Mineral resources and prospects of Uralasbest (to celebrate 135 years of commercial-scale development of the Bazhenov mineral deposit)

The article describes the mineral resources and prospects of Uralasbest PJSC. To date the Company continues its primary activities concerned with chrysotile asbestos mining. Percentage of asbestos in the overall commercial output of Uralasbest decreased and was only 55 % in 2015. The other half of the marketable output are building materials and basalt wool (thermal and acoustic insulation). In recent years, the Company made an effort to produce magnesium and serpentinite but the market brought some adjustments. Currently Uralasbest is building a plant to produce magnesium oxide and other compounds. Actually, the Company possesses rich mineral resources but uses them inefficiently and incompletely. The authors suggest to expand the range of mineral extraction (boron, gold, nephrite and collectible minerals). Considering aggressive global anti-asbestos policy, production of chrysotile asbestos is probably going to decline further, and it is possible that the use and sale of asbestos are totally banned. In this connection, it is planned to change to production of magnesium borate (Szaibélyite). The content of the latter pertains appraisal but, by preliminary estimates, the Bazhenov ophiolite massif contains one of the largest borate deposits in Russia.The authors send their thanks to M. B. Leibov for the pictures of the Bazhenov minerals and to collectors A. B. Loskutov, E. A. Novgorodova and A. G. Levin from the city of Asbest for the permission to capture photographs of their mineral samples.Author Yu. V. Erokhin from the Institute of Geology and Geochemistry, UB RAS, run the research within a project supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Grant No. 22-17-00027.