Problems of the mineral resource base that stand before the tungsten industry of the Russian Far East

Abstract

In Russia, there is still no clear decision on the organization of a self-sufficient tungsten industry and the mineral resource base for its provision. Until the 1990s, the country was fully provided with the resources of the Far East’s tungsten, and in recent years, over 90 % of Russia’s tungsten production is provided by two enterprises of the Far Eastern Federal District: JSC Primorsky GOK (Primorsky Krai) and CJSC Novoorlovsky GOK (Zabaykalsky Krai). The tungsten deposits being developed in the Primorsky Krai are close to exhaustion, but there and in the Khabarovsk Territory, geological exploration for tungsten is underway, and it is possible to identify new objects, since the main part of the estimated forecast resources is located in the subsurface of the Far Eastern Federal District. The current state of the mineral resources of tungsten and the prospects of the Far Eastern Federal District for tungsten show that this area remains the preferred raw material base and, therefore, the preferred location for the tungsten industry. The Russian market of tungsten raw materials is subject to fluctuations in production, export and import volumes, including their counter movements, due to the inconsistency of the interests of mining, processing and consuming enterprises of tungsten products. It is necessary to systematically organize the industry here and develop a coherent strategy for its development, to consolidate the enterprises producing tungsten raw materials and processing enterprises into a vertically integrated holding.