Kazakhstan: minerals of the country, their extraction. Ore mineral resources of Kazakhstan

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, all eyes were directed to Russia. But if you carefully study the map, you can see that on this same territory there was another big state, occupying the ninth line in the world ranking of the largest states, Kazakhstan.

In two parts of the world

The name of the state gave the word "Kazakh", which is of Turkic origin and means the same as its Russian variation "Cossack" - "free man". Free people had a place to walk, because even from the current more than 2.7 million square kilometers of the country's area, more than forty percent are occupied by deserts. And if we consider it with semi-deserts, then this practically unoccupied territory occupies almost sixty percent of Kazakhstan.

This state is one of the few whose territory is located immediately in two parts of the world - Europe and Asia. Lately there have been differences in the definition of the boundaries of parts of the world. If earlier the border was conducted along the Ural River, now some scientists agree that it needs to be moved further beyond the Ural Mountains. Whatever sources are taken, no matter what boundaries between the parts of the world they lead, still a large part of Kazakhstan lies in Asia, and the smaller part in Europe.

Initially, the country's population was more represented by the Kazakhs themselves. But since the time of the Soviet Union, when there was a mass migration of residents within the country - the evacuation of the Great Patriotic War, the development of virgin land - the national composition of this state has acquired a variety. Especially the flow of immigrants increased when they discovered significant deposits of minerals in Kazakhstan. And the development of their deposits occurred as the needs of Soviet industry.

Mendeleev's table in the depths

From the point of view of geology, Kazakhstan is rich in minerals. In the depths of this state, the whole of Mendeleyev's table is hidden. Of the incomplete hundred chemical elements, seventy deposits have been discovered. At the same time, the extraction of sixty of them is proceeding at full speed. Such a favorable position of the country with resources is predetermined by the diversity of the geological structure on such a vast territory. Moreover, the geological structure served as a basis for the fact that the minerals of Kazakhstan are located almost strictly in the regions of the country. To date, about five hundred deposits are known, which contain more than a thousand kinds of minerals. Unfortunately, the priority areas for the development of the former USSR had a negative impact on the development of resources in various regions. Therefore, the vast reserves of some of Kazakhstan's resources have not been developed in many areas.

Northern Territories

The lands of Northern Kazakhstan are the center of the iron ore industry, they serve as a source of raw materials for the production of aluminum and gold. The reserves of magnetite and brown-ore-bearing ores are estimated at billions of tons. And the mining in this region has been going on for a long time. The deposit of zinc and the largest deposits of asbestos in the territory of the former Soviet Union are also being developed. In addition to the above, the minerals of Northern Kazakhstan are significant deposits of ores with a high content of nickel, cobalt, tin, tantalum and titanium, but they are still in the development stage. The same phrase - the expectation of development - is applicable to a unique deposit of technical diamonds. The only good news is that the development of minerals is not frozen, but gradually begin to be realized. For example, the development of zinc-rich ores began in the Shaimerden deposit.

East of the country

The minerals of East Kazakhstan are represented primarily by polymetallic ores. This is mainly about lead and zinc, together with which copper is extracted from the ore, as well as precious gold and platinum elements. These territories have more than forty percent of Kazakh gold reserves. In addition, the situation is reassuring that large reserves of titanium ore from the Kazakh east are not just explored, but have also begun to be developed.

Central Kazakhstan

Coal basins in the country are mainly famous for Central Kazakhstan. Minerals here, in addition to solid carbon - are ores with a high content of manganese, tungsten, molybdenum. The borders of the regions of the country are rather arbitrary. The central region is in tight contact with other areas, so the reserves of lead and zinc, whose main location is North and East Kazakhstan, have deposits in the center of the country.

South of Kazakhstan

The southern lands are separated from other regions of the state, even the central, desert. Therefore, they have unique deposits that are not similar to other corners of Kazakhstan. Deposits of uranium ore in the south of the country are the second largest in terms of volume in the world, accounting for more than twenty percent of all global reserves. They are developed in the most modern way - by underground leaching. In addition to uranium ores, the south of Kazakhstan is famous for deposits of phosphorites.

Western lands

Virtually all hydrocarbon reserves are located on the lands of Western Kazakhstan. And in terms of oil reserves, this country is one of the world's leading dozens of countries, and in terms of gas reserves - in the top twenty. In addition to hydrocarbons, in the west of the country, potassium and boron salts are extracted and, naturally, chromites.

