Introduction
Crimea is a peninsula, which, due to its geographical location and orography, the predominance of unique recreational and balneological resources, its climatic conditions, natural environment, a number of reserves, wildlife sanctuaries, parks, forests and other areas occupied by green spaces, the coastal strip is a unique place for development of tourism, resort and sanatorium treatment and recreation.
However, in recent years, the natural and ecological potential of Crimea has sharply decreased. Poorly managed development of the region, which has a unique climate and landscapes with a rich history, opportunities for organizing year-round recreation and growing original agricultural crops, has led to environmental pollution, a reduction in resource potential, and a gradual loss of the main values of Crimea. All existing anti-crisis programs for Crimea consider social, economic, energy, transport and other problems in isolation from environmental factors. At the same time, in the world practice today, the development of strategies and programs for sustainable development has been widely developed. These are the most advanced programs in which all policies in the social, economic, environmental and other spheres are combined into a single whole.
The emerging loss of the historical significance of Crimea as a recreational-agricultural-reserved region and its transformation into an ordinary agricultural-industrial region with a host of environmental problems require a reasonable and rational approach in the system of optimizing nature management in order to further optimal development from both socio-economic and environmental points of view.
Brief description of the natural resources of Crimea
The economic development of any territory is largely based on its resources. Resources are understood as the sources of obtaining the material and spiritual benefits necessary for people, which can be realized with existing technologies and socio-economic relations.
Types of resources, their qualitative and quantitative characteristics, as well as methods of production and development of productive forces affect the type of management.
Usually, resources are material, labor, intellectual, financial, natural, informational, etc.
Natural resources include mineral and raw materials, fuel and energy, land, climatic, water, biological (faunistic and floristic), etc. The presence of such resources not only determines the type of management in a particular region, but also affects the choice of architectural and planning solutions, sometimes even on the way of life of the population living there.
It was the limited nature of traditional mineral resources (along with other socio-economic and political aspects) that kept Crimea from over-industrialization for a long time. Now more and more comes the realization that the true wealth of the peninsula is its land, climatic, recreational resources.
In terms of natural resource potential, in terms of its size per unit area and per capita, Crimea is approximately fourth among the regions of Ukraine. Share (%) of certain types of resources in the total natural resource potential:
land - 39;
recreational - 30;
water - 19;
minerals -- 10 .
Land resources are used mainly for food production. In Crimea, agricultural land covers an area of about 1800 thousand hectares, or almost 70% of the total land area (including arable land, perennial plantations, pastures). The remaining lands are occupied by forests, shrubs, water bodies, ravines, sands, or are disturbed.
The productivity of agricultural lands depends primarily on the natural fertility of soils, which is determined by the reserves of nutrients, heat and moisture in them. Among the variety of soil types of the peninsula, southern chernozems, meadow-chernozem and brown soils are considered the best in this indicator, which are suitable for all cultivated crops.
It is these lands that are almost all plowed up and give high yields. In some central and western regions of the Crimean plains, the share of plowed lands is very high - 80 - 85% of the area of all lands. High land development leads to the development of many negative processes: water and wind erosion, waterlogging and salinization of soils in irrigation areas.
Despite the fact that annually inconvenient lands are involved in agricultural production (stony places, salt licks, solonchaks, with thin shrubby soils, etc.), on the whole, the area of agricultural lands is decreasing due to their withdrawal for industrial facilities, the expansion of settlements, the construction of dachas, roads, canals, etc.
To maintain the high quality of the land resources of the peninsula, it is necessary to carry out such reclamation work that would not allow a decrease in the humus content in soils and prevent the development of harmful processes.
Climate resources The peninsulas as a whole favor the development of agriculture and are successfully used for climate treatment in resorts.
The yield of agricultural crops largely depends on such climatic characteristics as heat and moisture supply during the growing season.
The need for heat, which the plant receives during the growing season, is usually characterized by the sum of average daily air temperatures above + I0 `С. This indicator (`С) in the steppe part of the peninsula is 3300-3600, in the mountains - 1500-2700, on the southern coast - 3700-4100. There are almost no spring and autumn frosts dangerous for plants on the South Coast. This allows cultivating many heat-loving crops in the Crimea: fruit, essential oil, vegetables, rice, grapes, tobacco, corn, sunflower.
Unfortunately, the amount of precipitation falling during the growing season is not large, but even these small amounts are very variable from year to year. Receiving a lot of heat, the peninsula has suffered from droughts for centuries.
The aridity of the climate makes it very economical and efficient to use water resources and irrigate the land.
Water resources The peninsulas are limited and in many ways hinder the development of the Crimea, and that is why they require especially careful and competent attitude towards themselves.
A significant part of the water - 2400 million m? - comes through the North Crimean Canal and 500 million m3? give local rivers and underground reserves.
Currently, fresh water consumption in the Crimea is approximately 3,000 million m "/year, including:
* in communal services and household needs - 190;
* in agriculture - 2500;
* in industry - 250.
In the 60s of the twentieth century. a 7-kilometer tunnel was built through the Main mountain range, through which up to 100 thousand m? water per day.
The shortage of water now, after the commissioning of the North Crimean Canal, is largely artificial, as it is caused by its uneconomical and inefficient use, especially when irrigating lands. The experience of countries with a shortage of water resources (Cyprus, Malta, Israel, Greece) shows that with a reasonable use of them, you can do without obtaining additional water.
Recreational resources, on which the organization of tourism, recreation and treatment is based, are very diverse, as are the recreational activities themselves.
The healing muds of Saki Lake have been known since ancient times. At the beginning of the nineteenth century. The first mud baths in Russia were built in Saki. The resources of therapeutic mud in the Crimea are enormous, since most of the lakes are sea estuaries, cut off from the sea by sandy embankments. In shallow, well-heated reservoirs with very salty water (brine), conditions are created for the formation of sulfide silt mud. So far, mud from the Saki and Chokrak lakes is mainly used, and mud from mud volcanoes (mud volcanoes on the Kerch Peninsula) is used. In the future, the development of therapeutic mud can be significantly expanded (their reserves are 22.4 million m3).
Mineral water resources, or balneological resources (lat. balneum - bath), are also significant, as they are represented by more than 200 sources and wells with carbon dioxide, sulfide, iodine-bromine and other types of water (with total reserves of up to 14 thousand m? / day .). They are in Feodosia, on the Kerch Peninsula, in the Saki-Evpatoria resort area, in the mountainous Crimea near the village of Kuibyshevo (the famous Black Waters, or Ajisu).
Recreational climatic resources are, first of all, comfortable weather conditions for almost a whole year, a long duration of sunshine (2180-2470 hours / year) and an abundance of ultraviolet radiation, clean mountain (or steppe) air saturated with phytoncides and sea salts . Thanks to this, helio- and aerotherapy (treatment with the sun and air) is successfully carried out at the resorts.
Recreational tourist resources include interesting natural objects (rocks, waterfalls, caves), a variety of historical, archaeological and other monuments, which cannot be counted in Crimea.
Mineral resources The peninsulas are diverse, but practically they have never formed the basis of the Crimean economy. True, there was a time when the Chumaks exported salt from here (back in the 80s of the 19th century, Crimea provided 40% of all salt produced in Russia). In the post-war years, building Inkerman stone was transported far throughout the country. Kerch iron ore and flux limestones of Balaklava and Stary Krym were used at the metallurgical plants of the Azov region.
The salt mines of the peninsula lost their significance and practically ceased to exist. The simplest devices for evaporating salt, scattered in the shallow waters of the Sivash and in a number of other lakes, are already surprising people entering the peninsula. Salt mining was preserved only near Evpatoria, on Lake Sasyk.
The iron ores of the Kerch Peninsula were mined in an open pit (at the Kamtsh-Burun quarry, which was closed in 1992). Fluxed limestone (used as an additive for blast-furnace smelting of cast iron) is obtained by an open method in the quarries of Balaklava, on Mount Agarmish (near Stary Krym).
In addition to these mining developments, in recent decades, many quarries have emerged for the extraction of building stone, wall blocks, crushed stone, and facing material. They are scattered throughout the peninsula: in the vicinity of Sevastopol (Inkerman), in the Bakhchisarai region (Rocky), in the flat Crimea and on the Kerch Peninsula, in the mountainous Crimea (Marble and Sharkha), in the foothills (Lozovoe, Petropavlovka, Trudolyubovka). In the vicinity of Bakhchisarai, marls are being developed to produce cement.
