Ural is one of Russian oldest gold mining regions.

Natural resources situation

According to the data of Natural Resources Ministry, the gold resources in Ural are not estimated as great as compared to those in the country. Ore gold resources will be enough for about 10 years and alluvial – 5 years. The resources of Berezovskoe deposit are estimated separately at 34.47 mln tons of С1 category and 17.037 mln tons of С2 category. The resources of the precious metal at another Ural deposit – Vorontsovskoe are 54.5 tons of С1+С2 categories gold and 58 tons of silver.

Gold mining industry

In 2003 Sverdlovsk region became a large gold mining region in Russia. In the recent four years gold mining in Sverdlovsk region has increased by 207%. In 2004 CJSC Zoloto Severnogo Urala mined 47% of gold in the region and in 2005 the company plans to increase this figure up to 50%.

By 2010 the gold mining companies of Ural region intend to have increased their production up to over 10 tons.