The district land is rich in commercial minerals: nickel, sulphur pyrite, granites, white quartz, gabbro-diabase, red marble, presumably gold. There are also clay, sand and gravel stores. A quarry yielding crushed stone for building operates near the village of Raikonkoski. The quarry output is 1 mln m3 crushed stone per year. The district holds also peat stores of about 4 bln m3, or 600 mln ton.

Sulphur pyrite

In the 1950s, the large Hautovaarskoye and medium Shujskoye and Japonvaarskoye sulphur pyrite deposits were thoroughly explored in the Suojärvi District. They have a good location from the economic point of view. The ores are quite rich in sulphur (27-33%) and iron. Concentrated ores can be used in sulphuric acid and pulp-&-paper production. At the moment, there are no plans to exploit the deposits, but they may serve as the source for sulphuric acid production in the future.

Building sand

The district owns a small unexploited deposit - Tumasozerskoye, 11 km SW of the village of Porosozero. The sand can be used for concrete and building materials.

Boulder/gravel/sand material

State balance records dated 01.01.90 list four small boulder/gravel/sand material deposits - Shujarechenskoye, Virtalampinskoye, Tumasozerskoye, Pitsjokskoye. All, except the Tumasozerskoye deposit, are currently exploited.

Availability of boulder/gravel/sand material resources in the district can be more comprehensively judged by the deposit cadastre listing known and forecasted reserves. Combined reserves of the deposits recorded in the cadastre amount to c. 100 mln m3. Uksunskoye gravel/sand deposit and Kudamgubskoye deposit of sand for road construction are large, the rest are small.

Uksunskoye deposit with reserves of 32.5 mln m³ is situated 25 km S of the village of Salmi and 16 km SW of Ila-Uuksu station. Owing to the favourable geographical location and large reserves, the deposits can serve as a new source of raw material for construction projects in Karelia and St. Petersburg.

Kudamgubskoye deposit is situated 27 km away from the Porosozero station.

Inferred resources in the Suojärvi District were estimated by the Institute of Geology, Karelian Research Centre at 1.4 bln m³.

Talc

Suojärvi District harbours two of the 17 talc ore locations in the Republic - Hautovaarskoye and Ignoila. Ignoila talc body has been described as one of the five most promising sites in the republic as regards location and ore type.

Ignoila ores are of the carbonate-bearing talc type similar to those from the Svetlozerskoye body, Segezha District, but the location of the Ignoila body is far more economically favourable (10 km away from railway).

Building and facing stone

State Balance registers do not list any building and facing stone deposits in the district. Yet, two large potential facing stone deposits are reported. The most valuable one is the Läppäsyrja marble deposit (vil. Läppäsyrja area) adjoining the Petrozavodsk - Suojärvi - St. Petersburg railway line. In-depth exploration is done in one of its sites. Karelian Geological Prospecting Survey plans to set up a joint venture for extracting marble blocks.

The district potential capacities for extraction of facing and building stone are much wider. Thus, the Institute of Geology, Karelian Research Centre has detected over 10 deposits of the material presumably totaling about 500 mln. M³ in stock.

The "District Plan" mentions one large and 9 small building material deposits.

Petrurgic material

Hyrsylskoye metapyroxenite deposit with inferred reserves of 10 mln m3, situated 2-3 km N of the village of Hyrsylä, is a potential source of raw material for stone casting.

Dolomite

Operations at the Koliovaara dolomite deposit were discontinued because of low reserves and challenging hydrogeological settings.

Sulphur pyrite	(Hautovaarskoye, Shujskoye and Japonvaarskoye)
Boulder/gravel/sand material	Inferred reserves of 1.4 bln. m3
Talc deposits	(Hautovaarskoye and Ignoila)
Facing stone	(Läppäsyrja, Parikolampi)
Stone casting raw material	(Hyrsylskoye)
Gold	A few locations
Peat	4 bln m3 (600 mln ton)

Experts: E. Nemkovich, Yu. Saveliev