‘Russia’s Easily Accessible Mineral Deposits Almost Exhausted,’ Resources Minister Kozlov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 11 – The Russian Federation has immense natural resources, but the most “easily accessible deposits” from which Moscow now extracts them will run out in five to 15 years, the country’s natural resources minister says, forcing geologists to explore new ones in far less accessible parts of the country.

            Much of Russia east of the Urals and especially in the far north has not even been explored by geologists, Aleksandr Kozlov says; and many of the places where new deposits are likely to be found are far from roads, railways or shipping lines (tass.ru/ekonomika/21839257, ria.ru/20240911/minprirody-1972131144.html and themoscowtimes.com/2024/09/12/russias-easy-to-reach-mineral-deposits-nearly-depleted-minister-says-a86349).

            Consequently, the minister suggests, Russia will have to build expensive new infrastructure to allow the country to gain access to this mineral wealth, face the prospect of critical shortages or seek to import from abroad minerals that it is used to getting from domestic sources.

            Environmental groups are concerned that Moscow will build such new infrastructure without much regard for either the environment or the population living in these regions and thus inflict serious damage on both (kedr.media/news/minprirody-legkodostupnye-mestorozhdeniya-poleznyh-iskopaemyh-v-rossii-pochti-ischerpany-za-nimi-pojdut-na-neosvoennye-zemli/).

            That is especially likely given the melting of the permafrost that underlies nearly all the territory where new deposits of minerals are likely to be found. As a result, the costs of building infrastructure will rise dramatically, possibly beyond Moscow’s ability to fund them (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2023/09/global-warming-threatens-russian.html).

            China might be able to afford to pay for such infrastructure, but its approach to Russia in the past concerning such a possibility suggests that Beijing would want concessionary access to and prices for such resources, thus limiting their flow to Russia and increasing Moscow’s dependence on China.