The total reserves of which amount to 190 billion tons. These reserves are dispersed throughout the country. “Three basins stand out with the largest reserves and production: Yorkshire (southeast slope of the Pennines), Northumberland (northeast Pennines) and South Wales (southern slope of the Cambrian Mountains).”

In addition to these three largest coal basins, an important role is played by the basins that stretch in a chain from the western to the eastern edge of the Mid-Scottish Lowlands, as well as the Lancashire and West Midlands, consisting of a number of small deposits. There are small outcrops of coal seams on the coast of the Kimberland Peninsula and in the extreme southeast of England - the Kent Basin. The coal basins, apart from the Yorkshire and the West Midlands, located in the interior parts of the country, are either directly on the sea coast or very close to it. This is of no small importance for the convenience of transporting coal and has in the past contributed to the rise of the UK into the world's largest coal exporting country.

In the past, small deposits of copper and lead-zinc ores, as well as tin, were mined in the UK. Their deposits are severely depleted and now the production is very small. Mining some tungsten. Of the non-metallic industrial raw materials, kaolin or white clay is found in Scotland, as well as rock salt in Cheshire and Durham, and potash salt in Yorkshire.

The soil cover of the country is dominated by a variety of podzolic and burazems. The most fertile meadow soils are near the Wash. In general, the soils in the UK are highly cultivated and produce high yields.

The UK is characterized by cultural. Only in the mountainous regions of the country, natural vegetation has been preserved. The forests are dominated by broad-leaved species (oak, hornbeam, elm, beech) and only in Scotland - pine. Now only 9% of the territory of Great Britain is occupied. However, the country gives the impression of being very wooded due to the hedges that surround the fields and, as well as small forest areas and numerous parks. Only the western coast, exposed to the western ones, carrying salty sea spray, is almost devoid of. Britain does not have a variety of minerals, but some of them have played a huge role in the formation of industrial areas. Especially great was the importance of coal deposits, dispersed throughout all economic regions, except for the three southern and.

In the 60s, new energy resources were found - and natural gas on the shelf of the North Sea. Large deposits are located off the coast of southeast England and northeast Scotland. The British sector contains about 1/3 of the proven oil reserves of the North Sea shelf (45 billion tons or 2% of the world). Production is carried out at fifty fields, of which the largest are Brent and Fortis. By the mid-90s, production reached 130 million tons, almost half of which is exported - mainly to,. Oil imports are maintained (50 million tons, which is due, among other things, to the predominance of light fractions in North Sea oil and the need to obtain the entire range of petroleum products at refineries). According to experts, Great Britain will remain a major oil producer at the beginning of the next century.

Oil refineries in the UK were built in the post-war period mainly in estuaries, later and at the present time - in deep-water harbors. There are 16 refineries in operation with a total oil refining capacity of 92.5 million tons per year. The largest refinery in the country is located in Foley near Southampton. Factories also operate on the Thames Estuary, south and southwest Wales, on the Manchester Canal, in Teesside, in Grangemouth, Scotland. Gas production on the shelf of the North Sea began in the mid-1960s, and 37 fields are currently in operation. Half of the production is provided by 7 deposits, among them - Lehman Bank, Brent, Morkham. “The volume of production is increasing; in 1995, 75 billion cubic meters of gas were produced. Gas is exported (6.3 billion cubic meters)” In order to save its own resources, imports from (through the pipeline from the Ekofisk field), (in liquefied form) are retained. There are not so many valuable natural resources in the UK. The once-important iron ore production has now dropped to near zero. Other economically important mineral ores include lead, which only half meets the needs of the economy, and zinc. Quite a lot of other resources, such as chalk, lime, clay, sand, gypsum. On the other hand, the UK has more energy resources including oil, natural gas and coal than any of the countries in the European Community. Once a vital source of energy, coal continues to lose its importance. If we compare coal production in 1913, when more than 300 million tons of coal were produced by more than one million workers, with today, it turns out that coal production has fallen by more than three times with an even greater decrease in the level of workers employed in the mining industry. Power plants still consume large amounts of coal, but with increasing competition from alternative fuels, coal mining is not in the best position.

The discovery of oil deposits in the North Sea led to the rapid development of the oil industry. Since the start of operation in 1975, the amount of oil produced annually has increased every year, which has made the UK almost self-sufficient in terms of oil consumption, and even its exporter. With an average production of 2.6 million barrels per day, the UK is the sixth largest oil producer in the world. Oil reserves in the UK reach 770 million tons.

With the start of natural gas production in 1967, coal was gradually replaced in cities with gas, and a gas pipeline was built throughout the country. Natural gas reserves are estimated at 22.7 trillion cubic feet.

Today's ideas about the 20th century as the "age of oil" are fundamentally wrong.
The 20th century was truly the century of coal - even in 1955, the share of oil in the world energy balance was only 6%.
Well, the basis of world energy until the middle of the twentieth century was firmly coal - it was he who provided industry and transport with the energy they needed so much. The mass transition to oil began only in the 1920s, and even then it affected only such specific industries as military affairs and road transport.

