Soviet Industry — The Resource Base

Abstract

The shortcomings and problems of Soviet industrial development have been eased by the remarkably fortunate resource base compared with some of the other major industrial nations. Although the Soviet authorities are reluctant to publish comprehensive information about their reserves and production of most minerals, when the scanty available data are pieced together the result is impressive, to which must also be added a considerable endowment among other members of Gomecon. There are certainly some raw-material deficiencies, made more difficult because the materials in question are commonly substitutes for each other. Even so, the richness and diversity have been sufficient to give Soviet planners plentiful encouragement to contemplate a virtually closed economy and a high level of self-sufficiency. This aim is certainly realistic if some of the considerations of cost effectiveness in resource development applied in the capitalist world were disregarded. The over-all national totals nevertheless conceal several difficulties: many deposits are of relatively low grade or have problems of working because of their geological character; some promising deposits are located in remote places with unusually harsh physical conditions (Figure 6.1). Mere presence of a particular mineral deposit is not necessarily an indication that it will either be workable or even be worked; a major decision has often to be made as to whether a mine should refine or process its crude in whole or part on the site or whether the crude ore should be shipped away to some industrial district where more sophisticated methods can be employed or where energy requirements for processing are more easily satisfied.