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Iron is an essential component for all industries in the modern world. Now iron is available and used everywhere, but at the time when people only mastered its extraction and learned how to process it, it cost much more than gold.
Beautiful iron jewelry in the Middle Ages was the privilege of the noble classes. Now, every hour, an amount of iron is mined from the bowels of our planet, equal to all the gold ever mined.
Even the heart of the Earth is more than 85% iron. Iron is found in everything, even in our blood, and in space, almost all meteorites are made of this metal. The excavations of scientists show that people mined ore from the bowels of the earth long before they mastered all the subtleties of metallurgy. According to one version, people mined ore from the earth as early as nine thousand years BC.
Metallurgy appeared on the territory of our country more than 4000 years ago and flourished in the Urals. And we will dedicate our today’s rating to the largest iron ore basins in Russia, thanks to which all leading mining and processing plants are supplied with the required amount of ore and supply metal for the needs of the fatherland.
10 Gusevogorsk field
Gusevogorsk iron ore deposit is located in the Sverdlovsk region, near the town of Kachkanar. Despite the fact that development has been underway since 1963, this deposit became known as early as 1770.
The content of iron in the ore is quite low, it is only about 17,5%, but the deposit contains almost three billion tons of ore. Mining operations are carried out in an open way.
Not far from the deposit there is a mining and processing plant. The mine supplies the plant in full, and will uninterruptedly supply it with ore for another 75 years.
9. Kostomuksha field
The Republic of Karelia is Kostomuksha iron ore deposit, with ore reserves of approximately 1,1 billion tons.
This deposit annually replenishes the country’s reserves by 24 million tons of ore, the percentage of iron in which is 32 percent. Mining takes place in an open way, because the ore lies literally underfoot, at a depth of from zero to 40 meters.
Back in 1946, thanks to aerial reconnaissance, the deposit was discovered. After that, for eight years there was work on geological exploration. The mine started working only a couple of decades later, in 1982.
8. Kovdorskoye field
Kovdor iron ore deposit located near the city of Kovdor, in the Murmansk region. The first data on this field were obtained in 1933, and the start of production took place in 1962.
The underground reserves of this deposit are estimated at 595 million tons of ore, in which the iron content is almost 26%.
The deposit is unique in that zirconium is extracted from the ores mined in it. This metal has found wide application in a wide variety of industries. It is used in nuclear power, military industry, rocketry, aircraft and instrumentation. But zirconium plays a special role in medicine, because it is used in the manufacture of instruments for surgical operations and prosthetics, due to its stability and durability.
7. Olenegorsk field
Olenegorsk iron ore deposit located in the Murmansk region. Its existence became known in 1932.
Exploration operations were carried out until 1948, and mining began only in 1955. The ore contains almost 31 percent iron. The plant produces about 16 million tons of ore per year.
6. Yakovlevskoye field
Yakovlevskoye iron ore deposit located near the village of Yakovlevo, Belgorod region. For the first time, geologists received data on this iron deposit in 1953 during special reconnaissance operations.
This deposit is famous for its ore, the iron content of which reaches an incredible 66%. The Yakovlevskoye deposit is also part of the Kursk magnetic anomaly and hides in its depths 1868 billion tons of ore, which is important for Russian industry.
The mining plant delivers about 15 tons of ore per month, whose high iron content can be of interest to metallurgical plants throughout the country and abroad. But the main buyer of priceless ore for many decades has been the metallurgical plant, located in the city of Tula. This enterprise specializes mainly in iron smelting.
5. Stoylo-Lebedinskoye deposit
Stoylo-Lebedinskoye deposit is located eight kilometers from the city of Gubkin, in the Belgorod region and is part of the Kursk magnetic anomaly. This deposit contains five and a half billion tons of iron ore, and the annual production is more than 51 million tons of ore.
4. Lebedinsky field
Lebedinsky iron ore deposit, which is located near the city of Gubkin, Belgorod Region, was discovered by scientists in 1956. And three years later, in 1959, its development began.
Four and a half billion tons of iron ore containing 44% iron are stored in the bowels of the Lebedinsky deposit. Annual production is a whopping 38 million tons. Mining at this site is carried out in the usual open way.
3. Korobkovskoye field
Korobkovskoye iron ore deposit located in the vicinity of the city of Gubkin, in the Belgorod region. The deposit is estimated at 2,2 billion tons, and mining is carried out underground. The ore contains 35% iron.
Russian geologists have known the Korobkovskoye field since 1919, and the source has been developed since 1952. The deposit is part of the Kursk magnetic anomaly, and the annual production is three and a half million tons of ore.
2. Stoilenskoye field
Stoilenskoye iron ore deposit located near the cities of Gubkin and Stary Oskol, which are part of the Belgorod region. The deposit is part of the so-called Kursk magnetic anomaly, the largest iron deposit on Earth.
The approximate ore reserve in the Stoilenskoye deposit is 2,8 billion tons, and the annual production is about 13 million tons. The ore in this source is rich in iron, because its percentage is 44%.
Despite the fact that the deposit became known in 1931, its development began only in 1969. The ore lies at a great depth, which reaches 140 meters. The extraction of this valuable natural resource is carried out in an open way.
1. Mikhailovskoye field
Mikhailovskoye iron ore deposit is located near the city of Zheleznogorsk, in the Kursk region. This deposit was discovered in 1950, and after ten years of geological surveys, ore mining began, which is carried out in an open way.
The annual production volume is approximately 45 million tons, and the total ore reserve is estimated at more than eight and a half billion tons. The ore in the Mikhailovsky deposit is saturated with iron, its percentage is equal to more than 40%.