Fuel and energy resources. At the end of the twentieth century. the main vital problem of many countries has become their energy supply. It also touched the Crimean peninsula, where there were no fuel and energy resources (the only small Beshui coal deposit was developed for some time in the mountainous Crimea).
The lack of fuel and energy resources on the peninsula was felt even when it was provided with energy through a single energy system from the mainland. That is why they started building a nuclear power plant. On the steppe plain of the Kerch Peninsula, not far from Cape Kazantip, the city of the builders of the Crimean nuclear power plant - Shchelkino (named after the famous physicist K.I. Shchelkin) arose.
The Chernobyl disaster, the fear of a possible accident and its environmental consequences, new geophysicists' data on fault tectonics in the area of the nuclear power plant under construction decided its fate - it was closed.
Successfully carried out in the 60-70s of the twentieth century. oil and gas exploration. The development of gas fields began on the Tarkhankut Peninsula, the Arabat Spit, in the Dzhankoy region, as well as on the shelf of the Black and Azov Seas (Fig. 39). The largest Golitsynskoye natural gas field is located in the Karkinitsky Bay. Most of the explored areas on the Black Sea shelf lie under a water layer of 70 m or more. The peninsula's own resources provide about half of all gas needs.
Increasingly, the question of the use of non-traditional energy resources is being raised - solar, wind, hydrothermal energy. In 1986, an experimental solar power plant (SES-5) was built near the village of Shchelkino. Its power is small - only 5 thousand kW (for comparison: the power of the Simferopol CHPP is 250 thousand kW). Several wind farms are already operating in the flat part of the peninsula. Promising in this regard are the Ai-Petri plateau, Karabi, the Arabat arrow, and the region of Lake Donuzlav. Obviously, the time has come for Crimea to follow the saying “Less raw materials - more intelligence”.
There are almost all minerals in the Crimea, but in scanty quantities, says Anatoly Pasynkov, candidate of geological sciences. “There are many deposits in the Crimea, but most of them have no commercial value - the reserves are too small”, - agrees with a colleague, Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences Lyudmila Kirichenko. Although hundreds of years ago, the main wealth of Crimea was considered not landscapes or fruits, but minerals ...
Crimean
During the time of the Crimean Khanate, one of the main export items (along with slaves and fruits) was greasy and soapy bentonite clay - all wealthy people of the huge 30 million Ottoman Empire used it instead of soap and shampoo.
Clay was mined in an open way - in keel pits. One of the places of extraction was Sapun Mountain (translated as "Soap Mountain") on the territory of present-day Sevastopol.
In the Crimea, the keel was used not only for washing, but also for degreasing sheep wool and washing clothes. Clay clarified wine and fruit juices and purified water. By the end of the 19th century, the demand for keel decreased, and at the beginning of the 20th century, production increased again - in the years of devastation, keel replaced expensive and scarce soap and tooth powder. The industrial development of unique raw materials began in 1931 at two deposits - Kurtsovskoye in the Simferopol region and Kudrinsky in the Bakhchisaray region. From clay, mixing it with soda, they made the first washing powder in the USSR with the uncomplicated name "StirPor". Clay from the Kudrinsky deposit was considered the best in the USSR. It was even used for medicinal purposes - for varicose veins, arthritis and radiculitis. At the end of the Soviet Union, clay mining was considered unprofitable and now the development has been stopped.
In the Crimea, oil was produced in small volumes back in the 70s of the 19th century. The most famous deposit was at that time on the Kerch Peninsula and was exploited by private entrepreneurs. The field began to be studied in detail only after the revolution, and serious exploration and exploitation began after the Great Patriotic War.
“There is not much oil there, it seeps to the surface near the mud volcanoes. And before the revolution, and now the people collect it and use it for their needs. Free of charge,” says Anatoly Pasynkov. Until recently, an oil field was also developed in Tarkhankut. The joint venture of the association "Krymgeologina" and "Tvkhasnafta" produced about one tank of oil per month there.
Iron ore
The deposits are located along the eastern and northern coasts of the Kerch Peninsula. Almost the entire city of Korch stands on layers of iron ore, its estimated reserves are about two billion tons! For comparison, in 2010, 72 million tons of ore were mined at all deposits in Ukraine. The industrial development of iron ores on the Kerch Peninsula began in 1845. Brown iron ore lay just on the surface, it was easy to develop them. “The quality of iron is not very high, but still ore was smelted from it and sent to Zhdanov, to metallurgical plants. Crimean ore was not exported due to its rather low quality,” explains Lyudmila Kirichenko, a leading researcher at the Crimean Institute of Mineral Resources.
Sand
This is not only the property of the peninsula, but also a headache. “There are sands of good quality in the area of Fiolent, Yalta Bay,” says Anatoly Pasynkov. - But since they are at shallow depths, they cannot be developed - Otherwise, irreversible processes will begin on the coast. For example, in the Yalta Bay, sand mining has activated landslides.”
Water
11 deposits of fresh underground waters were found in Crimea. The largest are Alma, Severo-Sivash and Belogorsk. Each of them is capable of producing more than 245,000 cubic meters of water per day - this is enough to meet the needs of the entire population of Crimea. There is also in the Crimea its own "Borjomi" - a well with water, in composition reminiscent of the famous Georgian mineral water, but weaker mineralized, located in the area of \u200b\u200bthe resort of Saki. It is not only bottled, but also used for therapeutic baths.
Karadag Gems
Jewelry stones for the Crimea are a rarity. You can find single specimens of amethyst and rock crystal, come across agate, onyx, opal, brocade jasper. But there are so few of them that the reserves of colored stones have never been counted and there has been no commercial mining. The most famous and popular jewelry stone of the Crimea is carnelian. “Under the tsar, up to 16 pounds of carnelian were mined in the bay at the foot of Karadag,” says Anatoly Pasynkov. “They took them out to Mother Russia, Faberge did crafts.” In 1915, a small workshop appeared on the slope of Karadag, the owner of which was engaged in the processing of carnelian, agate, and before the Great Patriotic War, production was expanded - jewelry from Crimean gems began to be made in Simferopol. The glory of colored stones thundered throughout the Union, and in the late seventies, lone prospectors fell on Karadag. They destroyed the slopes of an extinct volcano with explosions, uprooted agates and chalcedony from blocks with sledgehammers and crowbars, and then took them out of the Crimea in backpacks and bags. Soviet writers, who had chosen the village of Koktebel near Karadag, raised a fuss in the press in defense of the unique corner of the Crimea, and Karadag was declared a reserve.
Gold
“Gold was mined on the peninsula, although its reserves are small,” says Anatoly Pasynkov, but the scientist does not say where exactly the precious metal was mined: the data on gold are classified. However, it is known that there is a small gold deposit at Cape Fiolent. In the 80s, while mining quartz glass sands in the Nizhnezamorsky Leninsky district, workers found gold particles brought millions of years ago by the rivers of the northern Sea of \u200b\u200bAzov. Gold was also found near the Sudak coast, at Cape French.
Salt
Favorable conditions for salt extraction have existed in the Crimea since ancient times. Here were the largest salt pans in the entire Black Sea region. To obtain salt, the waters of the salt lakes in the east and west of the peninsula were diverted into shallow basins, where the water evaporated, leaving a crust of salt. In the Middle Ages, Crimean salt was sent to Kievan Rus, and later every year from Ukraine to Crimea for priceless goods, chumaks were sent with convoys to sell bread to the Tatars (then owners of salt works) and buy salt. Chumaks came to the Crimea in two ways: through the Isthmus of Perekop - to the lakes near Sak and Evpatoria, or along the Arabat Spit, which separates the Sivash from the Sea of Azov. For the Crimean Khanate, the salt trade was an important source of income: Chumaks were taxed when they left the Crimea. Then oxen-drawn carts carried salt throughout Ukraine - up to the Dniester and even to the Danube.
The Chumatsky Way ceased to be used for its intended purpose at the end of the 19th century, after a railway was laid to the Crimea, but salt is still being mined on the peninsula. The largest salt works are located on Lake Sivash - 70% of the table salt mined in Ukraine is produced there.
