NUCLEAR POWER IN BELARUS AND WORLDWIDE
MINSK, 29 March (BelTA) – An open pit for mining basalt will be built in Belarus, BelTA learned from Vasily Kolb, Head of the Central Office for Natural Resources of the Belarusian Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Ministry.
According to Vasily Kolb, large-scale work on detailed exploration of basalts and tuffs of the Novodvorskoye deposit began in March 2023.
Vasily Kolb said: “Preliminary exploration of the deposit was carried out in 2018-2020. A feasibility study was compiled as a result and proved the effectiveness of this project. In H1 2023 we have to finish field work and work on compiling the feasibility study in order to present the results to the government so that they could decide on building the open pit or not.”
The specialist added that basalt is a new kind of mineral resources in Belarus. Meanwhile, the country uses 70,000-80,000 tonnes of basalt per annum.
Basalt is used for various purposes starting with heat insulation, mineral wool and ending with additives used to make ceramic tiles. A Belarusian enterprise uses basalt to make products that sell well. Those are mainly heat insulation products used in construction work, the official noted.
