Locality
58°48´ east longitude, 55°56´ north latitiude   [ map ]

Name
Irkuskan mine, Bakal, Bakal/Ural, Russia, Europa

Personal relationship of donor
Diploma thesis

Historical relevance of location
This mine is the worldŽs largest known siderite deposit with more than 1.2Gt of potential ore.

Political relevance of location
The limonitic (brown) iron ores of Bakal have been mined since 1750. Therefore, Bakal is the oldest mining area in the region and caused one of the first settlements of Slavonics in the Ural.

Geological relevance of location
The open pits are the locus typicus of the Bakal Formation. Geological and geochemical features point to a hydrothermal metasomatic origin of the strata-bound siderite ores by sediment-derived fluids.

Classification of the earth

Structure	siderite
Colour	brown
Age	Lower Riphean, Late Proterozoic

Donor

Rainer Ellmies,
 Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources,
 Office Berlin,
 Germany