The only coal deposit in Crimea is located in the Bakhchisarai region - deposits of minerals in the upper reaches of the Kacha River were discovered in 1881 by geologist Davydov. Estimated reserves amounted to two million tons - this is quite a bit, 30 times less than was mined in Ukraine in 2011 alone. The development of a modest deposit began during the Civil War - the commander-in-chief of the Russian army in the Crimea, Baron Wrangel, decided in this way to save the freezing peninsula from the cold. By his order, a narrow-gauge railway was built to the mines from the nearest station Siren (its traces can still be found along the banks of the Kacha). In 1919, mines began to be built at the site of the find. Local residents found out about the deposit - they often went to the mine, but not for fuel, but for "black amber" - jet. It was believed that this especially dense and hard coal protects from dark forces and relieves fears. Then the underground Bolsheviks blew up the coal mines in order to hasten the defeat of Wrangel, but under the Soviet regime coal mining was restored. The Beshui mines worked until 1949 - further development of the deposit was considered unprofitable. In addition, the coal that was mined on the peninsula was not of high quality: it had a high ash content, and smoked mercilessly during combustion. Now there is practically nothing left of the coal mines: the mines are abandoned and dangerous to visit.
Inkerman stone
Inkerman stone (aka bryozoan limestone) is the first fossil that was mined on the peninsula. The light stone got its name due to its structure: it is composed of the skeletons of very small marine animals - bryozoans. Due to its unique properties - strength combined with softness, good frost resistance and durability - it was valued far beyond the peninsula. It is known that in antiquity the stone was taken out by galleys to ancient Greece, used for the construction of buildings in Alexandria and Rome. About two thousand years ago, when Chersonese was a Roman colony, the first Christians were sent to the Inkerman quarries for hard labor. The life story of one of the first popes in Rome - Clement - says that when he arrived on the peninsula in 94 AD, he found about two thousand Christians here - they hewed and processed stone, which was then sent to Rome, used to build fortresses and roads in the Crimea .
Later, almost the entire center of Sevastopol was built from Inkerman stone, the Livadia Palace was erected from it, the buildings of the Palace of Culture "Ukraine" in Kyiv, buildings in Moscow, the Volga region, Siberia, the Urals and the Far East were lined with white slabs. Similar bryozoan limestone from the Alminsky deposit in the Bakhchisaray district covers the facades of two of Moscow's most famous "Stalin skyscrapers" - the buildings of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Moscow State University. It was also used in the decoration of the facade of the NATO headquarters in Brussels. Crimean limestones can also be seen in the Moscow subway - they are lined with the Komsomolskaya, Lenin Library and Okhotny Ryad metro stations.
Mud
Medicinal mud is a unique recreational resource of the Crimea. Currently, two deposits of silt mud are being exploited: Chokrakskoye (Kerch Peninsula) and Sakskoye.
Crimean subsoil in numbers
According to the Crimean branch of the Ukrainian State Geological Prospecting Institute:
- Crimea is in 7th place among 25 regions of Ukraine in terms of the number of explored deposits.
- In Crimea, reserves of 315 mineral deposits have been explored and taken into account. Now 85 deposits are being developed, 18 more are being prepared for exploitation.
- Most of all minerals are in Saki and Leninsky districts - 52 deposits in each. There is only one deposit of building stone in the Sovetsky district, and no minerals have yet been found in the Nizhnegorsky district.
- Crimea accounts for 91% of the shell stone mined in Ukraine.
- 30 underground deposits of mineral water have been explored in Crimea, only six are being developed.
- 250 thousand dollars - for such a price, the current owner is ready to sell the existing shell rock deposit in the village of Zernovoe, Saki district.
27.04.2016
Mineral resources of the Crimea - past, present and future
“I reached you, holy, to that place, where you were condemned to imprisonment, now called Inkerman, God-protected, you found there more than two thousand Christians, condemned to hew stones in the mountains of these: and you were assigned to that with them .... ”, - from the Akathist to St. Clement.
Ancient Procurement
Crimea has a rich history dating back to the mists of time. Many peoples have left their mark in the formation of the cultural and historical heritage of the peninsula. These are Scythians and Cimmerians, Taurians, Greeks, Genoese, Goths, etc. But the threads of the history of Crimea are also closely intertwined with the Russian people and their ancestors. Suffice it to say that in the Crimea St. Cyril met a Rus and got acquainted with the gospel written in his language even before the start of work on creating a canonical translation of the gospel into Slavonic. Here, according to the life of Stefan of Surozh, in the 8th century, the army of Prince Bravlin was baptized, and two centuries later, Equal-to-the-Apostles Prince Vladimir will receive holy baptism in Chersonese.
Despite the fact that Crimea became part of Russia only in the 18th century, the presence of the ancestors of the Russian people here has been noted since ancient times. Since the campaigns of princes Oleg and Igor, the peninsula has not left the sphere of geopolitical, cultural and trade interests of Russia. This is evidenced by the traces of a Slavic settlement near Koktebel (Tepsel hill), as well as the “Tmutorokan stone” that immortalized the measurement of the Kerch Strait carried out in the 11th century. Subsequently, Crimea became the territory of military prowess and glory of the Russian state, including such milestones in history as the defense of Sevastopol in 1853-1856. and 1941-1942. No less interesting is the history of Crimean mining, including in the context of world and Russian history.
Undoubtedly, the first examples of the use of minerals in the Crimea can be attributed to the Eneolithic, when the ancient population of the peninsula learned to make tools from silicon. The settlements of people in the area of Krasnoperekopsk, Belogorsk, Simferopol, and others belong to this period. Later, the people who inhabited the Crimea mastered the smelting of metals. At the same time, it can be assumed that metallurgical production was based not only on imported metal, but also on iron and gold, directly mined on the peninsula. This should have been facilitated by the presence of relatively easily accessible deposits of these minerals for extraction in ancient times. Later in the 16th century, the Polish envoy Martin Bronevsky wrote about gold mining in the Crimean mountains.
In the first century after the birth of Christ, Pope Clement, a disciple of St. Peter the Apostle, worked in exile in the Crimea at the Inkerman quarries. This saint can rightly be considered one of the heavenly patrons of the miners of the peninsula. Crimea supplied Greece and Rome with building materials for the construction of majestic temples and public buildings.
Speaking about the minerals of the Crimea, we can distinguish the following main groups that are potentially promising for industrial subsoil use:
coal deposits;
iron and manganese ores;
mercury ores;
native sulfur;
bauxite;
bentonite clays;
building minerals (sands, gravel, limestone, etc.);
salt deposits;
oil and gas fields.
Below is a summary of the above minerals with an assessment of the prospects for their development.
Coal deposits
The presence of coal deposits in the Crimea was revealed at the end of the 18th century. Coal in the Crimea is often found in the form of minor accumulations in sandstones and conglomerates of the Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous. More massive coal deposits are characteristic of the Middle Cretaceous rocks, however, due to the complex tectonic history of the Crimea, the coal-bearing stratum has been preserved in extremely local areas of the Crimean mountains.
The most famous coal deposit is Beshuiskoye, located 35 km from Bakhchisaray. Baron Wrangel initiated the industrial development of the Beshuisky deposit to solve the problem of heating the defending peninsula during the civil war. In the Soviet period, the development of the deposit was carried out until 1950.
Exploration work has identified four coal seams, of which only two are characterized as industrial. The coal seams of the deposit are characterized by rather steep dip angles up to 40-50 degrees, a complex structure with a thickness of 1 m to 3.5 m. Coals belong to grades D and G, characterized by an ash content of 15-25% and a very high sulfur content of 1.12-3.34%. the remaining reserves of the deposit are extremely insignificant.
In fact, it can be noted that in terms of its qualitative characteristics and limited reserves, the deposit is not of industrial interest. Other identified small manifestations of coal deposits (Biyuk-Uzenskoe, Deminier, Zaprudnoe, etc.) are also of no industrial interest.
Iron and manganese ores
On the territory of Crimea, only the explored reserves of iron and iron-manganese ores amount to about 1.8 billion tons (of which there are about 1.4 billion tons of A + B + C1 categories), taking into account ore occurrences, the total resource potential is even more significant.
The main deposits and ore occurrences are concentrated on the Kerch Peninsula and along the Azov coast.
The high proportion of manganese and the presence of vanadium are partly offset by such a negative factor as the high content of phosphorus, which ranges from 0.02 to 1.5%, while the main reserves (73-81%) are phosphorus ore. This impurity negatively affects the quality of steel, which requires special attention both to the processes of enrichment and metallurgy, and quality management during mining, including the localization of the least phosphorus areas of ore deposits. Of course, the large reserves of the peninsula allow us to hope for the possibility of identifying the most priority areas, both in terms of mining and geological conditions, and the quality characteristics of ores.
According to the conditions of occurrence and the average content of the useful component, the main most priority mining method is open pit. In today's market conditions, the construction of underground mines for the extraction of iron ores with a content of 30-40% total iron is obviously unpromising. Based on the conditions of occurrence of ore bodies (judging by the available schematic sections), within the deposits, it is possible to distinguish areas with a stripping ratio mainly lying in the range from 0.4-1.5 m 3 /t, which is a relatively high, although not prohibitive value. Ore-bearing rocks are clays, sands, limestones, sandy clays, loams, etc. That is, basically, raw materials suitable for use in the construction industry. Thus, in the case of complex development of deposits, with the implementation of part of the overburden, the economic efficiency of mining the iron ore deposits of the peninsula will increase significantly.
