Which minerals in Belarus have significant reserves? What is hidden in the bowels of this Eastern European country? How rationally are the mineral resources of the republic being developed and used? We will try to answer all these questions in this article.
Republic of Belarus: common features of the nature of the country
The physical geography of Belarus is distinguished by several features. This is:
- flat area;
- predominance of poor sod-podzolic and sod-bog soils;
- temperate continental climate with frequent winter thaws;
- significant waterlogging of lands (about 30%);
- a large number of freshwater lakes (there are at least 10 thousand in total).
About a third of the country is covered with forests, consisting mainly of oak, birch, aspen, spruce or pine. Numerous lakes and swamps of Belarus have chosen various species of birds. The state has a reserve Belovezhskaya Pushcha, which is known far beyond the borders of the country. It is here that a large population of bison is protected, as well as the last patch of relic forest in Europe.
Mineral resources of Belarus: reserves and level of development
In the Republic of Belarus there are about 4 thousand deposits of various mineral raw materials. The country is famous all over the world for its huge reserves of potash s alt. In terms of its industrial deposits, it occupies a leading position in Europe.
Other minerals of Belarus are rock s alt, peat, as well as raw materials for the construction industry (granites, dolomites, chalk, limestone and others). There are also minor oil deposits in the country. Their development began in the 1960s. However, today the country covers its domestic needs in black gold only by 12-15%.
In the bowels of Belarus there is also ordinary, traditional gold, as well as diamonds (according to the assumptions of some expert geologists). However, their development and extraction will in any case be unprofitable due to the too deep occurrence of this resource.
Mining and chemical raw materials: phosphorites, potash and rock s alts
Phosphorite deposits have been explored within the Mogilev region of the republic. Here, according to geologists, there are approximately 60 million tons of this raw material. In Belarus, phosphorites are presented in the form of thin slabs or dispersed in several layers of sand.
Potassium s alts have also been discovered in the bowels of the country. The deposits of this mineral resource are concentrated in the southern part of Belarus (Starobinskoye, Oktyabrskoye, Petrikovskoye). Their industrial resources are estimated by geologists at 10 billion tons, and the total(forecast) - almost 80 billion tons.
Almost unlimited reserves of rock s alt have been discovered in Belarus. They are located in the Pripyat depression, on an area of 25,000 square kilometers. The Upper Devonian deposits of rock s alt formed in two layers. The resource is still being mined only in two places - at the Mozyr and Starobin deposits. Their industrial reserves are about 22 billion tons of raw materials.
Mineral raw materials for the construction industry
Minerals used in construction include loams and clays, sands, gravel, pebbles, chalk, marl, limestone, granites, dolomites, labradorites, marble, kaolin and other rocks. The territory of Belarus is extremely rich in these minerals.
Fusible clays are distributed almost throughout the country. Until the beginning of the 20th century, they were mined even within the boundaries of Minsk. Clays of the highest quality occur within the Vitebsk region. The total reserves of fusible clays in Belarus are estimated at almost one and a half billion tons. Approximately the same amount of gravel and pebble materials in the country. Refractory and refractory clays occur within the Loevsky and Stolin regions.
Silicate and construction sands are also actively mined on the territory of Belarus. Their total predicted reserves are estimated at two billion cubic meters of raw materials. Building sands are currently mined at 20 deposits. The largest of them is located near the villageLebezhany, Baranovichi region.
Belarusian subsoil also contains raw materials for the cement industry - marl, chalk, and moraine clays. In particular, the largest deposit of cement raw materials in Europe, Kommunarskoye, has been explored in the Kostyukovichi region. Three factories operate on its basis. But near the city of Vitebsk there is a large deposit of dolomite.
In Belarus, mineral pigments (dyes) are also extracted from the earth's interior, which are widely used in various sectors of the economy. These are white chalk, ocher, siderite and glauconite.
Ore minerals
At least two iron ore deposits are known in Belarus. They are located in the Korelichsky and Stolbtsovsky districts. The content of iron in local quartzites is low and amounts to 30%. The extraction of ore is also difficult due to the rather deep occurrence of its layers.
In the southern part of the country, as geologists believe, there may be deposits of some non-ferrous metals, in particular, native copper and chalcopyrite. In the Lelchitsy region, the concentration of uranium in sediments is quite high and reaches industrial levels (that is, the organization of its production here can be profitable). In general, geologists continue to explore the south of the country, where the rocks of the crystalline shield come to the surface. According to them, in the near future it will be possible to discover new deposits of various metallic minerals there.
Fuel minerals: oil, gas, peat
The first oil well in Belarus was drilled in the early 50s of the last century. However, extracted from itthe oil was not of the highest quality. Black gold on an industrial scale began to be mined here only in the mid-1960s. The city of Rechitsa in the Gomel region became the center of Belarusian oil production. The local oil was already of higher quality. Another large oil field (Ostashkovichskoye) was discovered twenty kilometers from Rechitsa.
Today, about five dozen oil fields have been explored in Belarus. The total reserves of black gold in them amount to almost 90 million tons. Every year, the country extracts about two million of this raw material from its bowels.
Belarusian oil also contains a certain amount of associated gas. However, its production covers only one percent of the country's total needs for this resource. Associated gas is used to generate electricity at one of the thermal power plants, and is also used to heat residential buildings in the settlements of the Gomel region.
In the bowels of the republic there are colossal deposits of another fuel resource - peat. Their total reserves are about 30 billion cubic meters of raw materials. To date, peat is mined in Belarus at 42 deposits. Most of them are located in the Polesie region.
Some promising minerals of the country
What other minerals are promising to be mined in Belarus? There are several of them:
- lignite;
- oil shale;
- gypsum.
Several oil shale deposits have been explored in the country,which lie at a depth of up to 600 meters. Their total reserves are estimated at eleven billion tons. Belarusian bowels are also rich in brown coal. Large deposits of this fuel resource have been identified in the west of the Pripyat trough. Significant deposits of gypsum are concentrated in the same region. The total reserves of this building material are estimated by experts at 400 million tons.
The territory of Belarus, due to the peculiarities of the geological structure, is also rich in underground mineral waters. Numerous sources of sulfate, hydrocarbonate, magnesium and other waters have been identified within the country.
Modern problems and features of the use of mineral resources of Belarus
At the end of 2015, President of the Republic Alexander Lukashenko held a meeting at which, in particular, the state and current use of the country's mineral resource base was discussed. The head of state stressed that Belarus should minimize its dependence on foreign mineral raw materials. To do this, it is necessary to establish the production of already explored deposits, as well as actively search for new ones.
Belarus spends annually about 11 billion dollars on the purchase of hydrocarbons from abroad. At the same time, the country also imports those minerals that are found in large quantities in the bowels of the republic. We are talking about gravel, crushed stone, gypsum. The situation is the same with another important resource: thus, having at its disposal the richest reserves of high-quality mineral waters, the country buysdrinking water from France, Italy and other countries.
Belarus has already developed a special program for the development and rational use of local mineral resources, which should improve the situation.
In conclusion…
About 4 thousand different deposits have already been explored within the country. The most famous mineral resources of Belarus, which are actively developed today, are potash s alt, oil and gas, peat, rock s alt, dolomites, mortar sand, clays and marls.
