After the collapse of the Soviet Union, all eyes were on Russia. But if you carefully study the map, you can see that on the same territory there is another large state that occupies the ninth line in the world ranking of the largest states - Kazakhstan.
Two parts of the world
The name of the state was given by 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 roam, because even out of the current more than 2.7 million square kilometers of the country's area, over forty percent is occupied by deserts. And if you count with semi-deserts, then this practically uninhabited territory occupies almost sixty percent of Kazakhstan.
This state is one of the few whose territory is located in two parts of the world at once - Europe and Asia. Recently, there have been discrepancies in the definition of the boundaries of parts of the world. If earlier the border was drawn along the Ural River, now some scientists agree that it needs to be moved further beyond the Ur althe mountains. No matter what sources are taken, no matter what borders between parts of the world are drawn, anyway, most of Kazakhstan lies in Asia, and the smaller part - in Europe.
Initially, the population of the country 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 times of the Great Patriotic War, the development of virgin lands - the national composition of this state has become diverse. The flow of migrants especially increased when significant deposits of minerals in Kazakhstan were discovered. Moreover, the development of their deposits took place according to the needs of the Soviet industry.
The periodic table in the depths
From the point of view of geology, Kazakhstan is rich in minerals. Almost the entire periodic table is hidden in the bowels of this state. Of the incomplete hundred chemical elements, seventy deposits have been explored. At the same time, the extraction of sixty of them is moving forward at full speed. Such an advantageous position of the country with resources is predetermined by the diversity of the geological structure on such a vast territory. Moreover, it was the geological structure that served as the basis for the fact that the minerals of Kazakhstan are located almost strictly according to the regions of the country. To date, about five hundred deposits are known, which contain more than a thousand types of minerals. Unfortunately, the development priorities of the former USSR had a negative impact on the development of resources in various regions. Therefore, the grandiose reserves of some of the resources of Kazakhstan turned out to bein many ways undeveloped.
Northern Territories
The lands of Northern Kazakhstan are the center of the iron ore industry, serve as a source of raw materials for the production of aluminum and gold. The reserves of magnetite and brown iron ores amount to billions of tons. And mining itself in this region has been going on for a long time. A zinc deposit and the largest asbestos deposits 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, cob alt, tin, tantalum and titanium, but they are still under development. The same phrase - waiting for development - applies to a unique field of industrial diamonds. The only good news is that the development of minerals is not frozen, but is gradually beginning to be realized. For example, the development of zinc-rich ores began in the Shaimerden deposit.
East of the country
Mineral resources 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 encouraging that large reserves of titanium ores in the Kazakh east have not only been explored, but have also begun to be developed.
CentralKazakhstan
Coal basins in the country are famous mainly for Central Kazakhstan. Minerals here, in addition to solid carbon, are ores with a high content of manganese, tungsten, and molybdenum. The borders of the regions of the country are rather conditional. The central region is in close contact with other areas, so the reserves of lead and zinc, the main location of which are Northern and Eastern Kazakhstan, also 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 one, by a desert. Therefore, they have unique, not similar to other parts of Kazakhstan, deposits. The deposits of uranium ores in the south of the country are the second largest 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 its phosphorite deposits.
Western Lands
Practically all hydrocarbon reserves are located on the lands of Western Kazakhstan. Moreover, in terms of oil reserves, this country is among the top dozen world states, and in terms of gas reserves, it is in the top twenty. In addition to hydrocarbons, potassium and boron s alts and, of course, chromites are mined in the west of the country.
Among the world leaders
The diversity of the geological structure has led to the fact that if the conversation turns to Kazakhstan, the minerals of this country are immediately noted: in some areas they occupy a leading position in the world. Therefore nothingsurprisingly not in the fact that in this state the world's largest reserves of ores containing zinc, tungsten, barite. The second world place in silver, lead and chromites. Kazakhstan is among the top five world powers in terms of reserves of ores containing copper, molybdenum, gold and fluorite. But if we conduct an economic assessment of the minerals used, the most significant for the state economy will be coal and oil.
Coal mining
Initially, the main resource of Kazakhstan was coal. The growth of the famous (thanks to the catchphrase) Karaganda occurred as a result of the young Soviet state's need for coal. The regions of Central Kazakhstan, uninhabited at that time, were explored for the presence of coal in the nineteenth century, but the first workers' settlements appeared here only at the beginning of the twentieth. But the Karaganda coal basin began to actively develop in the thirties of the last century, when the country experienced 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 is of high quality and is in demand in metallurgy. Therefore, the original pre-war mining in Kazakhstan was limited to coal production. During the period of active development of coal mining in the more northern regions, deposits of brown iron ores were discovered. This was the start of the rapid growth of the metallurgical industry in Kazakhstan. To date, 80 coal seams 120 meters thick and with a capacity of 45 billion tons have been discovered in the Karaganda coal basin. Its areas are located onthe three central regions of the country. Coal mining is also carried out in the Ekibastuz coal basin.
Hydrocarbons
After the collapse of the Soviet Union - the world leader in the extraction of oil and gas from the bowels of the earth - many post-Soviet countries became dependent on Russia, because the reserves of these hydrocarbons were unevenly distributed throughout the country. But Kazakhstan was not deprived of them. Minerals containing hydrocarbons in the newly formed state turned out to be in abundance. The second in the post-Soviet space is the volume of oil reserves, the third - natural gas. But the peculiar development of the oil and gas industry in the former Soviet Union had a twofold effect on this industry during the period of independence of Kazakhstan. On the one hand, these are rich deposits. In terms of oil reserves in the bowels of the earth, Kazakhstan is included in the world's leading group, having almost two percent of all explored deposits of this product on the planet, which is about four billion tons. Slightly less natural gas reserves in Kazakhstan: in share terms of the global amount - 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 has led to the fact that this direction in Kazakhstan turned out to be less developed than in the neighboring state.
Ore minerals
Ore minerals of Kazakhstan are widely used. Iron ore reserves are concentrated in the northern landscountries where up to eighty-five percent of the country's total reserves are located. The ores of some deposits are of such high quality that their iron content exceeds half of the composition of the ore. But ordinary Kazakh ores contain no more than forty percent 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 production of chromites.
Manganese ores of local deposits, the reserves of which are the second largest in the CIS, have up to 27% metal content.
Copper mining in the country has been carried out in the same deposits (Zhezkazgan, Orlovsky, Nikolaev) for a long time, which causes their gradual depletion. Therefore, everything possible is being done to put into operation new developments in East Kazakhstan. At the same time, the search for copper ores is carried out 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 originally only a by-product of the production of polymer ores. Now gold mining is carried out in 16 regions of the country. At the same time, 190 deposits have been explored, and in terms of gold reserves, Kazakhstan ranks fifth in the world. Now operating gold mining enterprises are provided with gold for the next half century.
Non-metallic 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 Zhetygarinsky and Zhezkagansky deposits. In addition, the deposits of the south of Mugodzhar are rich in this element, although they are being developed less intensively.
Mining in Kazakhstan is significantly developed in the direction of extracting phosphorites from the bowels of the earth. The reserves of phosphorus-containing elements in the south of the country are the second in the world in terms of volume, and in terms of the content of the main product they are unmatched.
In addition to these non-metallic elements, unprecedented s alt reserves have been discovered in the Caspian lowland of Kazakhstan. Separate s alt-bearing layers exceed two kilometers.
Summing up all of the above, I would like to note that the country is rich in various deposits. Mineral resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan are of high quality. But, unfortunately, their development is not always carried out at the proper level. And the extraction of coal, oil and gas is of the greatest importance for the economy of the state.