For those who lived in the world at the beginning of the 20th century, when the sun never set on the British Empire, the answer to the question of why Britain rules the seas and vast colonies had a simple and unambiguous answer. The solid foundation of the United Kingdom in the literal and figurative sense of the word was domestic, British coal. Numerous English coal mines provided fuel for no less numerous English factories and shipyards.
By the beginning of the 20th century, the entire territory of Great Britain was linked by a network of railways, and the British Navy could always count on high-quality Cardiff coal.
Coal was also sold abroad, but in return, with the proceeds from its sale, goods and raw materials that were not produced, mined or grown in the metropolis and colonies were purchased. The British merchant marine boomed after the end of the sailing era, thanks to this trade and the low cost of coal for English shipowners.
Great Britain, despite its modest size, was unspeakably lucky with coal reserves. All the grades of coal needed for the industrial economy were concentrated in three British coal basins: thermal coal was mined in the Yorkshire basin, coking coal was deposited in the Northumberland-Durham basin, and super-quality anthracite was mined in the South Wales basin.
The same Cardiff coal, on which the Russian cruiser Askold achieved a record speed on the Danzig measured mile in 1900.

Since the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, Askold has been one of the most active ships of the Port Arthur squadron. The cruiser participated in all her operations: she fought artillery battles with Japanese ships, covered her destroyers and repelled enemy attacks, inspected suspicious merchant ships.
August 10 (July 28, old style) 1904 "Askold", on which the commander of the cruiser detachment Rear Admiral Reizenstein held the flag, together with the Port Arthur squadron participated in the last, unsuccessful breakthrough of the Russian squadron from the dying Port Arthur to so close, but unattainable Vladivostok. Using its high speed and breaking through along with the Novik cruiser past the Japanese squadron, the Askold, which received heavy damage, came to Shanghai, where it was interned until the end of the war.
However, the feat of Russian soldiers and Russian sailors did not save Russia from defeat in the Russo-Japanese War.
After all, no, even the most significant victory, no power of the human "Russian steam roller" could change the ratio of the emerging "world of motors".

The dependence of importers on the supply of British coal could, without exaggeration, be called colossal. In Russia, during the Russo-Japanese War, they seriously feared that England, which was sympathetic to the Japanese, might stop the import of coal to St. Petersburg. No one doubted how such a blockade could end for a city where everything and everything was set in motion by steam engines, which then required 1 million tons of British coal a year. “Petersburg,” they wrote in those years, “would have been left without electricity, without water, and communication with the internal provinces of the Empire would have turned out to be, if partially possible, then, in any case, very difficult. On top of that, in such a hot time, the military and admiralty factories should have stopped their activities.
As a result, bloodless and exhausted Japan, ready to accept honorable peace conditions for Russia and not having the opportunity to continue the war against the “Russian steamroller”, turned out, thanks to England, to be an unexpected winner in the Russo-Japanese War.
However, it must be said that, like Russia, France, Italy, Spain, and most other European countries, with the exception of Germany, were no less dependent on the supply of British coal.

This is not Donbass, this is England!

It is noteworthy that Victorian Britain, which we associate with Sherlock Holmes, English clubs, London cabs, gentlemen, five-o-clock-tees and the magnificent royal court of the time of the “Empress of India and Queen of the United Kingdom” Victoria, then occupied such a high position in the world not thanks to all this "London party", but relying on the hard work of people who were deep underground.

The English "coal miracle" was not created in one year. Those who now talk about “nuclear energy has been developing too long” probably do not know the history of the “oil age” and the “coal age” very well.

Coal mining in Great Britain has been carried out since the 12th century, although there is evidence that Roman legionnaires used English coal to heat their homes. in the first centuries of our era.
Since the 14th century (Russia was then still hanging somewhere within the Central Russian Upland) in England, open-cast coal mining has been known in the form of bell-shaped pits up to 12 meters deep, from which coal was raised up in baskets, and water was diverted by an underground drainage ditch.
From the 16th century in England, the development of coal with short shafts with a depth of mines up to 30 meters has already been introduced, and in the 17th century the depth of the mines has already reached 90 meters. The shafts of English coal mines from this time already run with wooden fastenings from top to bottom, which makes it possible to avoid unnecessary loss of life in case of accidental collapses of the roof of the mine working.

The English way of supplying energy from fossil coal was at that time unique in Europe. Neither Russia nor Sweden - the two leading metallurgical powers of that time - have the problems that have haunted England from the very beginning of her work with naughty iron.
The thing is that, unlike England, Sweden and Russia are rich in timber, and have no problems in obtaining high-quality charcoal, which is so necessary for organizing the bloomery metallurgical process.
The English forests are being exhausted for the purpose of metallurgy at an alarming rate. In the Middle Ages, we can still hear about the noble robber Robin Hood, who hides with his band of gangs in the impenetrable Sherwood Forest, but by the beginning of the 18th century, the forests in the United Kingdom were practically reduced to zero.

However, at the same time, coal mining in England is also growing. From the end of the 16th century to the beginning of the 18th century, coal production increased from 200 thousand tons to 3 million tons per year.
It must be said that all these 3 million tons of coal were literally raised to the surface by the hands of people - the mechanization of the first English mines was practically zero.

Even at the beginning of the 20th century, manual rolling out of coal from mines was quite commonplace.

In the 18th century, the coal industry was the fastest growing industry in Great Britain, laying the foundation for the industrial revolution. It was the tasks of ensuring the rolling out of coal and the pumping of water from the mines that moved forward what we will later call the "English steamroller".
The first steam engine to replace horse-driven water pumps was an engine designed by Thomas Savery in 1698 and called the "miner's friend". However, Savery's steam engine turned out to be inefficient and dangerous, and burst pipes and boilers became constant companions of mining and quarrying.

