Minerals of the Novosibirsk Region are quite numerous: 83 deposits out of 523 already explored are exploited throughout the territory. There is coal - and coking, and high-grade anthracite, there are refractory clays. A lot of peat, but it is not yet produced. There is oil, gas, non-ferrous metals and gold.
Coal
Almost a billion tons of high-quality anthracites have been explored in the Gorlovsky basin, and forecasts are even more optimistic - 5.6 billion tons. Two more coal-bearing basins - Doroninsky and Zavyalovsky, where there is also a lot of coal. Since 2007, Novosibirsk coal has been prospected and developed under licenses of Best LLC and Region-Oil OJSC. The mineral resources of the Novosibirsk Region are mostly mothballed and await the development of industry in order to start mining.
Deposits of anthracite coal in the Gorlovsky basin are the only raw material base for all the eastern regions of Russia, since this raw material is necessary for the electrode industry. The largest Russian plant is NovEZ (Novosibirsk Electrode Plant). Such coal for the enterprise is produced by Siberian Anthracite CJSC. The rest of the mineral deposits in the Novosibirsk Region related to coal are not developed as widely.
Oil and natural gas
Seven oil fields have been discovered in the northwestern regions, but they are gradually being decommissioned, despite the fact that there are abundant minerals in the Novosibirsk region. List of deposits:
- Verkh-Tarskoye;
- East Tarskoe;
- Maloichskoe;
- Rakitinsky;
- Thai Dassky;
- East Mezhovskoye:
- East.
One field - Veselovskoye - is gas condensate. All oil explored in the field is of high quality, close to the Brent brand. The occurrence of the most productive formations is an average of two and a half thousand meters. The largest field is Verkh-Tarskoye, there are more than sixty percent of all oil in the region. Only two are operated - Maloichskoye and Verkh-Tarskoye, where the projected reserves are more than one hundred and thirteen million tons.
Other minerals
The Novosibirsk Region was lucky with peat reserves — more than seven billion tons, but the costs of extraction and processing are too high, so peat deposits are hardly developed, most likely - for now.
A fairly large deposit of non-ferrous metal ore was discovered in the Novosibirsk Region, where approximately 1.7 million tons of titanium dioxide and 7.2 million tons of zirconium dioxide are found there. Exploration and development of the Filippovsky site (Horde zircon-ilmenite placer) is underway.
Gold
There is not much gold in the Novosibirsk Region by industrial standards - one ore deposit and twenty-four loose deposits are estimated at only seventeen tons. Both types of deposits — alluvial placers and gold-bearing weathering crusts — are suitable for open-cast mining. However, the gold-bearing minerals of the Novosibirsk Region are not exhausted by them: there is native gold on the territory - gold-quartz, gold-rare-metal, gold-polymetallic, if we talk about ore-formation types.
About forty tons have been explored, according to forecasts in the north-west of the Salair ridge (Yegoryevsky gold-scattering area). An analysis of this resource base suggests that almost all the placers have been worked out and are being developed, and in the further development of gold mining, it is necessary to search and evaluate new deposits, which are likely to exist. And, of course, you need to develop gold deposits of other industrial types. Moreover, mining enterprises are provided with work only for the next few years, further prospects for the raw material base are very small.
Marble, Tin, Aluminum
Highly decorative marble and other expensive facing stones of increased demand in the amount of eight and a half million square meters contain minerals of the Novosibirsk region. Names of deposits:
- Petenevskoye (the best deposit);
- Shipunovskoe (marbled limestones);
- Serebrennikovsky (same).
Deposits are developed by Marble LLC.
It is difficult to list what minerals are in the Novosibirsk region, since there are many, but not all of them will be developed. For example, two small-scale small tin deposits - Barlakskoye and Kolyvanskoye - about six hundred tons in total are clearly unprofitable: the average content of casserite in tin-bearing placers is about half a gram per cubic meter. Two bauxite deposits, Oktyabrskoye and Novogodnoye, are also registered on a cadastral register, with reserves equal to 2068 thousand tons. Aluminum reserves in this ore are also small.
Cement, clay, glass
At the Chernorechenskoye deposit in the Iskitim district, there are reserves of cement raw materials: on the Northern site - 88,900 thousand tons of limestone, on the Shale site - 22083 thousand tons of shale, 38163 thousand tons of limestones of the first category on the Southern site and 223776 thousand tons of the second. This deposit is being developed by CJSC Chernorechensky Quarry.
Refractory and refractory clays are present in four deposits: in Doroginsky, Evsinsky and Vassinsky - refractory, and in Obsky - refractory. It operates LLC "Universal" (Plant of ceramic products). Three small quartz sand deposits have already been taken into account; there are approximately 8150 thousand tons of the first category and 875 thousand tons of the second. Siberian Industrial Holding LLC has the right to use these subsoil, which transferred this right to its subsidiary Mineral Group LLC.
Building materials
Deposits of building materials are usually the most common. In the Novosibirsk Region, eighteen deposits of building stone alone are taken into account, thirteen of them are exploited. Annual production is about two and a half million tons. These are diabases, porphyrites, granites, limestones and other rocks. Marble has already been said above, as well as clay. In total, the entire raw material base of minerals of general distribution here is more than sufficient for their own needs and for neighboring areas. New geological searches and exploration of new sites for this raw material are being organized. Only building sands will not be developed, although the deposits are rich. The reasons are environmental, since all deposits of building sand are in the valley and channel of the Ob river.
Moreover
The region has very large water resources: mineral, thermal and fresh waters are extracted from ten thousand wells in the amount of more than half a million cubic meters daily. The forest fund of the Novosibirsk Region totals 4,490,000 hectares, including conifers growing on the territory of 977,300 hectares. One can be proud of the total stock of wood of the main forest-forming species - it is estimated at 278.8 million cubic meters.