THE PRICE OF DISUSE

The Creator was probably in a good mood when he created Azerbaijan, since he bestowed so much wealth upon it. No, this is not a superficial judgment, nor idle talk by people in the street. Scientists also make such apparently lyrical deviations in their scientific proof, describing the underground and land-based wealth of our homeland as an Azerbaijani phenomenon. We need not mention that Azerbaijan has nine of the planet's 11 climatic zones: from subtropics to highland Alpine plains. So what do we lack? It turns out that what we lack is elementary management or rationality. While in the Soviet era the republic's best brains were engaged in the study and industrial use of Azerbaijan's wealth, today only 20 per cent of this work is undertaken and goes no further than what is "necessary", while there was no chance of implementing the scientific-research projects of Soviet times, following the collapse of the USSR. Azerbaijani scientists agree that it is time to reanimate research and, therefore, to take a rational approach to many of the issues arising.

In its publications, R+ has repeatedly raised the question of making practical use of mud volcanoes. Whereas it was once claimed that 50 per cent of all mud volcanoes are located in Azerbaijan, according to the latest reports by Azerbaijani geologists, this figure has increased to 70. On 15 August 2007, the Azerbaijani president issued a decree declaring mud volcanoes to be protected areas. It was planned to include them on the list of tourist sites. However, although more than a year has passed since the decree was issued, this document is still not being implemented in practice. Officials are only talking about plans to create the country's first mud volcano reserve in Qobustan. Minister of Ecology Huseyn Bagirov said that the government is considering the issue at this moment. "Of course, we can declare mud volcanoes to be monuments of nature, and such a practice already exists in the Abseron peninsula, but this does not ensure their protection and preservation," Bagirov said.

What are we to do? According to Azerbaijan's honoured geologist Vasif Xalilzada, deputy director of the Institute for Mineral Raw Materials of the National Geological-Exploration Service of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources, who worked at the state planning committee of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic for most of his life, he raised the expediency of exploiting the tourist potential of mud volcanoes in 2002. "The establishment of nature reserves, by including them on the list of sites open to foreign tourists, requires the appropriate agencies and services to take certain measures, especially as Azerbaijan has almost every type of mud volcano known to the world. Not only should we talk about tourism, we could also create professional routes to the mud volcanoes. Such routes have been created, for example, in the US state of Colorado for trips to the Grand Canyon - one of the deepest in the world. I am sure that if normal services, facilities for recreation and leisure time and advertising campaigns are arranged, there will be no end to the influx of tourists. We just have to work and take the initiative, not to wait for nature reserves to appear by themselves after the issuing of the presidential decree," the scientist said. The scientist regrets, and is indignant at, the current "use" of individual volcanoes: "Local authorities and the relevant agencies must, as soon as possible, take serious measures and investigate outrageous cases of misuse, and sometimes the squandering of the products of mud volcanoes, with the connivance of local authorities."

Talking about the prospects for the practical use of mud volcanoes, Xalilzada stressed that in the 1970s much was done in Azerbaijan to expand the use of mud in medicine. The founder of this work is doctor of medicine Farida Afandiyeva, who has dedicated almost all her life to the study, use and promotion of methods of treatment with mud from volcanoes. The hydro-geological expedition Azgeokaptazhminvod, of the resorts department of the Azerbaijani Council of Trade Unions, set up a special unit at the time in recognition of the prospects for the further expansion of demand for the products of mud volcanoes. It engaged in the extraction of dry mud, transported it to an industrial area in Mardakan, ground the raw material, packaged it and sold it both in bulk and in 1 kg packs in pharmacies, making it available for home use. The mud was used in the highly effective treatment of a wide range of specific diseases and in the country's medical centres. Leading specialists from Russia and other parts of the Soviet Union were involved in developing this sphere of medicine.

"While creating a mining area for mud in Azerbaijan, we were firmly convinced that medicinal volcanic mud from Azerbaijan would soon be placed on the world market, but this did not happen. After the collapse of the USSR, the extractive area was closed and the problems of providing raw material and mud products were exacerbated. Although the Afrodita open joint-stock company is operating now, and its cosmetological products are well-known in Turkey and Russia, mud treatment based on volcanic breccia is at death's door in Azerbaijan. Almost no-one is involved in the centralized supply of ground raw material, as was the case in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was sold at a symbolic price of less than 50 kopecks for one kilogram. Today 300 grams of cosmetic mud costs almost five manats. This is an unjustifiably high price. It may be available for cosmetics, but what about potential major consumers of these products?" Xalilzada wondered.