In the middle of the 18th century, English coal mines began to use a pump with a Newcomen steam engine for drainage, which made it possible to develop flooded horizons already at great depths. In 1738, steel rails were laid for the first time in a coal mine in Whitehaven, replacing wooden ones, and the first locomotives began to appear in the mines.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, new technological means have been created. In coal mines, steam-driven fans began to be used, a safe mine lamp, which was invented simultaneously in 1815 by the Englishmen Humphrey Davy and George Stephenson. From the middle of the 19th century, ponies began to be used to haul trolleys in underground coal mining.

Pony horses were also originally bred not for children's entertainment.

However, the extraction of coal itself was carried out manually using a primitive miner's tool - the butt. From the middle of the 18th century, in some cases, explosives, mainly black powder, began to be used to collapse the layers.
Mine installations: central drainage pumps, main ventilation fans by the middle of the 19th century already had a steam drive, in some cases compressed air was used. The use of electricity in the mines of Great Britain began in 1880, when there were already over 4,000 mines in the country and the annual production was about 200 million tons of coal. The first coal miner with an electric motor of only 7.5 kW started working at the Normanton mine in Yorkshire at the end of the 19th century, and by 1903 149 coal miners were already working in the mines of the United Kingdom.

At the end of the 20th century, at the peak of its North Sea oil klondike, with Magnox nuclear reactors, supersonic Concorde and luxurious Rolls-Royces, the UK was consuming about 220 million tons of oil equivalent per year.
And by the beginning of the 20th century, the same Great Britain, still with the massive use of manual labor by miners, without diesel engines or jet turbines, produced about 150 million tons of oil equivalent per year.

And, of course, they exported a significant part of this energy with a profit for the treasury and for English influence in the world.
Now it is hard to believe that such a rigid dependence on imported English coal in the same pre-revolutionary Russia could exist at all. After all, Russia had its own coal mines and oil reserves in the Caucasus. Oil production flourished not only in Baku and Grozny, but also in the United States, Romania, Persia and in the provinces of the Ottoman Empire, which later became Iraq. Overseas alone, the production of new energy from oil from 1900 to 1909 increased from 19.5 to 41 million tons. In many countries at the beginning of the 20th century, powerful hydroelectric power plants were already being built.
However, against the backdrop of the "English steamroller", which reached its peak by 1913, extracting 292 million tons of coal per year, all this was still a drop in the ocean.
The ways of utilizing the new energy of oil and falling water at the beginning of the 20th century are also interesting. In 1911, the German professor A. Schwemann published an analysis of the world energy market. He calculated that most of the oil - up to 70% - went to the manufacture of kerosene, used in kerosene lamps, and lubricating oils. So the share of liquid fuel for steam boilers and fuel for explosive engines, as gasoline was then called, was less than a third of the volume of oil produced at that time.
Schwemann calculated that this amount contributes to the development of 3.5 million horsepower by various engines. Natural gas, the production and use of which began in the United States, according to Professor Schwemann's calculations, could provide another 2.4 million horsepower. The power of all hydroelectric power stations available in the world in 1909 was estimated at 3.4 million horsepower.
Against the backdrop of the need for only one New York a decade earlier in 200 thousand horses and all the problems that accompany the presence of cattle in the city - these were already serious amounts of energy.

At the same time, 127.6 million horsepower was generated from coal. So the hegemony of coal was complete and undivided.
And yet the most intriguing thing was that the UK was by no means the world record holder in hard coal reserves. In terms of explored and promising deposits, the British were far ahead of the Americans, Canadians, Chinese, Germans and Russians. But this did not stop Britain from ruling the roost in the global coal market. After all, any energy production industry is not created overnight.

The last coal mine in England closes on Friday. London refused to subsidize the miners due to falling demand for coal. In 2014, Britain mined 12 million tons of coal, which is 25 times less than a hundred years ago.

Miners at the Kellingley mine on their last day of work on December 18, 2015 (Photo: REUTERS 2015)

Friday, December 18 is the last working day of the Kellingley mine in the English county of North Yorkshire. After its closure, there will be no working deep coal mines in the UK.

Lack of government support, falling coal prices and increased use of alternative energy sources (such as shale gas) forced management to close the mine. The decision was made back in March: Initially, UK Coal, the country's largest private coal mine operator, planned to seek additional government funding to keep Kellingley and Thorsby (closed this summer) open until 2018. However, business minister Matthew Hancock said the £338 million required for this is too much, and the government no longer expects any return on investment in this industry.

Coal mining at the Kellingley mine was launched in April 1965, and the mining operation was privatized in 1994. As Sky News recalls, at the peak of its activity, Kellingly employed 1,600 miners. Now, after several waves of layoffs, the number of miners has been reduced to 450. All of them will receive severance pay from UK Coal in the amount of an average salary for 12 weeks.

former greatness

The closure of Kellingley marks an important milestone in the history of British industry, said Professor Stephen Fothergill of Sheffield Hollam University. “The Industrial Revolution in Britain was fueled by coal. And if in the 1980s the closure of mines could be attributed to the revenge of the Conservative government for strikes, now the reasons for this are purely economic, Fothergill said. British coal can no longer compete with foreign coal. In fact, we use coal, but it is no longer local coal.”

Thatcher against the miners

In the early 1980s, the financial policy of the new British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was to curb inflation and appreciate the pound sterling. This had a negative impact on the export-oriented sectors of the industry and, coupled with the massive closure of unprofitable mines, led to an increase in unemployment and massive discontent among the miners.