Previously, a plant operated on the peninsula, working on raw materials from the Kamysh-Burun and Eltigen-Ortel deposits. The extraction of iron ore in 1983 reached 5.4 million tons, while obtaining concentrates with a quality of 44-49%. The concentrate was delivered to the Azovstal metallurgical plant (Mariupol). With the collapse of the CCC R, the iron ore industry of the Crimea gradually fell into decay. So already in 2005, mining was stopped, and the plant was mainly engaged in the processing of Kryvyi Rih iron ores into sinter.
In 2015, a decree of the Republic of Crimea was issued: “To create the State Unitary Enterprise of the Republic of Crimea “Kamysh-Burun Production Company”. Determine that the main purpose of the activities of the State Unitary Enterprise of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Kamysh-Burun Production Company" is the production of coke-free cast iron, rolled metal, cement; production of limestone and agglomerate….». Given, due to well-known circumstances, the impossibility and inexpediency of using raw materials by Ukrainian companies, only the ores of the peninsula can be considered as a source of raw materials. At the same time, it is advisable to consider not only the restoration of the Kamysh-Burgunsky plant, but also the involvement of other sites in production.
The obvious advantage of the Crimean iron ore deposits is the proximity to ports, which largely compensates for the shortcomings of ores due to the presence of harmful impurities. The nearest iron ore mining and processing enterprises in Russia are Lebedinsky, Mikhailovsky and Stoilensky, located at a distance of 1000-1100 km from the Black Sea ports, with the logistical difficulties of shipping marketable products via existing railway lines. The actual additional costs associated with the delivery of iron ore products from these mining and processing plants to the Black Sea ports, at current railroad transportation rates, amount to about 1000-1500 rubles per ton of products. This value is comparable to the cost of a ton of concentrate at these GOKs.
To obtain marketable products that are competitive on the world market, one should focus on concentrates with an iron content of about 65-66%. Moreover, it is ideal to reach the output of finished commercial steel products, which is primarily determined by the specifics of the qualitative composition of ores and the possible specifics of the quality of concentrates, which hinder direct sales to the foreign market.
It should be noted the traditionally high energy intensity of the processes of mining, enrichment of iron ores, and especially the subsequent metallurgical processing, usually around: 10-15 kWh per 1 ton of rock mass, 50-70 kWh/t. concentrate for enrichment processes and 300-400 kWh to produce 1 ton of steel. Thus, obtaining marketable products in the form of a concentrate, taking into account the prospective stripping ratio and the irregularity of electrical loads, will require about 60 million kWh of electricity per 1 million tons of ore mining. In turn, the processing of melon concentrates into conventional steel will require an additional 140 million kWh of electricity. In other words, to launch a full cycle of mining and metallurgical production, designed for 10 million tons of iron ore production per year, about 350 MW of electrical power will be required. The full development of the iron ore industry of the peninsula will become possible with the planned commissioning in 2018 of a thermal power plant with an installed capacity of about 940 MW.
Mercury deposits
Numerous mercury ore occurrences have been noted on the territory of the mountainous Crimea, including Alminskoye, Lozovskoye, Malo-Salgirskoye, Perevalnenskoye, Privetnenskoye, Veselovskoye - confined to zones of intense fracturing and hydrothermal changes. Also traces of the presence of mercury in the products of mud volcanism. The content of mercury in individual samples reached 2-3%, although in general it does not exceed tenths and hundredths of a percent. In some cases, mercury-bearing minerals are associated with barite, galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite. For a full assessment of the prospects for the discovery of mercury deposits, prospecting and exploration work is expedient.
Native sulfur
The first scientific information about the presence of native sulfur deposits in the Crimea dates back to 1849. And already in 1909, commercial production began at the Chekur-Koyashskoye native sulfur deposit, discovered in 1883 by N.I. Andrusov. Mining was carried out in small volumes until 1917. Later, the first sulfur mine of the USSR was opened on the basis of the deposit, which began work in 1930. With the discovery of large sulfur deposits in Central Asia, the development of the mine ceased.
Dozens of occurrences of sulfur are currently known in the Crimea with the content of useful components reaching 10-30%. Sufficiently large sulfur deposits are Novonikolaevskoye and Chistopolskoye, located on the Kerch Peninsula. The sulfur content in the rock reaches 12-14%.
In general, the prospects for industrial production of sulfur in the Crimea are small, both due to relatively small volumes and the complex mining and geological structure of promising production areas.
bauxites
Crimea is quite promising in terms of manifestations of bauxite raw materials. Bauxite ore occurrences are confined to the northern and northwestern parts of the synclinorium of the southwestern part of the peninsula, the zone of distribution of Upper Jurassic reef limestones with karst and erosion-karst depressions, as well as the weathering surface of the effusive-shale complex of rocks that make up the northern slope of the Kachinsky anticlinal uplift.
The ore occurrence of the Basman-Kermen ridge is the most studied. The bauxites overlie the limestone deposits of the Oxfordian. Geological work identified three main ore bodies, the largest of which was traced by exploration workings at 850 m. By dip, the ore bodies were tracked to a depth of 100-200 m. The maximum thickness of the main ore bed is 4.5 m.
Crimean bauxites are characterized by the following main characteristics:
low silicon index, mainly lying in the range of 2.1-2.8;
titanium module 26-29;
the calcium module generally ranges from 0.6 to 10%.
the mineral composition includes: diaspore-boehmite - 28-40%, halloysite, kaolinite - 23-38%, iron hydroxides - 20-24%, hematite - 24%, calcite - 0-8%, minerals of the titanium group - 0.5- 3%, impurities -0.5-1%.
In general, it should be noted that further geological and economic assessments and studies of the presence of bauxite deposits of industrial significance are promising. The presence of vanadium, zirconium, and beryllium in bauxites of the Crimea predetermine the expediency of a comprehensive study of the resource base of deposits, with an assessment of the presence of rare and rare earth elements.
Bentonite clays
Crimean bentonite clays (kil) are valuable raw materials. Keel is a fine, homogeneous, soap-like rock with hydrophilic properties, a large specific surface area, and the ability to absorb fats. This determines the wide scope of the keel, incl. in metallurgy, chemical, perfumery and pharmacological industries, as a raw material for the preparation of pesticides for agricultural purposes, drilling fluids, as catalysts for cracking oil, the manufacture of powders, for the discoloration of food products, oil and fat-and-oil products, for balneological purposes, etc. Keel lies in in the form of layers and lenses in marly rocks of the Upper Cretaceous, and are also found in deposits of the Sarmatian stage.
There are numerous manifestations of keel near the village of Konstantinovka, the village of Maryino, the village of Skalistoye, the village of. White Rock, s.Michurinskoe, s. Cretaceous, p. Glubokoe, Prokhladnoe village, on the banks of the Alma, Bodrak, Chernaya rivers, etc. The most significant deposits are Kudrinskoye and Kamysh-Burunskoye with total reserves listed on the balance sheet of 650,000 tons.
building minerals
Crimea is rich in building minerals, including:
igneous rocks (diorites, granodiorites, diabases, porphyrites, etc.), recorded balance reserves - about 41 million m 3;
sands, recorded balance reserves - about 12 million m 3;
sand and gravel mixtures, recorded balance reserves - about 3.6 million m 3;
clay and loam, recorded balance reserves - about 62 million m 3;
sand and gravel mixtures, accounting reserves - about 3.6 million m 3;
gypsum, recorded balance reserves - about 2 million m 3;
marl, recorded balance reserves - about 175 million tons;
sandstones, recorded balance reserves - about 727 million m 3;
facing limestone, accounting balance reserves - about 9.7 million m 3;
saw limestone, recorded balance reserves - about 308 million m 3;
flux limestone, recorded balance reserves - about 1 billion tons.
The real potential of the peninsula in terms of building minerals is much higher than the officially recorded reserves. The rational radius of consumption of most building minerals is limited to 300-500 km, which is due to the significant costs of transporting raw materials. The geography of the location of the Crimean deposits makes it possible to minimize the transport component in the cost of building materials for consumers.
It should be noted that fluxing limestones, tripoli, dolomites and bentonite clays can simultaneously be classified as both mining and chemical, metallurgical raw materials and construction raw materials.
