Siberian natural resources refers to resources found in Russian Siberia, in the North Asian Mainland. The Siberian region is rich in resources, including coal, oil and metal ores.
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Contribution to Soviet economy
Siberia’s contribution to the Soviet economy in percent of national output was given in Soviet statistical yearbooks for 1973 (1940 in brackets) as: Coal 33% (23%), Coking coal 30% (17%), Oil 21% (1.6%), Natural gas 8.5% (from 1.5% in 1950), Electric power output 18% (6.6%), Iron ore 6.9% (1.6%), Pig iron 9.5% (10%), Crude steel 8.3% (10%), Rolled steel 10% (9.1%). But regional breakdowns were omitted in the yearbooks from 1973, except for a few 1975 figures.
Iron deposits
Siberian iron sources were more assorted. They are at Magnitogorsk, Nizhni Tagil deposits in the south of Kuznetsk, the Angara River reserves, and Russian Far East mines.
The mines of the Urals have been known since 1702: Magnitogorsk with annual extraction of 6,000,000 tonnes in 1931, minerals being magnetite and secondarily martite, with 55% or 66% of iron content. The other and oldest center was in Ninshi-Tagil. The total Ural iron reserves were 1,390,670,000 tonnes, of which one-third are limonite and about 450,000,000 correspond directly at Magnitogorsk. When the deposits in Kuznets began to be exploited, in 1930 recent discovered the Mountainous Shoria iron deposits, with reserves calculated as 292,412,000 tonnes, 45% iron content, and the Karaganda deposits. The other important founts stay in Petrovsk-Zabaikal near Baikal Lake, and the Little Khingan Mountains in the Soviet side of the frontier.
Other iron resources in East Siberia are the Angara and Ilim river areas northwest of Baikal Lake, with production of 420,850,000 tonnes. No less than 30% of USSR iron production in the USSR was obtained in the Kuznets zone in 1937.
Iron deposits:
Other minerals and general observations
Coal
The existence of coal, estimated at 400,000,000,000 tonnes, was about a quarter of the Asian total, or half of the European reserves. The principal coal mining valleys and basins are:
During the interwar years, major production was in the Kuznetsk Basin; the Carboniferous Basin of Irkutsk extends joining at Transiberian railway, in 480 km, and the Maritime province near the Vladivostok area.
Petrol
Petrol is encounter on north section of Sakhalin island, and their exploitation are accord topic between Japanese and Russians. Other sources are in the Kamchatka or Ohkostk coasts, but the rest of Siberia did not promise much, with the exception of petrol pits in Central Asia or the Urals. These last (referring to the Turkestan zone) are one extension of Caucasian petrol zone and the mentioned Ural petrol sources.
Gold
Gold is often found in Siberia; currently the principal mining districts are in the Olekma-Vitim region of the Lena Valley. During the period 1910-1914, the Siberian gold mines extracted an average of 46,655 kg and employed 57,000 workers. Exploited deposits are of placer gold. The joint British Russian Company, Lena Gold Mining Joint Stock Company (Lenzoloto), owned and operated the "Lena Goldfields" -- much of the region's gold production. Their mistreatment of workers ultimately led to the Lena massacre which ignited the Russian Revolution; the British shareholders secured compensation from the Soviet government in 1935. Russia remains the second biggest gold producer in the world, while using modern workplace standards.
Copper
Especially important in the Kirguises Steppes, in the Altai ranges and the Yenisei river basin.
Zinc, lead and silver
Zinc is a natural resource.
Iron
Stay more distributed and are exploited. The most important are Telbes Mine (Kuznetsk coal basin), Minusinsk, Yenisei valley, Olga territory (Maritime Province) and the Irkutsk area.