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Central European
Russia
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Surprisingly there is not too much mineralogy in the central European part of Russia. That is why this pretty large area can be discussed in a single chapter.
Shakhty
Prior to the independence of the Ukraine, The Donbass coal basin was a very important coal producing district of the Soviet Union. Today the major part of the Donbass coal basin is located in the Ukraine and therefore falls beyond the scope of this website. But just across the border in Russia's Rostovskaya oblast are still a numerous coal mines. One of them is the Zapadnaya Kapitalnaya mine in Novoshakhtinsk, which became instantly famous after the november 2003 flooding disaster and subsequent rescue efforts. On the Ukrainian site there are a number of interesting mineralogical features in the Donbass basin like the Nikitovka and Zaporozhye mercury deposits. So far I have no information about any hydrothermal mineralogy in the Russian part. More info is welcome!
On topographical maps some mines are named, but the majority not. Below are some of the named mines I found. There are many many more coal mines and small quarries in the Rostovskaya oblast, mainly between the towns of Kamensk Shakhtinskyi and Novocherkassk, along the Ukrainian border. Most mines seem to have numbers, that are not unique
Shakht 1; south of Talovy and one east of Koksovy
Shakht 2; southwest of Talovy
Shakht 3: southwest of Talovy and one northwest of Belaya Kalitva
Shakht 4: southeast of Krutinskii
Shakht 3-2; south of Yubilenyi village
Shakht 10; south of Talovy
Shakht 21; east of Ayutinsky
Shakht 22; south of Talovy
Shakht 35: northest of Verkhneyasinovskyi
Shakht 36: northwest of Belaya Kalitva
Shakht 43; northeast of Pervomaiskyi
Shakht 56; west of Krasnyi Sulin
Shakht 201: northern outskirts of Shakhty
Amyukmonskaya shakht 2; south of Tabunshikovo
Armeni shakht; eastern Artyom village
Ayuminskaya shakht: north of Ayutinsky
Azovskaya shakht: southeast of Smagin
Glubokaya shakht: eastern Atrom village
Kirovskaya Shakht: eastern outskirts of Novoshakhtinsk
Mayskaya Shakht: Mayskyi village SEE BELOW FOR MORE
INFORMATION
Mirnaya shakht: north of Artyom
Yubileynaya Shakht: southwest of Talovy
Yuzhnaya shakht: western outskirts of Shakhty
Zapadnaya Shakht: northeast of Gornyashkyi
geology
A limestone / marble locality along the Oka river, about 60km southwest of
Nizhne Novgorod.
mineralogy
Palygorskite
geology
A village located along the middle Tsivil river in the Chuvash republic. The
locality consists of jurassic clay.
mineralogy
Barite
Lebedinsk mine
geology
The Lebedinsk mine is part of the precambrean BIF of the so called Kursk KMA.
The open pit is located near Gubkin.
 Magnetite |
geology
The Malinovets quarry is located about 25 km northwest of Borovichi, in the
Novgorod oblast. The commodity here is a 15cm thin layer of browncoal in sand
and clay lacustine sediments of the Visean age. Malinovets is located at the
northwestern edge of the Moscow coal basin. So far it seems the quarry is more
of paleontological importance than of mineralogical interest.
The Mayskaya mine is located at Shakhty and is one of the many
coal mines of the Russian part of the Donbas basin. Since I have no information
about any other mines, I have no reason to assume that this mine is any more or
any less special that the others in the region. All information here is based on
the finds of fellow collector Sergey Sayamov and the specimen we investigated.
Our preliminary results show at least two interesting parageneses for this dump.
Hydrothermal veins in the coal and surrounding rocks, producing quartz, gypsum,
pyrite and possibly other minerals. The dumps also unmistakenly show signs of
high temperature coalfires, producing paralava and typical coal fire minerals,
like alunogene and possibly metavoltine. A third possible paragenese of this
mine is represented by black manganese rich crusts, which we for now call
'psilomelane'. All in all this and the other coal mines of the area an
interesting subject for further study.
mineralogy
Alunogene Gypsum Illite Metavoltine(?) 'Psilomelane' Quartz
Gypsum Hematite
Quartz
Sassolite?
Gypsum
Mikhailovskoye deposit
(Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, KMA)
geology
The Mikhailovskoye deposit near the town of Zhelenogorsk in the Kurskaya Oblast is part
of the so called Kursk Magnetic Anomaly. It is a precambian banded iron
formation. Compared to other banded iron formations is is rich in potassium but aluminum deficient.
mineralogy
Hematite, Magnetite, Pyrite, Seladonite, Siderite
Phase equilibria at alkali rich early Proterozoic banded iron formation, Kursk Magnetic Anomaly, by K.A. Savko et al.
geology
Peski station is a limestone locality near Moscow. It is know for it's flint.
It is located south of Moscow. Podolsk consists of jurassic clay with nickel enriched Calcites.
mineralogy
Allophane Basaluminite Calcite Fluoroapatite Jarosite Palygorskite Pyrite
Siderite Takovite
Polovkinovo
(Polovkhinovo)
geology
Polovkonovo is a village along the Unzha river, about 40km north of Manturovo in
the Korstroma province. The locality is know for Barite concretions in jurassic
clay
mineralogy
Barite
Prioksky quarry
(Golutvin)
The Prioksky quarry mines limestone along the banks of the Oka River not far from Moscow.
mineralogy
Quartz (Agate, Flint, Chalcedony), Fluorite, Vivianite
geology
Putilovo is mineralogically not very interesting. It is a limestone quarry, east
of St.Petersburg. In the early days of this town so called Putilovo slab was the
only stone used for construction of the town. Later other stones were used, but
the gray Putilovo limestone remained an important construction material in
Russia's northwest.
Located in the R'chevskij district, not far north west from Moscow, close to the Wolga river. It is known for Ratovkite, an earthy fluorite variety.
mineralogy
Fluorite.
Rusavkino
geology
Sedimentary dolomite of the Rusavkino formation of the Moscow basin occurs here.
These sediments are of the Ghzelian (late carboniferous) age. In these sediments
lay quartzite and silica rich concretions. Sometimes in the form of nice agates.
Rusavkino is located about 25km from Moscow.
mineralogy
Agate
Staraya Sitnya quarry
geology
Located near Stupino along the left bank of the Oka river about 100km south
of Moscow. The quarry contains agates
in limestone
mineralogy
Agate
Vodinskoye deposit
geology
Vodinskoye is a limestone deposit located in the Samara district, central Wolga
region.
mineralogy
Basaluminite Celestine Gypsum Gypsum Opal Para-Alumohydrocalcite Quartz Sulphur
North and East Europe, a brief review of mineral localities, A.A. Evseev, WoS 3/93 pp43-51
