Minerals

Oil and gas fields are associated with the Paleozoic and Mesozoic sediments of the platform (Volga-Ural oil and gas region, northern Caspian, Dnieper-Donets aulacogen, deposits of Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Paris and Aquitaine basins, underwater deposits of the North Sea); a number of oil deposits are confined to the Neogene deposits of the foothill and intermountain troughs of the Alpine (Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Italy, etc.). Coal and brown coal deposits are being developed: in the USSR – Donetsk, Lvov-Volynsky, Podmoskovny, Pechersky basins; in Western E. – Upper Silesian (in Poland), basins in the German Democratic Republic, Germany (Ruhr, Aachen, Saar), Belgium, Great Britain (Welsh, Newcastle and others).

Powerful iron ore deposits are developed in the USSR (Urals, Ukraine, Voronezh and Kursk Regions, the Kola Peninsula) and abroad: in Western E. deposits of Sweden, as well as Jurassic sedimentary oolite ores (Lorraine basin in France and Luxembourg) are of great importance. A large deposit of manganese ores is located in the Ukrainian SSR (Nikopol region). Bauxite deposits are known in the Urals and in other areas of the East European platform, in Hungary, France, Yugoslavia, Italy, and Greece. Non-ferrous metal ores (copper, nickel, cobalt, lead, silver, etc.) are distributed mainly in the Hercynide belt (in the German Democratic Republic, Germany, Spain, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and the Upper Silesian basin of Poland). Deposits of rock and potassium salts are widespread among the Devonian and Permian deposits of Ukraine, Belarus, the Caspian Sea and the Urals. Rich deposits of apatite-nepheline ores are developed on the Kola Peninsula. Large saline deposits of Permian and Triassic age are confined to the territories of Denmark, Germany, East Germany and Poland. Of great importance are potash deposits in the German Democratic Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, and France.

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