In 1984, this culminated in a nationwide mining strike organized by the National Union of Miners (NUM) and supported by other movements (sailors, electricians, communists, LGBT activists). Exactly one year after the strike began, the strike was defeated and the government continued its economic reforms.

According to the UK Department of Energy, imports of coal for all purposes in 2014 amounted to 41.8 million tons. The vast majority of this volume (35.3 million tons, or 84%) was thermal coal used in power plants. According to the results of the second quarter of 2015, coal imports halved compared to January-March and amounted to 5.2 million tons, mainly due to thermal coal (imports of coking coal fell by only 3%).

The government recorded a drop in coal imports for power plants across all major sources of raw materials: 80% from the US, 64% from Russia and 35% from Colombia. Russian coal, the department notes, accounts for 40% of all imported coal in the UK (45% of energy and 28% of coking coal).

At the same time, in 2014, coal production in the UK itself amounted to 12 million tons - 3.5 times less than the volume of imports. Of this amount, exactly one third (4 million tons) fell on deep coal mines. Thus, Britain is left with only open-pit mining, the productivity of which has fluctuated in the region of 10-20 million tons per year for the last 70 years (and only 8 million tons in 2014).

Black line

The historical maximum coal production in Great Britain was 292 million tons in 1913. Since then, production volumes have been constantly declining, and since 1971 (when Britain joined the European Union), the country began to import coal for the first time.

While coal production is declining in the UK, it is growing globally, according to the Energy Information Administration of the US Department of Energy. After the stagnation of the 1990s, since 2000, global production has been growing, reaching a level of 7.8 billion tons by 2012. Over the past five years, the cost of coal has halved and is $47.5 per metric ton in mid-December.

Following the fall in prices in the world coal mining market, stagnation has again been outlined. According to the World Coal Association (WCA), in 2013 the world produced the same 7.8 billion tons as a year earlier. In addition, on December 18, the International Energy Agency (IEA) presented a disappointing forecast: in the coming years, demand for coal on the world market will show minimal growth (about 0.8% annually), which will further aggravate the crisis in this industry.

In general, the IEA sharply lowered its coal consumption forecast by 2020 to 5.8 billion tons, which is 500 million tons lower than the agency's previous estimates. Among the main reasons for the crisis, the IEA names not only the fall in prices, but also the slowdown in the growth of the Chinese economy and COP21 in Paris. “Combustion of coal is the main source of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere,” IEA experts remind. “And the current volumes of burning are incompatible with the course of the world community towards climate stabilization.”

Coal mining is a term that includes various methods used to extract a carbonaceous mineral called coal from the earth. Coal is usually located in seams deep underground, which are from one or two to tens of meters high.

History of coal mining

Coal has been used for centuries as a fuel in small furnaces. Around 1800, it became the main source of energy for the Industrial Revolution, and the expansion of the country's railway system made it easier to use. Britain developed the basic methods of underground coal mining in the late 18th century and introduced new technologies in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

By 1900, the US and Britain were the top producers, followed by Germany.

However, oil became an alternative fuel after 1920 (as did natural gas after 1980). By the middle of the 20th century, coal had largely been replaced in industrial and transportation use by oil and natural gas, or electricity derived from oil, gas, nuclear or hydropower.

Since 1890, coal has also been a political and social problem. Miners' labor unions became a powerful movement in many countries in the 20th century. Often, the miners were leaders of the left or socialist trends (as in Britain, Germany, Poland, Japan, Canada and the USA). Since the 1970s, environmental issues have been paramount, including the health of miners, landscape destruction, air pollution, and the contribution to global warming. Coal remains the cheapest source of energy with a factor of 50% and even in many countries (eg the US) is the main fuel used in electricity generation.

Early history

Coal was first used as a fuel in various parts of the world during the Bronze Age, 2000-1000 BC. The Chinese began using coal for heating and smelting during the Warring States period (475-221 BC). They are credited with organizing production and consumption to the extent that in the year 1000 this activity could be called industry. China remained the world's largest producer and consumer of coal until the 18th century. Roman historians describe coal as a heat source in Britain.

The earliest use of charcoal in the Americas was with the Aztecs, who used charcoal for more than just warmth and as decoration. Coal deposits near the surface were mined by colonists from Virginia and Pennsylvania in the 18th century. Early coal production was small, with coal lying either on the surface or very close to it. Typical methods for extraction included mining from the pit. In Britain, some of the earliest pits date from the medieval period.

Mining from shallow depressions was the most common form of use before mechanization, which occurred in the 20th century. New opportunities certainly increased the level of coal mining, but still left a significant amount of minerals behind.

Industrial Revolution

From its origins in Great Britain after 1750, the worldwide industrial revolution has depended on the availability of coal, powerful steam engines and industrial machinery of all kinds. International trade expanded exponentially when coal began to be used in steam engines and railroads and steamboats were built in the 1810-1840 era. Coal was cheaper and more efficient than wood in most steam engines. Central and northern England contain coal deposits in abundance, so many mines were located in these areas. As demand increased, small-scale mining became unusable, and coal mines were getting deeper and deeper from the surface. The Industrial Revolution progressed.

The large-scale use of coal became an important driving force behind the Industrial Revolution. Coal was used in the production of iron and steel. It is also used as a fuel in locomotives and steamships, propelling coal-fired steam engines, making it possible to transport very large volumes of raw materials and finished products. Coal-fired steam engines were connected to many types of equipment and factories.

