Read the text. Answer the following questions.

1.What does the word «economy» mean?

Give your own idea and compare it to the dictionary definition.

RESOURCES

Russia has enormous energy resources and deposits of many different minerals. Most, if not all, of the raw materials required by modern industry are found within the country.

FUEL AND POWER

Russia has by far the largest coal reserves among the former Soviet republics. The biggest fields lie in the remote Tunguska and Lena basins of East Siberia and the Far East, but these are largely untapped, and the bulk of output comes from more southerly fields along the Trans-Siberian Railroad. About three-fourths of Russia's coal is produced in Siberia—some two-fifths from the Kuznetsk Basin alone and the remainder from the Kansk-Achinsk, Cheremkhovo, and South Yakut basins and numerous smaller sources. The production of hard coal in the European section is mainly in the eastern Donets Basin and, in the Arctic, in the Pechora Basin around Vorkuta; the large Moscow Basin (entirely) and the small Urals fields (mainly) are sources of lignite.

The Russian Federation is one of the world's leading producers of oil and natural gas. The great bulk of the supply comes from the huge fields that underlie the northern part of the West Siberia region. Another significant source is from the Volga-Ural zone, and the remainder is derived mainly from the Komi-Ukhta field (North region); the North Caucasus region, once the U.S.S.R.'s leading producer, is now of little importance. Extensive pipeline systems link the producing districts to all regions of the federation, the neighbouring former Soviet republics, and, across the western frontier, numerous European countries.

Much of the fuel produced in Russia is converted to electricity, about three-fourths of which is generated in thermal stations; some two-thirds of thermal generation is from oil and gas. The remaining power output is produced by hydroelectric and nuclear plants. Most of the hydroelectricity comes from huge stations on the Volga, Kama, Ob, Yenisey, Angara, and Zeya rivers. Nuclear power production expanded rapidly before development was checked by the Chernobyl accident. Much of Siberia's electricity output is transmitted to the European region along high-voltage lines.

OTHER MINERALS

Russia produces large quantities of iron ore, mainly from the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly (Central Black Earth region), Kola Peninsula, Urals, and Siberia. The largest steel-producing plants are located mainly in the Urals, Central Black Earth region, and Kuznetsk Basin, but there is some steel production in every economic region.

-14-

Nonferrous metals are available in great variety from many districts, but by far the most important are those of the Ural region, which is the republic's main centre of nonferrous metallurgy. Russia is a major producer of cobalt, chrome, copper, gold, lead, manganese, nickel, platinum, tungsten, vanadium, and zinc. The country produces much of its aluminum from plants powered by the Siberian hydroelectric stations, but bauxite deposits are relatively meagre.