deposits. Currently, mining of this Czech mineral in the fields is no longer underway.
Non-metallic minerals
The extraction of precious and semiprecious stones is of great importance. The Krkonoše Mountains - a place of occurrence of jasper and agate. Pomegranate was found in the Czech Highlands. There are small deposits.
Czech glass sands are popular all over the world. They are used as raw materials in the manufacture of colored glass and Czech crystal, which is highly valued not only in the Czech Republic itself, but also in many other countries.
The areas of Pilsen and Karlovy Vary abound in graphite, magnesite and kaolin. The latter is mined in the vicinity of Karlovy Vary, Pilsen and Podborzhani (located in Western Bohemia).
The country has significant reserves of minerals such as limestone and dolomite. A lot of deposits of building materials were found all over the country, represented by:
- decorative and facing stone;
- brick clays;
- pebbles.
Their production is limited, as the development of these deposits is protected by environmental organizations.
A good geographical position, rich nature, terrain features, Czech minerals open the country many roads for development. Among them are land development, and natural wealth, and mining, and great opportunities in the development of tourism.