The biggest economic impacts of the use of coal during the Industrial Revolution were experienced in Wales and the Midlands in England, and in the Rhine river region of Germany. The building of railroads also played a major role in the western expansion of the United States in the 19th century.

USA

Anthracite (or "hard" coal), clean and smokeless, became the fuel of choice in cities, replacing wood around 1850. Anthracite from the Northeast Pennsylvania coal region was commonly used for domestic purposes because it was of high quality with few impurities. Rich Pennsylvania anthracite fields were close to eastern cities, and several major railroads like Reading Railroad controlled the anthracite fields. By 1840, hard coal production had passed the million short tons mark, and then four times by 1850.

Bituminous (or "soft coal") mining came later. In the middle of the century, Pittsburgh was the main market. After 1850, young coal, which is cheaper but dirtier, came into demand for railroad locomotives and stationary steam engines, and was used for coke. in steel production after 1870. In general, coal production increased until 1918, and until 1890 it doubled every ten years, increasing from 8.4 million tons in 1850 to 40 million in 1870, 270 million in 1900, and reaching 680,000,000 tons in 1918. New young coal fields were discovered in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, as well as West Virginia, Kentucky, and Alabama.The Great Depression of the 1930s reduced coal demand by 360 million tons in 1932.

The mining movement, formed in 1880 in the Midwest, was successful in its strike for the tar fields in the Midwest in 1900. However, the Pennsylvania Mine Union turned into a national political crisis in 1902. President Theodore Roosevelt brought a compromise solution that would keep the flow of coal, higher wages and shorter working hours for miners.

Under the leadership of John L. Lewis, the miners' movement became the dominant force in the coal fields in the 1930s and 1940s, creating high wages and benefits. Repeated strikes caused the public to switch from anthracite for home heating after 1945, and the sector collapsed.

In 1914 there were 180,000 "anthracite-coal" miners at their peak, by 1970 only 6,000 remained. At the same time, steam engines were being phased out in railroads and factories, and coal was used mainly for electricity generation. The work in the mines numbered 705,000 men in 1923, falling to 140,000 by 1970 and 70,000 in 2003. Environmental restrictions on the level of sulfur in coal, and the growth of mining in the West, caused a sharp decline in underground mining after 1970. UMW membership among active miners declined from 160,000 in 1980 to only 16,000 in 2005; non-unionized miners predominated. The American share of world coal production stagnated at about 20% from 1980 to 2005.

Great Britain (Great Britain), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), is a state in Western Europe, on the British Isles. It occupies the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and a number of small islands washed by the North Sea. The area is 244.1 thousand km 2. Population 55.7 million (1981). Capital London. Great Britain consists of 4 historical and geographical regions: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (Ulster). The official language is English. The monetary unit is the pound sterling. Great Britain is a member of the EEC (since 1973) and heads the Commonwealth (British).

General characteristics of the economy. In terms of the value of the gross external product (1981), Great Britain ranks fifth among the industrially developed capitalist countries. In 1980, the country's gross external product was 193 billion pounds sterling (at current prices), of which 25% came from manufacturing, 5.7% from mining (including primary processing), 2.9% from agriculture, 6 .3% for transport. Leading manufacturing industries: engineering, electrical, chemical and petrochemical, which determine the specialization of Great Britain in world capitalist trade. In the structure of the fuel and energy balance of the country is 37.7%, 36.9%, 21.4%, nuclear energy 4.1%, hydropower 0.6% (1980). Electricity production in 1980 284.9 billion kW / h.

One of the most important modes of transport in the UK is maritime transport. Cargo turnover of all ports of the country is 415 million tons (1980), over 1/3 of which are products of the mining industry. Main ports: London, Milford Haven, Tees Hartlepool, Shetland, Forth, Southampton, Grimsby and Immingham, Orkney, Medway, Liverpool, Manchester. The length of motor roads is 363 thousand km (1980), railways - 17.7 thousand km (including 3.7 thousand km of electrified ones). There is an extensive network - and (including underwater).

Nature. The relief of the central and southeastern parts of Great Britain is hilly and flat; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are dominated by low mountains and uplands, strongly smoothed by glaciers and river erosion. In the West of Scotland are the Grampian Mountains with the highest in the UK, the city of Ben Nevis (1343 m). To the south of Scotland are the Pennines (Kpocc Fell, 893 m), as well as the domed Cumberland Mountains (Scofell, 978 m). The Wales Peninsula is occupied by the Cambrian Mountains (Snowdon, 1085 m). The climate is temperate oceanic (average January temperature 3.5-7°С, July 11-17°С); precipitation on the plains 600-750 mm, in the mountains 1000-3000 mm per year. Main rivers: Thames, Severn, Trent, Mersey. Forests make up 9% of the territory, there are many artificial park plantings. A significant part of the country is occupied by protected areas.

Geological structure. In geostructural terms, the territory from north to south is subdivided into the ancient Hebrides massif (ledges of the North-West of Scotland and the Hebrides), Scotland, Northern England and Wales, the Precambrian craton of Wales and Midland, the Caledonian London-Brabant massif and. The Hebrides massif is composed of the Lewis polymetamorphic complex (2.9-1.1 billion years), including granulites, para- and intruded. formed mainly by marine deposits of the Late Precambrian, - and, continental marine red-colored deposits, Carboniferous, as well as continental () and marine () deposits, Paleocene-Eocene with subordinate covers and.

