"Frozen" Subsoil Resources

07.08.2009 — Analysis

Scientists insist that those opposing the development of the Northern areas of Russia want to shut down The Industrial Urals - The Polar Urals project. Experts who talked to the RusBusinessNews observer think that a country has very few chances for a happy future without global projects.

Russia has engaged in the fight to control a million square kilometres of the polar continental shelf containing about 100 billion tons of hydrocarbons. Scientists are trying to prove that this area is a continuation of the Siberian table. Some experts, however, think that this idea would make no sense unless Russia starts to develop the Northern areas. Meanwhile yet another campaign began in the country to discredit The Industrial Urals - The Polar Urals project which envisages serious investments into the infrastructure of the border region. It is obvious that these two occurrences are connected.

The Northern areas development project is very important most of all because one of its deliverables will be a railway running along the Urals Ridge, which would provide continental Russia with access to the Arctic Ocean. This line will allow for the transportation of liquefied gas, coal, and metallic ores into inland areas of the country; geologists think that these resources are plentiful here.

The state-owned corporation The Industrial Urals - The Polar Urals, established in 2006 thanks mainly to the Urals Presidential Envoy Petr Latyshev, had to answer the question whether this railway will be in demand. The Northern autonomous okrugs drafted plans and concepts for the geological exploration and the industrial development of the Sub-Polar and Polar Urals. Massive resources had been allocated for the implementation of these plans: Ugra alone was going to spend 11 billion roubles in three years.

The results of the three years of work have turned out controversial. According to the First Deputy Director General of OJSC Research and Production Centre "Monitoring" Oleg Fyodorov, some sites yielded positive results while the results of prognosis and exploration works at others did not meet the expectations. There were sites where it was impossible to make clear conclusions regarding their prospects. In the expert's opinion, the field work has to continue, especially since only quarter of the planned money has been allocated so far. Moreover, the latest geophysical research demonstrated that the direction of exploration has to change.

Having seen the results of the work, officials of the Federal Agency for Subsoil Usage (Rosnedra) have come to radical conclusions: in July 2009 they re-evaluated the predicted amounts of resources on all of the Urals area and suggested that the Government should halve the project financing. The Deputy Head of the Urals branch of Rosnedra Nikolai Kokorin stated clearly that the exploration work results have not been worth the money spent.

The Rosnedra's position is totally incomprehensible to geologists. The First Deputy Director General of OJSC Urals Geological Survey Expedition Kim Zoloyev made a clarification for RusBusinessNews that the drilling was mainly done in valleys and that the recent findings of the FSUE NPP Aerogeologia demonstrated that massive large-block chromite ore deposits are located on ridges. The expert thinks that, given the financing situation as it stands now, nobody will drag the heavy machinery up the mountains. It is too early, in Mr. Zoloyev's opinion, for the conclusion that there are no large deposits in the Polar Urals. His own experience taught him it might take decades to discover mineral deposits: for instance, Mr. Zoloyev started working on the Bazhenovskoye deposit in 1950, and it was recognised as a large deposit only in 1985. All these years the geologist had been correcting his own reports, and it is a standard situation in this line of work.

The branch Director of FSI State Committee on Resources Boris Alyoshin understands the desire of the State officials to have a confirmation for justification of investments into the construction of the railway, but it is impossible, in his opinion, to demand that the geologists discover large deposits by a predetermined date. This is not a plant where it is possible to plan the production volumes. Only the hard work in the field yields results in geology. Any other approach to the problem is closer to politics rather than to science.

The Director of the Institute of Geology and Geochemistry of UB RAS Viktor Koroteyev thinks that this is just another campaign that has been started in the country in order to shut down The Industrial Urals - The Polar Urals project. The first attempt to "close the topic" was made in 2000 when Rosnedra announced that the Urals lost the role of the mineral and raw materials base of the country. "We," says the expert, "together with the Russian Geological Research Institute, proved that this was not the case. Moreover, we received the governmental award in 2003 for the development of the mineral and raw materials base of the country."

Anatoly Makarov, a Professor in the Department of Geology, Survey, and Exploration of Mineral Deposits of the Urals State Mining University, does not have any doubt that the railway has to be built. The construction must start now, not pending the results of the prediction and exploration work. He says that when the Trans-Siberian was built, everything was happening simultaneously: geologists surveyed the area for the construction of the railway line; then, as the the geography of exploration was broadening, they found mineral deposits. This was a secondary goal, which was pursued by the Tsar's Government. Having built the Trans-Siberian, Russia "tied" the Far East to itself. In Professor Makarov's opinion, the construction of the railway along the Urals Range must be considered from the point of view of strategy as well.

"The entire project is reduced to the search for mineral deposits, - says the expert. - I think that the Northern areas must be developed first and foremost. It is our land, our people live there. It is true, however, there are fewer and fewer settlements there: I have seen more than a hundred villages disappearing in the Sverdlovsk Oblast alone. People would have stayed there if there was a railway nearby. It will push the development of the area: the construction demands quarries, construction materials, machinery, and personnel. It is impossible to speak of any development of the Polar Urals without the railway: subsoil users do not invest into the development of new deposits as they can not imagine how the ores will be transported out of there".

Anatoly Makarov is convinced that if we invest into the development of our land we would also settle the issue of minerals and raw materials. It is true that the Central Urals elevation is not very rich in ores: the Mid-Urals is buried under the blanket of the West Siberian platform. However, Kurgan and areas around it were considered buried before. Iron ore deposit was discovered there later. This is why the Professor suggests starting the construction of the railway to the North right now.

The line, he thinks, will cause a real revolution: we have to take into account not only the mineral resources, but also fish, timber, and the future development of the petrochemical sphere. Most importantly, we would have the access to the Arctic continental shelf. Russia would "tie" the Northern territories as it had done with the Far East before.

The problem of the modern Russia is that for more than 20 years the State has not been investing into global projects. The attempts of shutting down The Industrial Urals - The Polar Urals project serve as a further proof. The strategic raw materials resources may remain "frozen" in the North for some decades to come.

Vladimir Terletski