Geology of the U. S. S. R

Abstract

ACCORDING to the Soviet War News, reports from the Geological Committee of the Council of People's Commissars indicate that more than two thousand expeditions went out during the summer, and discovered valuable new deposits of strategic raw materials. A feature of war-time geology is that the exploitation of new deposits begins much earlier than it did in peace-time. New deposits of aluminium ores have been discovered in the Urals, in Western and Eastern Siberia, and also in Kazakhstan. The exploitation of newly discovered antimony and mercury deposits has already begun. Rich sources of iron ore, fluxes and fireproof minerals for the iron and steel industry have been opened up in the Urals, Siberia and the Central Asian Republics. Prospecting for combustible shales is meeting with success in the Urals and Eastern Siberia. Particularly important, from the point of view of defence, is the discovery of new sources of manganese. Several new manganese mines are already functioning in the Urals, Western Siberia and Kazakhstan. During seven months of 1942 the output of manganese ore in these regions was 250 percent greater than in the parallel period of 1941.