In world leaders

The diversity of the geological structure led to the fact that if the conversation is about Kazakhstan, the minerals of this country, it is immediately noted: in some areas they occupy a leading position in the world. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that in this state the world's largest reserves of ores containing zinc, tungsten, barite. The second world place for silver, lead and chromite. Kazakhstan is one of the five leading world powers in terms of ore reserves containing copper, molybdenum, gold and fluorite. But if we conduct an economic evaluation of the minerals used, coal and oil will be the most significant for the economy of the state.

Coal mining

Initially, the main resource of Kazakhstan was coal. The growth of the famous (thanks to the winged phrase) of Karaganda occurred as a result of the need of the young Soviet state in coal. The uninhabited regions of Central Kazakhstan were explored for the presence of coal in the nineteenth century, but the first workers' settlements arose here only in the early twentieth. But the Karaganda coal basin began to develop actively in the thirties of the last century, when the country was experiencing an acute need for fuel and raw materials for the steel industry. After all, the local coal is coking, as a result of which it has high quality and is in demand in metallurgy. Therefore, the initial pre-war mining of minerals in Kazakhstan was limited to the production of coal. In the period of active development of coal mining in the more northern regions, deposits of brown-ore-bearing ores were discovered. This was the start of the rapid growth of the metallurgical industry in Kazakhstan. To date, in the Karaganda coal basin, 80 coal seams 120 meters thick and with a capacity of 45 billion tons have been discovered. Its areas are located on the territory of three central regions of the country. Coal mining is also conducted in the Ekibastuz coal basin.

Hydrocarbons

After the collapse of the Soviet Union - the world leader in oil and gas production from the depths of the earth - many post-Soviet countries turned out to be dependent on Russia, because the reserves of these hydrocarbons were distributed unevenly throughout the country. But they were not deprived of Kazakhstan. Mineral resources containing hydrocarbons in the newly formed state were in excess. Second in the post-Soviet space the volume of oil reserves, the third - natural gas. But the unique development of the oil and gas industry in the former Soviet Union had a double impact on this industry during the independence of Kazakhstan. On the one hand, these are rich deposits. In terms of oil reserves in the bowels of the earth Kazakhstan is one of the world's leading groups, possessing almost two percent of all the explored deposits of this product on the planet, which is about four billion tons. Slightly less natural gas reserves in Kazakhstan: in terms of fractions of the world total - about one percent, which is almost two billion cubic meters. But, on the other hand, the emphasis on the extraction of Siberian oil and gas in the Union led to the fact that this direction in Kazakhstan was less developed than in the neighboring state.

Ore Minerals

The ore minerals of Kazakhstan are widely used. Iron ore reserves are concentrated in the northern lands of the state, where up to eighty-five percent of the country's total reserves are located. The ores of some deposits are so high-quality that the content of iron in them exceeds half the composition of the ore. But the ordinary ores of Kazakh mining contain not more than forty percent of iron.

Ninety-nine percent of chromium deposits are located on the southern spur of the Ural Mountains, which in Kazakhstan are called Mugodzhary. The state shows the second result in the world in terms of the production of chromites.

Manganese ores of local deposits, whose reserves are the second in terms of volumes in the CIS, have up to 27% of the metal content.

Copper mining in the country is conducted in the same deposits (Zhezkazgan, Orel, Nikolaevsky) for a long time, which causes their gradual depletion. Therefore, everything possible is done to introduce new developments in East Kazakhstan. At the same time, searches for copper ore are conducted in the Central and Western regions of the country.

Again, if we talk about Kazakhstan, the minerals of this country containing gold, it should be noted that the extraction of this precious metal was initially only a passing element in the development of polymer ores. Currently, gold mining is being carried out in 16 regions of the country. At the same time 190 deposits are explored, and in terms of gold reserves, Kazakhstan ranks fifth in the world. Now the operating gold-mining enterprises are provided with gold for the next half-century.

Nonmetallic minerals

Kazakhstan's minerals are not limited to ores and coal. The state is rich in asbestos, the largest deposits of which are located in the Zhetygara and Zhezkagan deposits. In addition, the deposits of the south of Mugodzhar are rich in this element, although they are less developed.

The extraction of minerals in Kazakhstan is considerably developed in the direction of extracting phosphorites from the earth's interior. The reserves of phosphorus-containing elements in the south of the country are the second in the world in terms of volumes, and the content of the main product is unmatched.

In addition to these non-metallic elements, unprecedented reserves of salts have been found in the Caspian lowland of Kazakhstan. Separate saline beds exceed two kilometers.

Summarizing all of the above, I want to note that the country is rich in various deposits. The minerals of the Republic of Kazakhstan are of high quality. But, unfortunately, their development is not always conducted at the proper level. And the greatest importance for the economy of the state is the extraction of coal, oil and gas.