Developed in the Nizhny Novgorod region engineering, chemistry, woodworking and pulp and paper industries allow this region to be the industrial center of the entire Volga-Vyatka economic region. Although the area is relatively poor in minerals, it uses its potential to the maximum.
Peculiarities of geographic location
Mineral resources 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, which flows 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 part, which is a continuation of the Volga Upland, consists of hills and low mountains. The Russian platform, which gave the region a crystalline foundation of granite, quartzite and gneiss, is hidden under a thick layer of sedimentary rocks that are more than one kilometer thick. Karst sinkholes are common in the region. This area has a highly developed river network. In addition to the Volga, its tributaries the Oka and Sura can be noted, as well asmore 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 the amount of more than four hundred. If we talk about the most large-scale minerals of the Nizhny Novgorod region, the list will be headed by building materials. In addition, there are deposits of peat, titanium-zirconium and iron ore, phosphorites and loams, quartz sands and other materials. To all of the above, it should be added that underground fresh water, which is also classified as a resource, has been explored almost in full. They are used to supply cities with water, 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
Such minerals of the Nizhny Novgorod region as dolomites of the central and southern regions in thirty deposits provide the region with building crushed stone, dolomite flour and raw materials for asph alt concrete mixtures. Most of the thirty-eight deposits for the production of brick and tile raw materials are currently mothballed, butworkers provide domestic consumption with the necessary raw materials. The same situation is with expanded clays and clays for the production of mineral wool. With building stones, too, complete order. Of the twenty-two places of their deposits, eighteen are being developed. The same situation is with building sands. Thirteen deposits out of eighteen are functioning, although their uneven distribution over the territory does not allow providing some northern and southern regions of the region in full. Of the three deposits of quartz sands, two are under development - Sukhobezvodnenskoye and Razinskoye, one more - Surinskoye - is promising.
There are also three foundry sand deposits. Of these, only one largest is being developed - Burtsevskoye. Two more - Pervomayskoye and Kulebakskoye - with small reserves are in reserve. The Ichalkovskoye saw stone deposit is also reserved due to small reserves of materials and difficulties in mining. But gypsum and anhydrite occur in as many as six places in the region, although only one of them is being developed - Bebyaevskoye. Perhaps, these are the main stocks of building materials that the Nizhny Novgorod region is rich in. Minerals used for construction are exhausted. Sodium s alt in the Belbazhskoye deposit, as well as refractory clays from three deposits, was assigned to the reserve fund.
Water resources
Nizhny Novgorod region is also not deprived of water resources. Minerals of this type in this area are present in largequantities. More than fifty underground fresh water 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 even reach half a million, that is, less than twenty percent of the reserves are used. In addition to Nizhny Novgorod itself, the water supply of which is carried out directly from the Volga, almost all major cities and towns of the region are provided with fresh groundwater.
Geological and hydrological components contribute to the fact that low-mineralized mineral waters are formed on the territory of the region. All explored reserves of twelve deposits are under active exploitation.
Other minerals
But this is not all that the Nizhny Novgorod region is rich in. Minerals of other types, although less common, are also found here. Siderites and brown iron ore, which contain a relatively small amount of iron ores, are widespread in the southwest of the region. The thickness of the layers located at a depth of up to fifty meters is from one to sixteen meters. But their production was stopped back in the thirties of the last century due to exhaustion, although before that it had been carried out for almost two centuries. The zircon-rutile-ilmenite Lukoyanovskoye deposit, or, as it is also called, the Itmanovskaya placer, contains reserves of titanium and zirconium, the fifth largest in Russia. In addition to them, the placer is rich in chromium. Peat is found almost throughout the region.
But the decrease in its use for industrial purposes leads to the closure of many places of its production. And when they sum up what minerals are in the Nizhny Novgorod region, it should be noted once again that there are no deposits rich in hydrocarbons here.
