Iron ore can rightfully be called one of the foundations of the economy of any country. 40% of the total reserves of this mineral are concentrated in Russia. The largest deposits of which are distributed over the territory of the state is extremely uneven.
Distribution of predicted resources of the Russian Federation for iron ore
In terms of the availability of projected reserves of iron ore, Russia is only third, behind Brazil and the United States. The total amount of ore in the Russian Federation is estimated at about 120.9 billion tons. If we count on the reliability of "explored data", then the reserves (category P1) are most accurately determined at 92.4 billion tons, the probability of production in full is slightly less than 16.2 billion tons (category P2) and the least probability of extraction of explored ore is 2, 4 billion tons (category P3). The average iron content is 35.7%. Most of the resources are concentrated in the KMA (Kursk Magnetic Anomaly) located in the European part of Russia. The fields located in Siberia and the Far East are of lesser importance.
Distribution of ore reserves in Russia
The share of high-quality ore that does not require beneficiation, with an iron content of at least 60%, in Russia is almost 12.4%. Basically, the ores are medium and poor, with an iron content in the range of 16-40%. However, only Australia has large reserves of rich ores in the world. 72% of Russian reserves are classified as profitable.
Today, there are 14 largest deposits in the Russian Federation. Of these, 6 are located in the Kursk anomaly area (i.e., more than half), which provides 88% of the development of iron ores. The State Balance Sheet of the Russian Federation has 198 deposits, 19 of which have off-balance reserves. The main places of extraction of iron ore, located in descending order (in terms of the volume of mined minerals):
- Mikhailovskoye deposit (in the Kursk region);
- M. Gusevgorskoe (in the Sverdlovsk region);
- M. Lebedinskoe (in the Belgorod region);
- M. Stoilenskoye (in the Belgorod region);
- M. Kostomukshskoe (Karelia);
- M. Stoylo-Lebedinskoe (in the Belgorod region);
- M. Kovdorskoe (in the Murmansk region);
- m. Rudnogorskoe (in the Irkutsk region);
- M. Korobkovskoe (in the Belgorod region);
- M. Olenegorskoe (in the Murmansk region);
- M. Sheregeshevskoe (in the Kemerovo region);
- M. Tashtagolskoye (in the Kemerovo region);
- M. Abakanskoe (Khakassia);
- M. Yakovlevskoe (in the Belgorod region).
Over the past decade, an increase in iron ore mining has been observed in the Russian Federation. The average annual growth rate is about 4%. However, there is something to strive for: the share of Russian ore in global production is less than 5.6%. Basically, all ore in Russia is mined at the KMA (54.6%). In Karelia and the Murmansk region, the volume is 18% of the total production, in the Sverdlovsk region, 16% of ore is given out.