Separately, it should be noted the Mshankov limestones, which are better known as Inkerman and Bodraks stone, used as a valuable building and facing stone. These rocks have great strength and are easy to cut. Mshankovsky limestone deposits stretch along the western foothills of the Crimea.
Marble-like limestones of the Upper Jurassic and shell limestones are also in demand as a facing material.
Coloring clays (brown, yellow, red, green, black, etc.) from the Feodosia, Imaret, Armatluk, and Nannikov deposits can be used to make oil paints and colorants in the glass and porcelain industries.
Undoubtedly, the construction boom, noted on the peninsula in connection with the development of infrastructure and the residential sector, will be one of the stimulating factors for the development of deposits of building materials.
salt deposits
The salt resources of the Crimea have been known since ancient times. So, the ancient Greek geographer Strabo mentions the salt pan near Chersonesus. In the 19th century, up to 40 percent of Russia's culinary strata came from the Crimea. The main resources relate to several dozen salt lakes, grouped as follows: Evpatoria, Tarkhaknut, Perekop, Kerch and Sivash. The lakes noticeably differ in the chemical composition of brines, the thickness of bottom sediments, the chemical composition of silts, and the volume of the resource base.
On average, the composition of Crimean salts includes sodium chloride 76-80%, magnesium chloride about 10%, magnesium sulfate 4-7%, calcium chloride 0-8%, potassium chloride 2%. The content of bromine in salt reservoirs is typical for the oceans. Sodium sulfate 3.5-9.5% is also found in some lakes.
Salt lakes are promising both for the extraction of food salt and the production of bromine, mother brine, magnesium chloride, mud for balneological purposes, iodine-containing preparations, etc.
There are interesting reports about the possible plans of the Rosatom company to extract rare earth elements from the water of the salt lakes of the Crimea, including Lake Sivash, while receiving fresh water along the way.
Other solid minerals
In favor of the presence of significant gold deposits, it seems that the widely known gold of the Scythians found in the Crimea testifies. However, there is no certainty that the ancient jewelers used local rather than imported raw materials. Nevertheless, there is information about the presence of manifestations of gold concentrations close to industrial ones at Cape Fiolent, Cape French, along the Azov coast and in other areas of the Crimea. In general, gold concentrations do not exceed 1-3 grams per ton of rock, which is a relatively low content, requiring at least the presence of large deposits suitable for open mining to start industrial development.
In the Crimea, amethyst, agate, opal, chalcedony, brocade jasper, carnelian, etc., are found in small quantities.
Also in the Crimea, in non-industrial concentrations, the presence of titanium minerals was noted. It should be noted that the geological knowledge of the Crimea is insufficient and in the future we can expect a significant expansion of the resource base, both in the form of putting on the balance of traditional Crimean types of minerals, and new ones.
Broad prospects can be seen in the study of the Black Sea shelf zone, with the development of technologies for offshore production of both liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons, and solid minerals.
Problems and tasks of development of the mineral resource base of Crimea
Bibliography:
1. Khmara A.Ya., Khlebnikov A.N., Ivanova V.D. Mineral resources of the Crimea and the adjacent waters of the Black and Azov Seas - Atlas - Simferopol: "Tavria-Plus", 2011.
2. Geology of the USSR. Volume 8. Crimea. Geological description. (editor-in-chief Sidorenko A.V.) - M: Nedra, 1969.
3. Geology of the USSR. Volume 8. Crimea. Minerals. (chief editor Sidorenko A.V) - M: Nedra, 1974.
4. M.V. Muratov. A brief outline of the geological structure of the Crimean peninsula. - M: Gosgeoltekhizdat, 1960.
5. A. Ponizovsky. Salt resources of the Crimea - Simferopol: Crimea, 1965.
6. G. I. Nemkov, E. S. Chernova, S. V. Drozdov, et al. Guidance on educational geological practice in the Crimea. Volume. 1. (editor-in-chief Sidorenko A.V.) - M: Nedra, 1973.
Text: A. A. Tverdov, Technical Director, IMC Montan, Ph.D. tech. Sci., OERN expert, GKZ expert, expert certified by Rostekhnadzor
sp-force-hide ( display: none;).sp-form ( display: block; background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 1); padding: 30px; width: 100%; max-width: 100%; border -radius: 0px; -moz-border-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-radius: 0px; border-color: #c49a6c; border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; font-family: Arial, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: center; background-size: auto; margin-bottom:1.5em;).sp-form input ( display: inline-block; opacity: 1 ; visibility: visible;).sp-form .sp-form-fields-wrapper ( margin: 0 auto; width: 90%;).sp-form .sp-form-control ( background: #ffffff; border-color: #cccccc; border-style: solid; border-width: 3px; font-size: 15px; padding-left: 8.75px; padding-right: 8.75px; border-radius: 0px; -moz-border-radius: 0px; -webkit-border-radius: 0px; height: 35px; width: 100%;).sp-form .sp-field label ( color: #444444; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;).sp-form .sp-button ( border-radius: 0px; -moz-border-radius: 0 px; -webkit-border-radius: 0px; background-color: #96693d; color: #ffffff; width: 133px; font-weight: 700 font-style: normal font-family: "Segoe UI", Segoe, "Avenir Next", "Open Sans", sans-serif; box-shadow: inset 0 -2px 0 0 #6a4b2b; -moz-box-shadow: inset 0 -2px 0 0 #6a4b2b; -webkit-box-shadow: inset 0 -2px 0 0 #6a4b2b;).sp-form .sp-button-container ( text-align: center; width: auto;)
Mineral resources of the Crimea are closely connected with the history of its geological development, and distribution - with its structure.
At present, minerals available in the Crimea are usually divided into three main groups: metal (ore), which is used for smelting metals; non-metallic (non-metallic), often used in raw form (building stones, clays, sands, salts, etc.); combustible (oil, natural gases, coal).
The bowels of the Crimean peninsula contain industrial deposits of many minerals, but iron ore, deposits of building and flux limestones, salt resources of Sivash and lakes, as well as gas deposits in the flat Crimea and in the Karkinit Bay are of the greatest importance.
Fossil ores of Crimea
The iron ores of the Kerch iron ore basin, which is part of the vast Azov-Black Sea iron ore province, were formed in the second half of the Neogene period, in the so-called Cimmerian age, which began about 5 million years ago and lasted at least 1.5-2 million years. On the modern territory of ore deposits, there was then a shallow Cimmerian sea, or rather, the delta region of the paleo-Kuban, paleo-Don, paleo-Milk and other rivers. The rivers brought here a large amount of dissolved iron, which they extracted (leached) from the rocks of the catchment area. At the same time, the rivers brought a mass of sand and clay particles into the basin in a suspended state. Due to the change in the reaction of the medium, iron formed here compounds that enveloped the grains of sand in suspension. Thus, concentric-shellish glandular formations of a round or ellipsoidal shape, called oolites, were formed. The diameter of oolites (beans) ranges from fractions of a millimeter to 4-5 mm or more. They, fastened with sandy-clay cement, form ore deposits.
In the post-Cimmerian time, ore deposits were subjected to strong erosion. They were preserved only in deep synclinal folds (troughs), as they were covered by later sandy-argillaceous rocks. Nine such large iron ore troughs are known on the Kerch Peninsula. Due to different rates of neotectonic movements, ore deposits are now at different depths: in some places they come to the surface, in some places they occur at a depth of 30-70 m, and in the area of Lake Aktash they are found at a depth of 250 m.
The average thickness of the ore layers is 9-12 m, the maximum is 27.4 m, and the iron content in ores ranges from 33 to 40%. In general, the ores are poor in iron content, but their shallow occurrence, which allows open-pit mining (quarries), high (1-2%) manganese content to a large extent compensates for this disadvantage.
The chemical composition of the Kerch ores is quite varied. In addition to iron and manganese, they contain vanadium, phosphorus, sulfur, calcium, arsenic and a number of other elements. In the process of metallurgical processing, vanadium, which is rare in nature, can be extracted from ores. Its addition gives the steel high strength and toughness, which is so necessary for the manufacture of especially critical machine parts. Phosphorus, the content of which in the ore is up to 1%, makes the metal brittle, therefore, when melting steel, they achieve its complete transfer to slag. Phosphorous slags are used for the manufacture of fertilizers, which successfully replace superphosphate. Sulfur (0.15%) and arsenic (0.11%) are among the harmful impurities in the Kerch ores, but their small amount does not significantly affect the quality of the metal. Due to a number of differences, three main types are distinguished among the Kerch iron ores: tobacco, brown and caviar ores.