Of course, since there are so many mud volcanoes within the country's borders, it is not difficult to allocate a couple of volcanoes which have been inactive for more than 100 years. They should be used for the establishment of mining and extractive sites, the scientist believes. "Today, those who support the idea of preserving mud volcanoes in their primordial form often claim in the press that the local population and individual companies are squandering the products of mud volcanoes for the construction industry. I am also against this, but why not take this information on board and test them as raw materials to be used in the construction industry. I am sure that this material, which consists mainly of sand-shale fractions, could be used in cement production as well. The scientific-research institute for construction materials and the Azerbaijani Ministry of Industry should deal with this urgent issue. If a positive solution to the problem is found, the discharge from mud volcanoes could find a major consumer, which would be a dramatic solution to the problem of the country's demand for cement" he said.

Another possible use of volcanic mud is to improve soil. The mineralogical and chemical composition of volcanic breccia and the addition of crushed sand to Abseron's sandy soil may improve these sands considerably by increasing the amount of clay and enriching them with various micro- and macro-elements which are so necessary to plant life. This use of volcanic mud would make it possible to involve a large number of local residents in industrial and agricultural production and would help improve the country's socioeconomic situation and supplement its budget, Xalilzada stressed. "Volcanic breccia may also be seen as an unlimited raw material for the extraction of high concentrations of caesium, strontium, boron, lithium and other elements. To this end, it is necessary to develop appropriate environmentally safe and highly-profitable technology," he thinks.

The scientist urged the country's government, researchers and specialists in the relevant departments to make practical use of Azerbaijan's large resources. "Our country has almost all the industrial-genetic kinds of metal and non-metal mineral resources, which shows that we are rich not only in oil. It is very annoying that the Azerbaijan Aluminium open joint-stock company, the Ganca alumina plant and the Sum-qayittsvetmetal production association are not working at full stretch, whereas in Soviet times the republic controlled the full technological cycle for the production of aluminium - from ore extraction to the electrolytic production of primary aluminium based on the 200,000-tonne Daskasan alunite (Zaglik) and iron-ore deposit. Zaglik forms the raw material basis of the aluminium industry. Currently, Azerbaijan exports iron-ore concentrates due to the lack of production facilities to reprocess the concentrate into the end product. We pay a lot of money to buy bauxite from Guinea while leaving our own large reserves of alunite undeveloped. In Soviet times, we developed an eco-friendly way of extracting alunite at the Ganca alumina plant, with the further use of alunite waste in industry. Today we discharge bauxite waste onto valuable alunite waste buried in Soviet times, destroying the valuable alunite waste," he said. The scientists stressed that alunite is the third type of aluminium ore, developed not only in Azerbaijan. "The fact that we are not developing these great reserves to obtain aluminium and its end product is a crime."

Xalilzada also noted the importance of the Daskasan North cobalt deposit during the Great Patriotic War and the Gadabay copper deposit in the development of the mining industry in Azerbaijan, beginning from the middle of the 19th century. The discovery of sulphur-multimetallic and copper pyrite deposits in the 1960s, including Filizcay, was a significant event not only for the Caucasus, but also for the CIS. It will make it possible to create a full-cycle mining-metallurgy complex. "There are numerous gold, mercury and molybdenum deposits with proven industrial reserves. There are also deposits of mining-chemical and agro-chemical raw materials (rock salt, zeolite and dolomites); non-metallic raw material for ferrous metallurgy (limestone flux, bentonitic clay, secondary quartzite, etc.); construction materials and alternative fuel and energy raw material (coal, oil-shales etc.) Incidentally, R+ wrote in detail about the great importance of major zeolite deposits in its sixth edition in 2008. Azerbaijan has considerable reserves of rock salt (736 million tonnes), dolomite (130 million tonnes), chemically pure limestone (130 million tonnes), bentonitic clay (more than 100 million tonnes), industrial reserves of zeolites and other raw materials, which would make it possible to develop the production of calcined salt and metallurgical magnesium and to use them in the oil industry, agriculture and other spheres. Apart from these, Azerbaijan has sufficient reserves of ferromanganese ore which can also be used for purifying industrial waste products. There is no need to buy expensive purification systems from abroad for this purpose. This is a completely different, but not the least, section of Azerbaijan's unused reserves which are capable of enriching our country, even without oil. The main requirement is scientifically intensive technology, rigorous calculation and rationality.