Last year Russia gathered a rich crop of minerals. Despite the fact that the oil market is oversupplied and oil prices dive to record lows, global producers continue exploring new fields, and Russia is no exception.
For the year of 2016 the Russian Federation discovered 40 oil and gas fields and 60 solid mineral deposits. Sergey Donskoy, the head of the Russian ministry of natural resources and environment, said that according to preliminary estimates, 40 hydrocarbon deposits were discovered in 2016. The average volume of oil fields reserves is 1.7 million tons, while the volume of gas fields reserves is 14.5 billion cubic meters, he added. Besides, the minister reported that 60 solid mineral deposits were explored in 2016, half of which is reserves of alluvial gold. A particular attention was drawn to the Serovskoe iron-ore deposit in the Sverdlovsk area. Its iron reserves are estimated at 62 million tons, reserves of chrome are 3 million tons, and reserves of nickel are 359 thousand tons.