Tobacco ores, so named because of their dark green color, are durable and lie quite deep. They account for 70% of explored reserves. Brown ores lie on tobacco and formed from them as a result of their weathering. In appearance, they resemble brownish-brown clay. Caviar ores, resembling granular caviar in structure, contain quite a lot (sometimes up to 4-6%) of manganese oxides, which give the ore a black and brownish-black color. These ores are classified as manganese-ferrous.
Ores (brown and caviar) are mined at the Kamysh-Burun and Eltigen-Ortel deposits. At the Kamysh-Burun plant, ore is enriched by washing (up to 48.5%). At the sinter plant, the concentrate is mixed with coke and ground flux limestone and sintered into sinter in special furnaces. Due to the burnout of a number of impurities, the iron content in the sinter increases to 51-52%. In terms of explored ore reserves, the Kerch deposits occupy a significant place in the iron ore industry.
Limestones in Crimea
Of the non-metallic minerals, various types of limestones are of great economic importance in the Crimea, which are used as natural building materials, fluxes, and chemical raw materials. About 24% of Ukraine's construction limestone reserves are concentrated in the Crimea. They are developed in over a hundred quarries, the total area of which is 13 thousand hectares (0.5% of the peninsula area). Among building limestones, according to physical and technical properties, the following varieties are primarily distinguished.
Marble limestone is used in road construction as a concrete aggregate. Polished slabs of them are used for interior decoration of buildings, and multi-colored crumbs are used for mosaic products. Limestones often have a delicate reddish or cream color with a beautiful pattern along the fissures of white calcite. The original contours of shells of mollusks and corals give them a special flavor. Of all the varieties of Crimean limestones, they are chemically the most pure.
Marble-like Upper Jurassic limestones stretch in a discontinuous strip from Balaklava to Feodosia, forming the upper horizons of the Main Range of the Crimean Mountains. They are mined at Balaklava, pos. Gaspry, p. Marble, as well as on Mount Agarmysh (near Stary Krym). Their extraction in resort areas violates the soil and water protection, sanitary and hygienic and aesthetic properties of local landscapes.
Bryozoan limestones consist of skeletons of the smallest colonial marine organisms - bryozoans that lived here at the very end of the Cretaceous period. These limestones are known in the Crimea under the name of Inkerman or Bodrak stone. They are easily sawn, and in terms of strength they are close to red brick. They are used for the manufacture of wall blocks, facing slabs, architectural details. Most of the houses in Sevastopol, many buildings in Simferopol and in other settlements of the Crimea and beyond were built from them.
Deposits of bryozoan limestones are concentrated in the Inner ridge of the foothills in the area from the city of Belokamensk to the river. Alma.
Nummulitic limestones consist of the shells of the simplest organisms (in Greek "nummulus" - a coin) that lived in the sea in the Eocene epoch of the Paleogene period. Limestones are used as wall and rubble stone, as well as for burning lime. They form the crest of the Inner Ridge of the Crimean Mountains almost along its entire length. They are mined mainly in the area of Simferopol and Belogorsk.
Shell limestones consist of cemented whole and crushed shells of mollusks. They were formed in the coastal zones of the Sarmatian, Meotian and Pontic seas that existed on the site of the foothill and plain Crimea in the Neogene period. These are light, spongy (porosity up to 50%) rocks, suitable for obtaining small wall blocks. Yellow pontic shells are mined in the area of Evpatoria, pos. Oktyabrsky and in many other places of the flat Crimea. At the same time, the used land resources, unfortunately, are not always rationally spent and optimally recultivated.
When limestone is mined, a lot of chips (sawdust) are formed, which are now often successfully used as fillers in high-strength reinforced concrete structures.
Flux limestones are used in ferrous metallurgy. They must be of high quality, contain at least 50% calcium oxide, and insoluble (in hydrochloric acid) residue - no more than 4%. The content of at least a small (3-4%) amount of magnesium oxide is important. These requirements on the peninsula are best met by marble-like limestones from deposits in the vicinity of Balaklava and Mount Agarmysh.
The complex chemical use of the salt resources of the Sivash and lakes required a sharp increase in the production of lime. For these purposes, the most suitable open in the area of the village. Pervomaisky deposit of dolomitic limestones and dolomites - a mineral consisting of calcium and magnesium carbonates.
The demand for the extraction of limestone is great, and therefore, measures are needed to rationalize their use and recultivate the places of their extraction.
Marls are sedimentary rocks of white, gray and greenish color, consisting of a mixture of approximately equal parts of carbonate and clay particles. They were formed in the seas of the Late Cretaceous and in the Eocene epoch of the Paleogene periods. Most widely distributed in the foothills.
Marls are a valuable raw material for the production of Portland cement. The best varieties of Eocene marls are found in the Bakhchisarai region. They are being developed by a building materials plant that has grown up on the basis of an intercollective farm cement plant. The stocks of marls in the Crimea are large.
Mineral salts of Crimea
The mineral salts of the Sivash and salt lakes of the Crimea are an important raw material base for the chemical industry in Ukraine and neighboring countries. Due to favorable natural conditions in the lagoon of the Sea of Azov, in Sivash and salt lakes, a concentrated brine is formed - brine. The salt content in it reaches 12-15, and in some places even 25%. The average salinity of ocean waters (for comparison) is about 3.5%. Scientists have found that 44 chemical elements available for production are dissolved in the waters of the seas and oceans. The brine contains the greatest amount of salts of sodium, magnesium, bromine, potassium, calcium, etc.
The salt resources of the Crimea have been used since time immemorial. However, almost until the October Revolution, only table salt was mined here. It was transported around Russia, first by the Chumaks on oxen, and since 1876 by rail. At the end of the XIX century. about 40% of the salt produced in Russia was mined in the Crimea. Currently, it is produced in small quantities here, due to production at other fields.
Now we are talking about the integrated use of the salt resources of the Crimea. The production of brine magnesium hydroxide, a refractory raw material for the metallurgical industry, is very promising. As a by-product of this production, gypsum is obtained, which in the burnt state (alabaster) is widely used in construction.
Along with this, at present, due to the processes of desalination of the Sivash brine with water coming from rice paddies and drainage systems, the formation of mineral salts in it is difficult.
combustible minerals
Combustible minerals are divided into liquid (oil), gaseous (natural combustible gases) and solid (coal, etc.).
Oil outlets in the Crimea have long been known on the Kerch Peninsula. The first wells were drilled here in the 60s of the XIX century. Limited volumes of oil were obtained mainly from the Chokrak and Karagan deposits of the Neogene period. Systematic exploration for oil began here after the October Revolution. Of all the wells drilled for oil, associated natural gas usually also came. After the Great Patriotic War, prospecting work on the Kerch Peninsula was resumed. Small reserves of oil were found here and in the deposits of Maikop clays.
In 1954, exploration work was extended to the flat Crimea. From a number of wells that uncovered Paleocene calcareous sandstones at depths of 400 to 1000 m, near the villages of Olenevka, Krasnaya Polyana, Glebovka, Zadorny Chernomorsky region, gas fountains hit, with a flow rate of 37 to 200 m3 or more per day. In 1961, an exploratory well that uncovered rocks of the Early Cretaceous period in the Oktyabrskaya area (Tarkhankut) gave a fountain of gas and oil from a depth of about 2700 m. The flow rate of the fountain was: oil 45 m3 and gas 50 thousand m3 per day. The gas consisted of 61% methane, 22% ethane and propane and belonged to the dry group.
In 1962 and 1964, the Dzhankoyskoye and Strelkovskoye (Arabatskaya Strelka) industrial gas fields were discovered. Gas-bearing layers turned out to be sandy interlayers in Maikop clays occurring at depths from 300 to 1000 m.
1966 is an important date in the history of the industrial use of local gas: the construction of the first gas pipeline from the Glebovsky field to Simferopol, with branches to Evpatoria and Saki, was completed. In subsequent years, gas pipelines to Sevastopol, Yalta and other cities were put into operation. With the construction of the Krasnoperekopsk-Dzhankoy gas pipeline in 1976, our region was connected to the Unified Gas Supply System of the country.
As the explored onshore gas fields were depleted, offshore ones were developed - Strelkovskoye in the Sea of Azov and Golitsynskoye in the Karkinitsky Bay of the Black Sea. In 1983, the construction of a gas pipeline from the Golitsynskoye field to the Glebovskoye gas field was completed. The blue fuel goes through the 73-kilometer underwater pipeline built for the first time in Crimea, and then another 43 km on land.