The Caledonian fold belt, which is about 300 km wide, is subdivided into a northern marginal zone thrust over the Hebrides massif; the Caledonian zone, which experienced major deformations at the beginning of the Ordovician; the graben of the Middle Valley of Scotland, filled with Devonian and Carboniferous deposits; the Caledonian non-metamorphic zone of southern Scotland and northern England (Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian formations, crumpled at the end of the Silurian - beginning of the Devonian) and the Welsh Trough, to which carboniferous deposits of the Carboniferous are confined. The zones of the Caledonian belt are separated by large deep faults. The Precambrian craton of Wales-Midland is composed of a complex of Upper Precambrian and unconformably overlain by the lower one. The northwestern part of the London-Brabant massif in the UK is represented by folded Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian. Caledonian, composed of variegated ancient red (Lower and Middle Devonian), fills numerous intramountain and intermountain depressions. The Epicaledonian cover is formed by ancient red sandstone (Devonian) and platform deposits of the Lower Carboniferous. Within the limits of Southern Great Britain (Cornwall, Devon) there is a zone of Hercynides, composed of marine deposits of the Devonian and Lower Carboniferous, intruded by granitoids. The Hercynian predominantly continental coal-bearing molasse (Middle and Upper Carboniferous) fills numerous depressions to the north of the Hercynian front (South Wales, Oxfordshire, Kent). The Epihercynian platform cover is composed of a variety of Permian, Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits, the most common in southern England. The Hercynide zone of southwestern England is characterized by rich deposits of ores , and . Throughout the UK, glacial and periglacial deposits are widely developed.

hydrogeology. On the territory of Great Britain, a hydrogeological region of folded zones and a platform cover are distinguished. The region of folded zones is structurally represented by scattered depressions in the mountainous part of the country. Fresh water resources are limited. The waters are concentrated in the crystalline rocks of the Precambrian and in the permeable horizons of the shale-terrigenous sequence of the Paleozoic. Springs are exploited, which provides 5% of the water needs. The insufficiency of groundwater resources is more than compensated by uniform and abundant moisture, which creates a reserve for the transfer of surface water to less water-provided areas of the country.

The area of ​​the platform cover in the flat part of the country is structurally divided into a group and uplifts separating them. The main aquifers are the Upper Cretaceous (50% of the country's fresh water resources) and the Permian-Triassic (25%). The thickness of the Upper Cretaceous aquifer developed in the London, Northeast and Hampshire artesian basins is 100-500 m, the depth of the springs is up to 200 m and up to 50-100 l / s. The waters are mostly fresh (0.3-0.5 g/l). Due to excessive pumping of water in the London area, by 1940 the water level in the Cretaceous layer had fallen by 75 m and the originally flowing wells were deepened. To water the chalk layer (in the north and west), in winter, water is pumped into it from the Lee and Thames rivers, which have undergone special treatment. The thickness of the sandstones of the Permo-Triassic aquifer complex (small artesian basins) is 100–300 to 1000 m, the roof depth is up to 30 m. Water from fresh (0.5-0.8 g / l) to highly mineralized and brines of Cl - - Na + composition. Used by 2689 . 10 6 m 3 of groundwater, which is 1/3 of the country's total water consumption.

Great Britain ranks first among the capitalist countries of Europe in oil reserves and second in natural gas reserves. Industrial oil and gas deposits lie under the bottom of the North Sea within the Central European oil and gas basin. Small and known in the British Isles (mainly in Nottinghamshire), most of them have been worked out. The main oil and gas fields of the North Sea occur in Paleogene deposits (Fortis, Montrose, 1500 m deep), Upper Cretaceous (Magnus, Piper, Claymore, 2400 m), Jurassic (Thistle, Dunlin, Brent, Hutton, Ninian, Cormorant South, Beryl, 2700 m), Triassic (Hewett, about 3300-3600 m), Permian (Argyle, Viking, Indefatigable, Limen, 4000 m).

In terms of coal reserves, Great Britain ranks second among the capitalist countries of Europe. Coal basins are associated with Caledonian Carboniferous deposits and form four groups: South (South Wales, Somerset-Bristol, Kent, with total reserves of 43 billion tons), Central (Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Lancashire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, North Wales, 90 billion tons). t), Northern (Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, 16 billion tons) and Scottish (Scottish basins 13.5 billion tons). Coals from long-flame to; the thickness of the layers is on average 1-2 m.

Iron ore deposits in the UK are severely depleted. Deposits of sedimentary type are confined mainly to the Jurassic deposits of the Caledonian cover. The largest deposits (Millom, Egremont, Beckermet, Corby, Northampton) are concentrated in the Scunthorpe area, in Cumberland and Northamptonshire.

In terms of reserves, Great Britain ranks first in Western Europe (4% of the reserves of industrially developed capitalist and developing countries). Deposits south of the Hercynide front on the Cornish peninsula are confined to Late Carboniferous granites; tin-ore sea shelf deposits are also known on the northern coast of Cornwall. Most of the ores are complex (they also contain copper, zinc, etc.). Ore bodies are represented by veins and mineralized zones up to several kilometers long and 0.3-12 m thick (average 1.2 m). The largest deposits: South Crofty, Mount Wellington, Jeevor. Near Plymouth, the Hemerdon deposit of low-quality tin-tungsten ores is known.

