OREANDA-NEWS. April 20, 2010. More efforts should be put into developing Belarus’ mineral resources, Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky said at a session of the State Council for Complex Use of Mineral Primary Resources, reported the Official website government.by.

“We should vigorously start developing the deposits our country has, naturally with economic feasibility of exploitation,” said the Prime Minister.

The head of government remarked that the country’s sustainable social and economic development, its economic security are largely determined by the state of the mineral resources base, by nationwide and complex use of mineral resources. In Belarus deposits of oil, mineral salt and potassium salt, dolomite, cement raw stock, brown coal, slate coal, building stone have been found. The extracting and processing industry, power engineering industry are developing fast using the explored deposits. “However, several promising deposits of mineral resources require detailed prospecting and industrial exploitation. Those are primarily deposits of brown coal, slate coal, iron ore, potassium salt, gypsum, and quartz sand,” said Sergei Sidorsky.

The Prime Minister remarked that slightly more than half of the program designed to guide the exploitation of mineral primary resources has been fulfilled. Belarus had decided to provide traditional enterprises, primarily, civil engineering ones, with mineral primary resources. “We have adopted a massive civil engineering program for developing enterprises and made arrangements for the deposits that have been explored before,” reminded the Prime Minister. It is now time to vigorously tap into the earlier detected resources.

As the matter is vital for the country, the State Council for Complex Use of Mineral Primary Resources has been set up to include top executives of the government and ministries, which are interested in exploiting deposits of mineral resources.

According to the Prime Minister, there is a lack of coordination between those in charge of prospecting mineral resources and relevant ministries. “Things are stuck: some prospect deposits while others are unwilling to exploit them,” he said. The Council has been set up to address the discrepancy. “We will meet regularly to consider things that need comprehensive solutions for the sake of achieving the necessary results,” concluded Sergei Sidorsky.