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Scientists should do more to devise mineral extraction, processing projects, Lukashenka says

Scientists should do more to devise mineral extraction and processing projects, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said at the First Congress of Belarusian Scientists in Minsk on November 2.

The Belarusian leader noted that known deposits of oil and gas in Belarus are estimated at 63 million tons, of brown coals at 99 million tons and of shale at over one billion tons. He said that geothermal vents were discovered in the Prypyats district. Mr. Lukashenka insisted that all these resources should be used in the country’s economy. “We shouldn’t just pounce on our peat-bogs, because this might leave our country deforested and smoke-choked,” he warned. //BelaPAN