Deposits of potash salts are concentrated in the deposits of zechstein on the northeast coast near Billingham, rock salt - mainly in the deposits of the Triassic in the Liverpool region in the Cheshire-Shropshire salt-bearing basin (the largest Kuper Marl deposit). Barite deposits are known (Devon), (in the Bristol region).

Britain is rich. The country's largest kaolin deposits, St. Austell and Lee Myp, are located in the Hercynian granite development area (Cornwall, Devon). Pottery clays (the main deposits of Bowie) are confined to Tertiary deposits, refractory clays to the Carboniferous, occurring under coal seams, brick and clay shales to the Upper Jurassic, bleaching clays to the Lower Cretaceous (deposits near Lower Greensend) and Jurassic (near Bath). ).

The UK is rich in non-metallic building materials, the deposits of which are widely developed throughout the country and offshore. Deposits and are mainly associated with Quaternary and Lower Cretaceous deposits in southern and southeastern Great Britain. Sandstones are confined to the Precambrian, Lower Paleozoic and Carboniferous in England and Wales; 70% of limestone and dolomite reserves are associated with carboniferous deposits (layer thickness reaches 1 km). Deposits and are located in Staffordshire and Nottinghamshire (Permian and Triassic deposits), as well as in Cumberland (Upper Permian) and East Sussex (Upper Jurassic). The thickness of the seams is 1.8-4.5 m.

History of development of mineral resources. The use of () for the manufacture of tools in Great Britain began in the Lower Paleolithic (300-100 thousand years ago). Ancient developments of flint have been studied in the East of the country, in Grimes Graves. In Stonehenge, near Salisbury, buildings (pairs of stone columns with lintels) are known from huge blocks weighing about 30 tons, presumably brought from quarries 200 km from Stonehenge (3rd-2nd millennium BC).

Archaeological sites from the Bronze and Iron Ages have been virtually destroyed by later developments. Studies of the settlements have shown that at the end of the Bronze Age - the beginning of the Iron Age, copper mining began in Alderley Edge (Cheshire) and North Wales, and tin ore in Cornwall. In the Iron Age (from the 5th century BC), open-cast mining of iron ore began in the Forest of Dean (Glamorganshire), which was smelted with charcoal. In Kimmeridge (Wessex) they are known (approximately 6th century BC - 1st century AD) for the extraction of slate, in the Lower Jurassic deposits of the coast near Whitby (Yorkshire) jet was mined.

With the Roman conquest of Great Britain (1-4 centuries), antique technology spread (see); Roman tin mines are known in Derbyshire, in the Mendip Hills and Halkin (Flintshire) and in Cornwall.

After the Norman conquest of Great Britain (1066), they developed in Radlan (Flintshire). It is known that coal mining has been carried out since the 12th century, although it apparently began at the beginning of our era. Since the 14th century, open mines of coal have been known in the form of bell-shaped pits up to 12 m deep, from which coal was lifted up in baskets; water was diverted by an underground drainage ditch. Since the 16th century, coal mining has been introduced in short columns with a mine depth of up to 30 m; in the 17th century, the depth of the shafts reached 90 m. Since that time, the shafts have been held with wooden fasteners from top to bottom. Ore in the 14th-17th centuries. (tin, lead,) was mined in Beer Ferrers (Devonshire), the Mendip Hills, Shropshire (Wales) in open pits, then in trenches and. From the 14th century, a gate was used in mining, from the 17th century - a lifting winch (water wheels, etc.). In the 16th century, miners from were also working in the mines and mines in Great Britain.

Coal mining increased from 200,000 to 3 million tons per year from the 16th to the early 18th centuries. In the 18th century, it was the fastest growing industry in Great Britain, laying the foundation for the Industrial Revolution. The first steam engine to replace the horse drive was the engine created by T. Savery, called "miner's friend". In the middle of the 18th century, a pump with a T. Newcomen steam engine began to be used for drainage, which made it possible to develop flooded horizons at great depths. In 1774, J. Watt used the first steam engine for dewatering the mine. In 1738, steel rails were laid for the first time in Whitehaven, replacing wooden rails (their wider use began in 1767); the first locomotives appeared in the mines.

The center of tin production in the 18th century was the Cornish peninsula, where miners from the continent were settled in the Middle Ages. Copper ore was mined in Cornwall, Cumberland, North Wales and other areas, and silver-lead ores were mined in Cardiganshire and Derbyshire. The main zinc-smelting centers in Great Britain appeared in the Swansea region (about 1720) and near Bristol (from 1740). The extraction of iron ore, which fell into decline in the 17th century due to the depletion of forest reserves, the low power of horse-drawn transport, in the 18th century satisfied only about 30% of the country's needs. For example, in 1740 Great Britain imported (mainly from Sweden and Russia) twice as much iron as it produced. With the advent of coke and hot blast, iron production increased dramatically.

Since the beginning of the 19th century, new technological means have been created. In coal mines, they began to use a steam-powered, safe mine lamp, protected by a metal mesh or cylinder, which was invented simultaneously by G. Davy and J. Stephenson (1815). Since the middle of the 19th century, ponies have been used in underground mining to haul steel. The extraction of coal was carried out manually with the help of a butt (in some cases it was used); fastening was carried out with wooden racks. Mine installations (central drainage pumps, main ventilation fans) had a steam drive, in some cases compressed air was used. The use of electricity in the mines of Great Britain began in 1880, when there were over 4,000 mines in the country and the annual production was about 200 million tons of coal. The first 7.5 kW electric motor cutter began operating at the Normanton Mine in Yorkshire in the late 19th century; by 1903 149 were in operation.

