The Komi Republic is a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, part of the Northwestern Federal District.
general information
The region is located in the European part of the country, in the extreme northeast, west of the Urals. The area of the republic is 416.8 thousand square kilometers. The largest cities are Syktyvkar - the capital of the republic, Vorkuta, Sosnogorsk, Inta, Ukhta, Vuktyl, Usinsk and Pechora. The Komi Republic borders on the Yamalo-Nenets, Nenets and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Districts, the Arkhangelsk, Kirov and Sverdlovsk Regions, as well as the Perm Territory.
72% of the region is forested. The Ural Mountains stretch along the eastern border of the Komi Republic. The rest of the subject is swamps, tundra with deer pastures and forest-tundra. There are two large rivers: Vychegda and Pechora. The Komi Republic is rich in deep lakes.
The Komi Republic is located in temperate and subarctic climatic zones, therefore there are long, cold winters, and summer, on the contrary, is cool and short. Often there are sharp changes in temperature and atmospheric pressure, cyclones, heavy rainfall.
The subject is inhabited by representatives of 130 nationalities! 65% of them are Russians. In second place are representatives of the Komi people, 24% of them. Belarusians, Ukrainians, Tatars, Komi-Izhemtsy, Chuvashs, Mari, Bashkirs, Mordovians, Udmurts, Nenets, Komi-Permyaks and others also live here.
History
Until the end of the 15th century, the territory was part of the Novgorod Republic, and then was transferred to the Moscow state. First, furs were taken from here, and in the middle of the 18th century, oil began to be extracted near the Ukhta River. Due to the harsh climate in the region, there were few residents at that time.
In the early 30s of the twentieth century, coal was discovered in the Komi Republic, but it began to be mined during the Great Patriotic War. In those same years, a railway was built to export wood, oil and coal.
After the collapse of the USSR in the 90s of the twentieth century, a crisis occurred in the industry of the republic.
Natural resources
Minerals of the Komi Republic play an important role for the country. The region has a large coal basin, an oil and gas province and oil shale basins - the republic is rich in fuel and energy resources.
The subject has large reserves of combustible gas and shale, peat, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, rare, scattered and rare earth metals, noble metals and diamonds. Widespread are titanium, manganese, chromite and aluminum ores.
Non-metallic minerals of the Komi Republic can be used as mining, chemical, mining, piezoelectric and quartz raw materials. There are materials for metallurgy, jewelry, gem and mineral-building materials.
The republic has a very developed forest industry. The area of all forests is 38.9 million hectares. Also in the Komi Republic there are many mineral, fresh and industrial groundwaters.
Combustible minerals
The most important natural resources of the Komi Republic are combustible minerals. Coal deposits are particularly noteworthy. The vast majority of them are concentrated in the Pechora coal basin. Here, 213 billion tons of geological reserves of coal, of which only 9 billion are explored.
On the territories of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Komi, the Timan-Pechora oil and gas province is located, 60% of the resources of which are oil. Its geological reserves are 4 billion tons. There are also almost 3 trillion m 3 hydrocarbon gases.
On Timan, near the village of Nyamed in the basin of the Izhmy river, there is an industrial asphaltite deposit - solid natural bitumen. This is a product of a strong hypergenic change in oil at the surface of the earth. Asphalts accumulate at the oil outlets in the form of reservoir deposits. The Timan field is considered one of the richest in Russia.
Peat is a sedimentary rock formed by the accumulation in the swamp of undecomposed plant remains. Peat bogs make up more than 10% of the entire territory of the republic, therefore there are large reserves of peat - about 1 billion tons.
The oil shale field has four basins: Bolshezemelsky, Izhemsky, Yarengsky and Sysolsky. Oil shales are sedimentary minerals consisting of organic matter and mineral (siliceous, clayey, etc.) parts.
Mining and chemical raw materials
Minerals of the Komi Republic are represented by mining and chemical raw materials. These include, for example, phosphorites. They are developed in Pai-Khoi, the Polar Urals, Timan, as well as in the basins of the Vym and Sysola rivers.
Since the 12th century, salt production has developed in the region. The industrial reserves of the rock and potassium salt deposits are located near the village of Seregovo and amount to 2.7 billion tons. About 6, 000 tons of edible salt was mined each year.
In the Komi Republic there are two deposits of barite - natural barium sulfate. The reserves of the Khoilinskoye field amount to almost 40 million tons; it is located near the city of Vorkuta. The Palninskoye field has smaller reserves - in the region of 17 million tons.
A small field of native sulfur was discovered on the North Keltma River in South Timan.
Mining and technical raw materials
In the Ural-Novaya Zemlya province, large deposits of fluorite are known - calcium fluoride, a transparent or translucent stone with a glass sheen and a variety of colors. The largest of the explored deposits is Amderminskoye, the remaining reserves in it are more than 1.5 million tons.
Rock crystal deposits in the mountains of the Subpolar Urals were discovered in 1927. Crystal began to be developed as piezoelectric raw materials in the early 1930s. In North Timan, small crystals of crystal are found in agate tonsils.
Natural stone materials
Natural stone materials are found in the region, for example, limestones and dolomites - magnesium and calcium carbonates. The largest field under development is Belgopskoye. It is located in the Ukhta region, its reserves amount to more than 15 million m 3.
Gypsum - a natural stone material, a mineral from the class of sulfates - is extracted at two deposits. In Ust-Tsilemsky, its reserves amount to 70 million tons, in Izhma - more than 150 million tons.
The Komi Republic is rich in sandstones, quartzites and crystalline rocks. For example, in the Middle Pechora there is the Voiskoye deposit, which has large reserves of quartz glass sandstones.
Gemstone raw materials
Another group of minerals of the republic is polished stones. These include, for example, rubies, prenites, quartz, amber and garnets. In the Subpolar Urals, there are jewelry varieties of quartz, in the Polar Urals - rubies, and in Northern Timan - preenite, aluminum and calcium silicates.
Ornamental stones include marble, agate, jade, serpentinite, jadeite and jasper. Agate reserves have been explored in Timan and the Polar Urals, and jasper in Pai Khoi. Marble rocks can be found in the Polar and Subpolar Urals: gray - near the Seyda-Labytnangi railway, yellowish and gray - on South Timan and near Halmer-Yu station. Manifestations of serpentinites were found in the basins of the Bolshoi Patok, Vangyr and Kosyu rivers in the Subpolar Urals, and deposits of jadeite and jade were found in the Polar Urals.
The mineral resources of the Komi Republic are even represented by diamonds. Here they are found in the Devonian and Paleorussian deposits, less often in North and Middle Timan in modern placers, rare finds have been found in the Northern Urals.
Ore Minerals
The region has large deposits of titanium ores, approximately 30% of all reserves of the CIS countries. The most explored field is Yaregskoye. The leukoxene content here is 20-30%.
In the Komi Republic, aluminum ores are common. A large bauxite-bearing province has been discovered in Middle and South Timan over the past few years.
Gold ores are often found in the Polar and Subpolar Urals, as well as in Timan. The most interesting are industrial placers of gold on Timan in the upper reaches of the rivers Tsilma, Nivshery and Tansy and in the basin of the Kozhym river.
