Natural Resource Potential of the Republic of Crimea

The Republic of Crimea occupies one of the leading places in the Russian Federation in terms of saturation with minerals.

The balance of reserves of the Republic of Crimea accounted in the territory of the peninsula 183 deposits of 21 types of minerals. The deposits of raw materials for the production of building materials (113 deposits or 61.7% of the total quantity) prevail in the structure of raw material potential.

Fuel and energy complex fossils are represented by 34 deposits (18.6%), water fossils (drinking and technical, mineral and thermal) are represented by 17 deposits (9.3%), those of metallurgical raw materials – by 11 deposits (6.1%), those of mining-chemical raw materials – by 3 deposits (1.6%), with 5 deposits of other raw materials (2.7%). The region is characterized with the uneven distribution of fossil deposits, which is explained by the spatial distribution of productive structural-formational and structural-material geopolitical complexes in which they were formed.

The highest saturation with minerals, in addition to fresh groundwater, is typical of Saky and Leninsky districts, with 49 deposits in each of the districts.

In the territory of the Republic of Crimea, there are more than 1,657 rivers and watercourses with a total length of about 6 thousand km; 1,842 ponds, as well as 315 lakes, including 50 salt lakes, 35 of which contain the stock of therapeutic mud (Saky, Bakalskoye, Sasyk-Sivash, Kizil-Yar and Chokrakskoye Lakes).

The region has 22 water reservoirs, with a total volume of 334.2 million cubic meters. Of this number, 14 are natural runoff reservoirs and 8 are off-stream storage reservoirs. The volume of predicted reserves of fresh groundwater makes up 1,301 thou cub m/24 hrs, including 1,105 thou cub m/24 hrs of approved reserves.

Chernozems are the most common zonal soils in Crimea. They are developed in the steppe and partly in the foothill area and make up over 1,100 thousand hectares, or more than 45% of the peninsula’s surface. More than 75% of their area is ploughed up, which creates favorable conditions for the development of agriculture.

The total area of the forest fund of the Republic is 237.0 thousand hectares. Forest plant communities are represented mainly by beech, oak and hornbeam forests and Crimean pine forests.

Source: Crimea Development Corporation