The yearbook "Mineral Commodity Summaries of the Czech Republic", published for the twelfth time, is intended to provide information for professionals and particularly for businessmen in order to assist them in developing small and medium-sized enterprises in mineral exploration and mining in line with relevant legislation and interests of mining organizations.
The publication has been elaborated for the most important raw materials of the Czech Republic, which have been recently of an industrial importance. It includes basic data on the state and changes in reserves of raw materials in the Czech Republic extracted from the "Register of Reserves of Mineral Deposits (further ”The Register”)", which is published for only a limited number of state administration bodies.
Additional information on prices of minerals, their technological parameters and use, imports and exports, major mining companies and locations of mineral deposits is intended to assist in understanding the mineral potential of the Czech Republic and to stimulate investment activities when considering mining of minerals.
The publication is being updated by relevant statistical data as demanded by progress in the national information system and international cooperation and taking into account readers’ comments.
The term ”mineral reserves” refers to geological and/or total reserves, i.e. original reserves within individual deposits, calculated according to the assessed classification and conditions of their exploitability. The basic data come from calculations of mineral reserves, which were approved or verified in the past by the Commission for Classification of Mineral Resources and/or by the Board of Minerals, Exploration and Mining of the former Ministry of Economy of the Czech Republic or by former commissions for management of mineral reserves of individual mining and processing industries. Nowadays these are reserves approved by the Commission for Projects and Final Reports of the MŽP ČR or by bodies ordering geological works.
Geological reserves on reserved deposits of reserved and non-reserved minerals – as of December 31, 2003 – exceeded almost 49.1 billion tons with prevalence of mineral fuels and building materials. The Ministry of Environment together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade have recently announced a project of fundamental economic revaluation of the mineral wealth of the Czech Republic in 1993–2001. The task continues to a smaller extent from year 2003. For this reason, many changes have occurred in volume of reserves or number of deposits of many minerals (especially ores) in comparison with recent years.
The year-book "Mineral Commodity Summaries of the Czech Republic" includes selected minerals, i.e. metallic ores, mineral fuels, industrial minerals and building materials, which are of economic importance and substantial reserves (in case of ores in the past) in the territory of the Czech Republic. Each mineral is presented in a separate chapter consisting of eleven parts.
Part 1. Characteristics and uses – provides a basic description of the mineral raw material, its abundance in nature, major minerals and general use.
Part 2. Mineral resources of the Czech Republic – describes major regions of their occurrence, characteristics of their deposits, types, mining and potential explotiation.
Part 3. Registered deposits of the Czech Republic – is based upon the register of mineral deposits of the Czech Republic and for the majority of minerals it includes a list of deposits and their location. Names of exploited deposits are given in bold. As for mineral fuels and some industrial minerals, only regions and basins rather than single deposits are given. As for dimension stone and building materials, hundreds of these deposits are scattered over the whole territory of the Czech Republic. Consequently, neither their list nor locations are given in this paragraph.
Part 4. Basic statistical data of the Czech Republic as of December 31 are extracted from The Register and from the ČSÚ statistical data on mineral imports and exports. There are 3 groups of minerals (ores, mineral fuels and reserved industrial minerals) registered in the Czech Republic. Statistical data has not covered up data of the Register of Reserves of Non-reserved Mineral Deposits yet. Mining production in non-reserved deposits has been monitored since 1999.
Part 5. Foreign trade – provides informations about import and export of important customs tariff items of the raw material. Data on foreign trade are the latest (continuously reviewed) data of the ČSÚ.
Part 6. Prices – gives prices of orientation on domestic production, import and export prices. Domestic prices do not include VAT.
Part 7. Mining companies in the Czech Republic as of December 2003. This part gives a list of companies, which are mining the given mineral on the territory of the Czech Republic. The companies are arranged according to the level of production. Their addresses are at disposal in the Czech Geological Survey – Geofond.
Part 8. World production gives data on mining and production of commercial products for the last 5 years. There are also quoted significant world producers, i.e. top producers in the world production.
Part 9. World prices – gives a summary of prices and their evolution in the last five years as well as prices based upon quotations or prices negotiated in contracts.
Part 10. Recycling – gives a brief description of possible recycling methods known in the world.
Part 11. Substitutes – this paragraph provides an appraisal of materials, which can substitute for the given mineral (worldwide).
Numerous domestic data and foreign materials were used when compiling the present yearbook, especially data from journals and last editions of various international statistical yearbooks (for example Welt Bergbau Daten 2003, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2004, World Mineral Statistics 1998–2002).