The fact that in the Crimea, in particular, in the Balaklava region, there is coal, was first reported by an outstanding scientist of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. Academician P.S. Pallas. Industrial deposits of coal were discovered in 1881 by P. Davydov in the Beshui region, in the upper reaches of the river. Kachi.
Coal from the Beshuisky deposit forms three layers in the Middle Jurassic shale clays with a total thickness of up to 3-3.5 m. It belongs to gas coals. There are three varieties of it: resinous coal, the same resinous coal, but contaminated with layers of clay, and jet - black, with a resinous sheen, suitable for handicrafts. It was formed from the wood of evergreen coniferous araucaria trees, once widespread on the globe, and now growing wild in South America and Australia.
The quality indicators of coal are low. It has a high ash content (from 14 to 55%), a relatively low specific heat of combustion (from 14.7 to 21.84 MJ/kg) and burns with a smoky flame.
Proven reserves of the Beshuisky coal deposit amount to 150,000 tons, and possible reserves are up to 2 million tons. Since 1949, its extraction has been discontinued due to unprofitability.
In addition, minor deposits of coal are found in many places in the mountainous Crimea.
Mineral and thermal waters are important minerals, but they will be discussed in the section on resort and recreational resources.
Other minerals
Industrial stocks of tripoli are available on the Kerch Peninsula near the villages of Glazovka and Korenkovo. Due to the high porosity, tripoli, consisting of round grains of hydrous silica (opal), have high adsorbing (absorbing) properties. They are used for thermal and sound insulation, for the production of liquid glass, as an additive to Portland cement and as a filter material.
Brick and high-grade bentonite clays are widespread in the Crimea. Deposits of the best quality clays of the Early Cretaceous period are located in the foothills. For the manufacture of ceramic products, they are mined in the regions of Balaklava, Simferopol, Belogorsk, Stary Krym, Feodosia.
More valuable for the national economy are bentonite clays, or keel. It forms a well degreasing and easily washed off emulsion in sea water, and the population of the Crimea has long used it for degreasing wool and washing fabrics in sea water. Currently, keel is used in the metallurgical industry, for the preparation of solutions used in well drilling, as an absorber in the chemical industry. It is used for bleaching fuels and lubricants, vegetable oils, wine, fruit juices, in the pharmaceutical industry, in soap making, in the production of artificial fibers, plastics, etc. The deposits of the highest quality clays (quila) of the Late Cretaceous period are located near the village. Ukrainians (near Simferopol) and near the city of Sevastopol. On the Kerch Peninsula, keel-like clays are common, which overlap the layers of iron ores.
Minerals of the Crimea
Mineral resources of the Crimea are closely connected with the history of its geological development, and distribution - with its structure. The minerals available in the Crimea are usually divided into three main groups: metallic (ore), which are used for smelting metals; non-metallic (not ore), often used in raw form (building stones, clays, sands, salts, etc.). Combustible (oil, natural gases, coal). The bowels of the Crimean peninsula contain industrial deposits of many minerals, but iron ore, deposits of building and flux limestones, salt resources of Sivash and lakes, as well as gas deposits in the flat Crimea and in the Karkinit Bay are of the greatest importance.
iron-ores The Kerch iron ore basin, which is part of the huge Azov-Black Sea iron ore province, was formed in the second half of the Neogene period, in the so-called Cimmerian age, which began about 5 million years ago and lasted at least 1.5 - 2 million years. On the modern territory of ore deposits, there was then a shallow Cimmerian sea, or rather, the delta region of the paleo-Kuban, paleo-Don, paleo-Milk and other rivers. The rivers brought here a large amount of dissolved iron, which they extracted (leached) from the rocks of the catchment area. At the same time, the rivers brought a mass of sand and clay particles into the basin in a suspended state. Due to the change in the reaction of the medium, iron formed here compounds that enveloped the grains of sand in suspension. Thus, concentric-shellish glandular formations of a round or ellipsoidal shape, called oolites, were formed. The diameter of oolites (beans) ranges from fractions of a millimeter to 4–5 mm or more. They, fastened with sandy-clay cement, form ore deposits. In the post-Cimmerian time, ore deposits were subjected to strong erosion. They were preserved only in deep synclinal folds (troughs), as they were covered by later sandy-argillaceous rocks. Nine such large iron ore troughs are known on the Kerch Peninsula. Due to different rates of neotectonic movements, ore deposits are now at different depths: in some places they come to the surface, in some places they occur at a depth of 30-70 m, and in the area of Lake Aktash they are found at a depth of 250 m.
The average thickness of ore layers is 9 - 12 m, the maximum is 27.4 m, and the iron content in ores ranges from 33 to 40%. In general, the ores are poor in iron content, but their shallow occurrence, which allows open-pit mining (quarries), high (1 - 2%) manganese content to a large extent compensates for this disadvantage. The chemical composition of the Kerch ores is quite varied. In addition to iron and manganese, they contain vanadium, phosphorus, sulfur, calcium, arsenic and a number of other elements. In the process of metallurgical processing, vanadium, which is rare in nature, can be extracted from ores. Its addition gives the steel high strength and toughness, which is so necessary for the manufacture of especially critical machine parts. Phosphorus, the content of which in the ore is up to 1%, makes the metal brittle, therefore, when melting steel, they achieve its complete transfer to slag. Phosphorous slags are used for the manufacture of fertilizers, which successfully replace superphosphate. Sulfur (0.15%) and arsenic (0.11%) are among the harmful impurities in the Kerch ores, but their small amount does not significantly affect the quality of the metal. Due to a number of differences, three main types are distinguished among the Kerch iron ores: tobacco, brown and caviar ores.
tobacco ores, so named because of the dark green color, are strong and lie quite deep. They account for 70% of explored reserves. Brown ores lie on tobacco and formed from them as a result of their weathering. In appearance, they resemble brownish-brown clay. Caviar ores, resembling granular caviar in structure, contain quite a lot (sometimes up to 4-6%) of manganese oxides, which give the ore a black and brownish-black color. These ores are classified as manganese-ferrous. Ores (brown and caviar) are mined at the Kamysh-Burun and Eltigen-Ortel deposits. At the Kamysh-Burun plant, ore is enriched by washing (up to 48.5%). At the sinter plant, the concentrate is mixed with coke and ground flux limestone and sintered into sinter in special furnaces. Due to the burnout of a number of impurities, the iron content in the sinter increases to 51–52%. Fluxed sinter in a hot state is sent to the Azovstal plant in Zhdanov, where it goes directly to the blast furnace. In terms of explored ore reserves, the Kerch deposits occupy a significant place in the iron ore industry of the country. Of the non-metallic minerals, various types of limestones are of great economic importance in the Crimea, which are used as natural building materials, fluxes, and chemical raw materials. About 24% of building limestone reserves are concentrated in the Crimea. They are developed in over a hundred quarries, the total area of which is 13 thousand hectares (0.5% of the peninsula area).
Among building limestones according to physical and technical properties, the following varieties are distinguished primarily. Marble limestone is used in road construction as a concrete aggregate. Polished slabs of them are used for interior decoration of buildings, and multi-colored crumbs are used for mosaic products. Limestones often have a delicate reddish or creamy color with a beautiful pattern along the cracks of white calcite. The original contours of shells of mollusks and corals give them a special flavor. Of all the varieties of Crimean limestones, they are chemically the most pure. Marble-like Upper Jurassic limestones stretch in a discontinuous strip from Balaklava to Feodosia, forming the upper horizons of the Main Range of the Crimean Mountains.
They are mined at Balaklava, pos. Gaspry, p. Marble, as well as on Mount Agarmysh (near Stary Krym). Their extraction in resort areas violates the soil and water protection, sanitary and hygienic and aesthetic properties of local landscapes.
Bryozoan limestones consist of the skeletons of the smallest colonial marine organisms - bryozoans that lived here at the very end of the Cretaceous period. These limestones are known in the Crimea under the name of Inkerman or Bodrak stone. They are easily sawn, and in terms of strength they are close to red brick. They are used for the manufacture of wall blocks, facing slabs, architectural details. Most of the houses in Sevastopol, many buildings in Simferopol and in other settlements of the Crimea and beyond were built from them. Deposits of bryozoan limestones are concentrated in the Inner ridge of the foothills in the area from the city of Belokamensk to the river. Alma.
