Prospects and Problems of Development of the Raw Material Base of Sufficient Strategic Types of Solid Mineral Resources of Siberia

Abstract

The analysis of the state of the mineral resource base of strategic types of solid minerals in Russia in general and in Siberia in particular has been carried out. Particular attention is paid to the prospects for the development of the resource base of lithium, rare earth metals, ordinary and impact diamonds in Siberia. The characteristics of a number of deposits and options for their development were assessed, taking into account the quality of ores, geographical location, the state of the infrastructure and the level of development of technologies for ore dressing and obtaining end products. The prospects for the development of the raw material base of niobium and rare earth metals within the Tomtor massif and the territory of the Udzha uplift as a whole are assessed. Summary results of long-term regional field and laboratory studies of the distribution and compositional variations of Cr-pyrope garnet, the most informative of the set of indicator minerals for determining the potential diamond content of kimberlites, selected from uneven-aged intermediate reservoirs of the Siberian Platform, are presented. Based on these results, areas within the platform were identified with signs of the presence of new fields of potentially diamond-bearing kimberlites of the Middle Paleozoic age. A mineralogical description and assessment of the technological characteristics of impact diamonds from the Popigai astrobleme and from the ejection zone in its frame is given. The prospects of creating a new large area of the extractive industry on the raw material base of strategic materials in the territory of the Lena-Khatanga interfluve are substantiated