Geographic position and natural resources of Karachay-Cherkess Republic

Karachay-Cherkess Republic is located on the northern slopes of the Large Caucasus near Mount Elbrus. Inner borders with the Stavropol and Krasnodar Territories, with Kabardino-Balkariya, and external - with Georgia.

Length of the territory from the north to the south - 140 km, from the west to the east - 170 km. Distance from the capital of Karachay-Cherkess Republic - Cherkessk - to Moscow is 1674 km. The republic has well developed transport communications. The network of motorways constitutes over 3349 km. The density of highways with hard surface is higher than on the average in the Russian Federation.

By relief the territory is divided into plains, foothills and mountains. The mountains occupy about 80% of the territory. The foothills are mostly covered steppe and forest. The mountains are covered with mixed and deciduous forests with many valuable broad-leaved wood species (beech, oak, hornbeam); highlands have Alpine meadows and pastures. In total 344 thousand ha are occupied by forests. In the mountains of Karachay-Cherkess Republic the widely known centres of international tourism, mountaineering and mountain-skiing are located - Dombay, Teberda, Arkhyz, superior by their beauty to famous recreation centres in the Alps. Teberda state natural reserve is unique. There are a lot of recreation camp sites in the mountains, 60 tourist routes, including routes for horseback riding.

The territory of the republic is crossed with more than 5 thousand rivers and rivulets beginning in the mountains. The main river - Kuban with tributaries Large Laba, Large and Small Zelenchuk, Teberda, etc. The climate varies by altitude: in the foothills the winter air temperature varies from 0 to -10?C, in summer - from +18 to +25?C. In the highland regions it is much colder. Vegetation season in the north of Karachay-Cherkess Republic is 182 days, which is favourable for agriculture, and in the south, in highland regions - only 50 - 75 days. The soil and climate conditions allow to develop major branches of the agriculture: production and processing of grain, sugar-beet, vegetables, meat, milk, wool.

The republic is rich in ore and other useful minerals. The fields of copper, zinc, tungsten, complex ore, coal, cement raw material, gypsum, facing and building stone (marble, serpentinite), silicate and building sand, refractory, expanded and brick clay, mineral paint (minium), building and technological lime, gravel, fresh mineral and thermal medical waters are explored. Non-metallic raw materials are available in large quantities and serve a good source of raw materials for intensive development of the industry of building materials in the republic.

Mining and processing of mineral raw materials for production of building materials are conducted by about 20 companies, including joint-stock companies "Kavkaztsement", TOO "Silikatchik", joint-stock company "Karachayevsky ZBI", joint-stock company "Alibek", etc. The balance reserves of fields of sand-gravel mixtures (Vorotnikovskoye, Bailetal-Chaganskoye, Erken-Khalskoye), gypsum (Zhako-Krasnogorskoye), fireclay (Krasnogorskoye), building stone (Tashlykolskoye, etc.), granite and marble (Agutskoye, Dzhemagatskoye) and other minerals are underused.

The reserves of high quality underground mineral waters are various and considerable.

Usage of reserves of coal now is not cost-effective due to the causes general for coal mining industry in Russia and s due to exhaustion of coal layers and complexity of development of fields in Karachay-Cherkess Republic. Coal mining in 1996 - 1997 constituted only 35 thousand tons per year.

Of large industrial importance is the mining of copper pyrite ore with high contents of copper and concomitant zinc. The main field - Urupskoye (there are 6 other fields explored, including large copper field Bykovsky in Labinsky canyon). Urup ore mining and processing enterprise is the main copper mining company in the branch, the second by importance is Zelenchuk ore mining and processing enterprise.

The fields of gold (near Rozhkao) and silver are detected in the territory of Karachay-Cherkess Republic. There are considerable reserves of complex ores (Khudesskoye field - eastern region of copper producing area), some of which contain copper, zinc, cobalt, etc.

The republic requires investments for the development of prospective fields:

•   tungsten ore (Kti-Teberdinskoye - a feasibility report for construction of Aksaut tungsten mining and processing enterprise is prepared);

•   hematite ore (Biychesyn-Bermamytskoye field - at the annual output of 120 - 150 thousand tons they can be used for deliveries of the ferruginous components for joint-stock company "Kavkaztsement" and to other regions of Russia);
• copper pyrite and sulphur pyrite ores (Khudesskoye);

•  porcelain stone (Marinskoye - now porcelain and ceramic plants in Russia have shortage of raw materials of annual estimate of 350 - 400 thousand tons);

•   gold ore, that with necessary additional exploring and development will ensure production of over 100 tons of gold.

Karachay-Cherkess committee on natural resources conducts work on research, usage and preservation of natural resources. At the expense of taxes received from mining companies exploration work for non-ferrous and precious metals, oil, natural gas, building materials is financed. The committee also issues licences for mining of mineral resources and search activities.