Nummulitic limestones consist of shells of the simplest organisms (in Greek "nummulus" - a coin) that lived in the sea in the Eocene era of the Paleogene period. Limestones are used as wall and rubble stone, as well as for burning lime. They form the crest of the Inner Ridge of the Crimean Mountains almost along its entire length. They are mined mainly in the area of Simferopol and Belogorsk. Shell limestones consist of cemented whole and crushed shells of mollusks. They were formed in the coastal zones of the Sarmatian, Meotian and Pontic seas that existed on the site of the foothill and plain Crimea in the Neogene period. These are light, spongy (porosity up to 50%) rocks, suitable for obtaining small wall blocks. Yellow pontic shells are mined in the area of Evpatoria, pos. Oktyabrsky and in many other places of the flat Crimea. At the same time, the used land resources, unfortunately, are not always rationally spent and optimally recultivated. When limestone is mined, a lot of chips (sawdust) are formed, which are now often successfully used as fillers in high-strength reinforced concrete structures.
Flux limestones used in ferrous metallurgy. They must be of high quality, contain at least 50% calcium oxide, and insoluble (in hydrochloric acid) residue - no more than 4%. The content of at least a small (3 - 4%) amount of magnesium oxide is important. These requirements on the peninsula are best met by marble-like limestones from deposits in the vicinity of Balaklava and Mount Agarmysh. The Balaklava Mining Administration supplies fluxes to many metallurgical plants. For fluxing sinter at the Kamysh-Burun plant, it turned out to be more profitable to use local chemically suitable Sarmatian, Meotic and Pontic shell limestones. At present, Pontic limestone from the Ivanovskoye deposit is mined for these purposes. The complex chemical use of the salt resources of the Sivash and lakes required a sharp increase in the production of lime. For these purposes, the most suitable open in the area of the village. Pervomaisky deposit of dolomitic limestones and dolomites - a mineral consisting of calcium and magnesium carbonates. The demand for the extraction of limestone is great, and therefore, measures are needed to rationalize their use and recultivate the places of their extraction.
Mergeli- these are sedimentary rocks of white, gray and greenish color, consisting of a mixture of approximately equal proportions of carbonate and clay particles. They were formed in the seas of the Late Cretaceous and in the Eocene epoch of the Paleogene periods. Most widely distributed in the foothills. Marls are a valuable raw material for the production of Portland cement. The best varieties of Eocene marls are found in the Bakhchisarai region. They are being developed by a building materials plant that has grown up on the basis of an intercollective farm cement plant. The stocks of marls in the Crimea are large. The mineral salts of the Sivash and salt lakes of the Crimea are an important raw material base for the country's chemical industry. Due to favorable natural conditions in the lagoon of the Sea of Azov, in Sivash and salt lakes, a concentrated brine is formed - brine. The salt content in it reaches 12 - 15, and in some places even 25%. The average salinity of ocean waters (for comparison) is about 3.5%. Scientists have found that 44 chemical elements available for production are dissolved in the waters of the seas and oceans. The brine contains the greatest amount of salts of sodium, magnesium, bromine, potassium, calcium, etc.
Salt riches Crimea has been used since time immemorial. However, almost until the October Revolution, only table salt was mined here. It was transported around Russia, first by the Chumaks on oxen, and since 1876 by rail. At the end of the XIX century. about 40% of the salt produced in Russia was mined in the Crimea. Currently, it is produced in small quantities here, due to production at other fields in the country. Now we are talking about the integrated use of the salt resources of the Crimea. The production of brine magnesium hydroxide, a refractory raw material for the metallurgical industry, is very promising. As a by-product of this production, gypsum is obtained, which in the burnt state (alabaster) is widely used in construction. Along with this, at present, due to the processes of desalination of the Sivash brine with water coming from rice paddies and drainage systems, the formation of mineral salts in it is difficult. The Saki chemical plant, which worsens the conditions for the formation of therapeutic mud in the local lake and the ecological situation in the resort as a whole, should be redesigned for environmentally friendly production.
Industrial stocks of tripoli are available on the Kerch Peninsula near the villages of Glazovka and Korenkovo. Due to the high porosity, tripoli, consisting of round grains of hydrous silica (opal), have high adsorbing (absorbing) properties. They are used for thermal and sound insulation, for the production of liquid glass, as an additive to Portland cement and as a filter material. Brick and high-grade bentonite clays are widespread in the Crimea. Deposits of the best quality clays of the Early Cretaceous period are located in the foothills. For the manufacture of ceramic products, they are mined in the regions of Balaklava, Simferopol, Belogorsk, Stary Krym, Feodosia.
More valuable for the national economy are bentonite clays, orkil. It forms a well degreasing and easily washed off emulsion in sea water, and the population of the Crimea has long used it for degreasing wool and washing fabrics in sea water. Currently, keel is used in the metallurgical industry, for the preparation of solutions used in well drilling, as an absorber in the chemical industry. It is used for bleaching fuels and lubricants, vegetable oils, wine, fruit juices, in the pharmaceutical industry, in soap making, in the production of artificial fibers, plastics, etc. The deposits of the highest quality clays (quila) of the Late Cretaceous period are located near the village. Ukrainians (near Simferopol) and near the city of Sevastopol. On the Kerch Peninsula, keel-like clays are common, which overlap the layers of iron ores. Combustible minerals are divided into liquid (oil), gaseous (natural combustible gases) and solid (coal, etc.).
Oil outputs and in the Crimea have long been known on the Kerch Peninsula. The first wells were drilled here in the 60s of the XIX century. Limited volumes of oil were obtained mainly from the Chokrak and Karagan deposits of the Neogene period. Systematic exploration for oil began here after the Great October Socialist Revolution. Of all the wells drilled for oil, associated natural gas usually also came. After the Great Patriotic War, prospecting work on the Kerch Peninsula was resumed. Small reserves of oil were found here and in the deposits of Maikop clays. In 1954, exploration work was extended to the flat Crimea. From a number of wells that uncovered Paleocene calcareous sandstones at depths of 400 to 1000 m, near the villages of Olenevka, Krasnaya Polyana, Glebovka, Zadorny Chernomorsky region, gas fountains hit with a flow rate of 37 to 200 m or more per day. In 1961, an exploratory well that uncovered rocks of the Early Cretaceous period in the Oktyabrskaya area (Tarkhankut) gave a fountain of gas and oil from a depth of about 2700 m. The flow rate of the fountain was: oil 45 m3 and gas 50 thousand m 3 per day.
Gas consisted of 61% methane, 22% ethane and propane and belonged to the dry group. In 1962 and 1964, the Dzhankoyskoye and Strelkovskoye (Arabatskaya Strelka) industrial gas fields were discovered. Sandy interlayers in the Maikop clays, lying at depths of 300 to 1000 m, turned out to be gas-bearing. 1966 is an important date in the history of the industrial use of local gas: the construction of the first gas pipeline from the Glebovsky field to Simferopol, with branches to Evpatoria and Saki, was completed. In subsequent years, gas pipelines to Sevastopol, Yalta and other cities were put into operation. With the construction of the Krasnoperekopsk - Dzhankoy gas pipeline, our region was connected to the Unified Gas Supply System of the country. As the explored onshore gas fields were depleted, offshore ones were developed - Strelkovskoye in the Sea of Azov and Golitsynskoye in the Karkinitsky Bay of the Black Sea. The construction of a gas pipeline from the Golitsynskoye field to the Glebovskoye gas field has been completed. The blue fuel goes through the 73-kilometer underwater pipeline built for the first time in Crimea, and then another 43 km on land. An extensive gas supply system has been created in Crimea. Gasified over 630 thousand apartments of the population and dozens of industrial enterprises.
The fact that in the Crimea, in particular, in the Balaklava region, there are hard coal, was first reported by an outstanding scientist of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. Academician P. S. Pallas. Industrial deposits of coal were discovered in 1881 by P. Davydov in the Beshui region, in the upper reaches of the river. Kachi.
Coal The Beshuisky deposit forms three layers in the Middle Jurassic shale clays with a total thickness of up to 3 - 3.5 m. It belongs to gas coals. There are three varieties of it: resinous coal, the same resinous coal, but contaminated with layers of clay, and jet - black, with a resinous sheen, suitable for handicrafts. It was formed from the wood of evergreen coniferous araucaria trees, once widespread on the globe, and now growing wild in South America and Australia. The quality indicators of coal are low. It has a high ash content (from 14 to 55%), a relatively low specific heat of combustion (from 14.7 to 21.84 MJ/kg) and burns with a smoky flame. Proven reserves of the Beshuiskoye coal deposit are 150,000 tons, and possible reserves are up to 2 million tons. Since 1949, its extraction has been discontinued due to unprofitability. In addition, minor deposits of coal are found in many places in the mountainous Crimea. Mineral and thermal waters are important minerals.
Podgorodetsky P. D.
