Siberia’s ‘Economically Accessible Resources’ Aren’t that Large, Verkhoturov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Feb. 26 – Those who talk about “Siberia’s plentiful resources” are engaged in “wishful thinking,” Dmitry Verkhoturov says, because while the geologically located resources there are in fact great, those that are “economically accessible “aren’t that large, already are being intensively exploited and include primarily energy resources like coal, oil and gas.”

            Most people who talk about Siberia confuse the two, the economic journalist says; but in fact, they are very different things, with geological resources including many things that no one can access because they are too deep or process because they are too far from any infrastructure that could allow them to reach markets (sibmix.com/?doc=20000).

            A clear example of an economic resource, Verkoturov says, is the Borodinsky open pit coal mine. It produces 24.8 million tons a year and has an estimated reserve of 650 million tons. Not only has it been explored in detail but it is connected to the rest of the world by roads and railways.

            An equally clear example of a geological resource is the Tunguska coal basin. It is estimated to contain as much a five trillion tons of coal, but this coal lies beneath 2000 meters of lava; there is no road, railway, or even reliable river pathway to reach them meaning that this enormous reserve can’t be used unless all those things are built.

            Given that Siberia’s boosters often include the latter with the former, many may be surprised to learn that the region’s “economically viable resources aren’t all that extensive;” and they aren’t likely to become so anytime soon as building the infrastructure to reach them is prohibitively expensive and difficult.

            “If we count the 50-kilometer strips on either side of the railroads where transport infrastructure exists or could be built relatively quickly – and there are approximately 13,000 km of railroads in the Siberian Federal District, then the area containing more or less economically reachable resources amounts to only 1.3 million square kilometers.”

            That is slightly less than 30 percent of the total area of the Siberian FD,” Verkhoturov says; and “the rest of the district’s resources are purely geological and economically inaccessible.” Everyone involved must recognize that “Siberia’s resource wealth exists only in the geological sense; but it isn’t yet possible to exploit it” – and likely won’t for decades.