Mining. General characteristics. The main industries are the extraction of coal, oil and gas (map). In 1980, 345 thousand people (1.4% of the working population) were employed in the mining industry. In the structure of the mining industry (1979), coal accounts for 33% of the value of the industry's products, 48% for oil, 7% for natural gas, and 12% for non-metallic building materials. See map.

There are public and private companies in the mining industry. The National Coal Board controls almost all mining, with the exception of small mines and the transportation and distribution of coal (turnover £4,700 million, 1981); company "British Gas Sorp." - most of the production of natural gas on the shelf of the North Sea (especially in the southern sector) and all of its distribution in the country (5235 million pounds). The state is a co-owner of 39% of the shares of one of the 7 largest oil companies in the world, British Petroleum. A number of multinational oil and gas monopolies operate in the mining industry (oil production in the North Sea): Amoco, Burmah, Sonoco, Gulf, Occidental, Mobil, Phillips, Texaco.

Non-ferrous metal ores, salt, shale, non-metallic building materials are mined in the country by small private companies. Deposits, silver and oil are in the UK the property of the state, regardless of the ownership of the site on which they lie; the coal is owned by the National Coal Board. According to the law (1972), the state pays up to 35% of the cost of exploration and production of non-ferrous metal ores, fluorite, barite and potassium salts.

Great Britain provides itself with coal, gas, light grades of oil and non-metallic building materials (Table 2).

The plan for the development of the coal industry, adopted by the National Coal Administration and approved by the government (1977), provides for an increase in coal production by the year 2000 due to an increase in reserves, the reconstruction of old and the construction of new mines (the largest is Selby). The activities of the coal industry are regulated by laws introduced by the royal inspection of mines and quarries. There are 12 district inspections. In the mining areas there are 24 central mine rescue stations, united in 6 groups.

iron ore industry. Since the end of the 50s, the volume of iron ore mining in the UK has declined sharply due to their low quality (average Fe content of 28%) and the reorientation to high-quality imported raw materials. At the end of the 70s. iron ore mining satisfied less than 10% of the country's needs (in the 1950s, over 40%). The development of iron ores in the UK is carried out by the state-owned British Steel Corporation at three main deposits - Corby, Scunthorpe and Beckermet. There are 6 quarries in the Corby region, where about 2 million tons of ore are mined annually; in the Scunthorpe area - the state of "Santon" (0.8-1.0 million tons) and 2 open pits - "Yarborough" and "Winterton" (1.2 million and 0.5 million tons, respectively); in Cumberland - the state of "Bekermet" (about 150 thousand tons). In the future, the production of low-grade iron ore in the UK will be reduced and imports of high-quality iron ore raw materials (over 60% Fe) will increase. This is facilitated by a reduction in the cost of transportation by large-tonnage special vessels. For their unloading, ports have been built at Port Talbot (serving the steel mills of South Wales), Redcar (plants on the northeast coast of Great Britain), Immingham (plant in Scunthorpe) and Hunterston (plants in Scotland).

Mining of non-ferrous metal ores. The development of non-ferrous metal ores has sharply decreased in recent decades, which is associated with the depletion of deposits, technological difficulties (low degree of metal extraction - 65-70%), difficult mining and geological conditions (watering of workings), etc.

For the extraction of tin ores, Great Britain ranks first in Western Europe. The bulk of the exploited tin resources are concentrated in the Cornish peninsula. Of the several mines operating in the country, 2 mines - "South Crofty" and "Geevor" - have been producing for about 200 years. Tin-ore veins are being mined with an average thickness of 1.2 m, a length of up to several kilometers, and a depth of about 100 m. "and" Mount Wellington "- 280 thousand tons. Alluvial tin-bearing placers are exploited in small quantities (the area between Padstow and St. Ives Bay). It is likely that tin will also be extracted from complex tin-tungsten ores at the Hemerdon deposit. The ore is processed at the local smelter in North Ferriby. At the expense of its own resources, 20% of the country's need for tin is satisfied.

The extraction of ores of lead and zinc is small and is carried out along the way with the extraction of ores of other metals or by processing old dumps. The country's demand for tungsten is met almost entirely by imports. A small amount of tungsten is mined at the South Crofty tin mine, formerly mined at the Carrock Fell mine (Cumberland). In the future, some expansion of the extraction of this raw material is possible in connection with the planned development of low-grade deposits of tin-tungsten ores at Hemerdon (near Plymouth), which will be developed by an open pit.

Copper deposits in Great Britain are depleted, copper is mined only when tin is mined in small quantities and not every year.

Mining and chemical industry. Its products are represented in the UK by table salt, fluorite, bromine, potash salt and sulfur. Great Britain is the second largest producer of table salt after the USA among industrialized capitalist and developing countries (5-6% of production). About 90% of rock salt is mined in Cheshire and Shropshire, the rest in Priesall (Lancashire) and the Larne region (Northern Ireland). The total capacity of enterprises for the extraction of salt is 7 million tons (1980). The main mass of salt (5.4 million tons) is extracted in the form by pumping water into wells and pumping brine from other wells. In order to avoid the formation of underground voids, various devices are monitored from the surface. The extracted salt is widely used in the chemical industry.

UK ranks 4th in Western Euro