Federal StateAutonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education
«Belgorod National Research University»
(NRU BelSU)
Institute of Cross-Cultural Communications and International Relations 11040012. Department of English Philology and Intercultural Communication
The discipline «British andAmerican studies»
«7.Natural resources and their sites in the UK (where are they located?)» (Seminar 3)
Belgorod 2025
A brief overview of the UK’s natural resources
The UK has limited supplies of economically valuable mineral resources. Main commercial minerals: sand, gravel, limestone, gypsum (mined from the surface in quarries). As we know, there’re renewable resources (plants, forests, animals; non-living – hydroelectric, solar, wind power, biomass fuel) and non-renewable (fossil fuels).
Britain’s natural resources: coal, petroleum (oil), natural gas, zinc, tin, limestone, iron ore, salt, slate, clay, chalk, gypsum, lead, silica.
Iron ore |
Slate |
The history of mining in the UK
•The Bronze Age – non-ferrous minerals (copper, zinc, nickel, tin, lead, etc)
•With the arrival of the Romans in the 1st century A.D., metal mining began. The Romans started lead mines in Mendip, as well as in Derbyshire, Shropshire, Yorkshire and Wales. After the departure of the Romans from Britain, the period is traditionally called the "Dark Ages". However, scientists have found evidence that metal production has not stopped.In the 14th–15th centuries, metal mining was affected by the Black Death (1457-1465) and influenza epidemics.
•In the 16th century, during the time of Henry VIII, there was a significant decline in production. This coincided with the time of the Reformation, when the British massively dismantled monasteries and churches for materials.
•In the 18th century, the center of tin production was the Cornwall Peninsula, where miners from the continent settled in the Middle Ages. Copper ore was mined in Cornwall, Cumberland, North Wales and other areas, while silver and lead ores were mined in Cardiganshire and Derbyshire.
•In the middle of the 19th century, mining of non-ferrous metals in Great Britain reached its peak, when the country became one of the world's leading producers of copper, tin, and lead.
Oil production
Gas production
Coal
Iron ore
Iron ore mining in the UK has almost stopped. Most reserves of iron ore are concentrated in Cumbria, Staffordshire, Lancashire.
See the map on the 10th slide.
