Against the Giant Quarry: Villagers of Nizhnyaya Sanarka Demand to Stop the Destruction of Nature

And once again, in the interests of short-term profit — our long-suffering nature reserves are being torn apart. This is simply madness! I received another letter from readers, publishing it verbatim:

“Dear Pavel, good day to you!

Perhaps you have already heard about the mining quarry that they want to develop in the immediate vicinity of a settlement and a nature reserve located in the Chelyabinsk region. On behalf of those who care about our Mother Earth, I am asking for your help in giving publicity to the attached materials!

The residents have already appealed to the President, since the Prosecutor’s Office is inactive, the governor remains silent, and business, violating all regulations, is taking clay samples at the site of an anthrax burial ground located in the same place, and does not stop trying to exploit 18 million m³ of clay in a small area of 388 hectares, where the listed sites (nature reserve, Nizhnesanarskoye rural settlement and burial ground) are located. The district’s ecology will be destroyed, the nature reserve will perish, people will drink poisoned water and breathe the quarry’s dust. There is also a possible dangerous situation with the spread of anthrax! We ask you to join the fight for the reserve; people want to be heard!”

With respect to your Cause,

Anastasia A.”

I have carefully studied all the provided information.

The situation unfolded briefly as follows: at the beginning of 2025, it became known about plans to develop a kaolin deposit in the Troitsky district of the Chelyabinsk region. The Moscow company PromResurs LLC (General Director and founder – Almaz Sadretdinov) received a license to mine clay, and they plan to “develop” a plot of 388 hectares. This is truly a large-scale project!

To understand the numbers — 388 ha = 3,880,000 m² or 3.88 km². This is roughly the size of 540 football fields or the entire area of a small city, for example, Suzdal in the Vladimir region (about 4 km²). It is also larger than the entire Central Park in New York (about 341 ha). And the Moscow Kremlin could fit on such a territory 130 times.

Can you imagine the scale of the project and why people are against it?

The quarry itself is planned at the border of the “Urazaevsky” nature reserve, which is a protected area of local significance. And this reserve is special! Here there are not only unique steppe and meadow ecosystems, but also historical and cultural sites: monuments of the Bronze and Iron Ages. And within less than a kilometer are large archaeological sites, including burial mounds and ancient settlements.

In general, the land is rich, historic, and this is one of the fundamental reasons why local residents are against the “development” of these lands. And even if officially the quarry will be at the border of the reserve, we all understand perfectly well that the consequences of industrial activity will affect all local ecosystems. Especially when work is planned on such a scale!

The quarry is planned to be located right next to the villages of Nizhnyaya Sanarka and Urazaevsky. There are no shelterbelts or buffer zones between the quarry and the villages! During development, kaolin-clay dust will form. Due to the absence of protective green plantings, it will freely spread to nearby villages. According to Rospotrebnadzor, constant inhalation of such dust leads to an increase in respiratory and skin diseases. Already now, residents are recording a rise in asthma, bronchitis, and allergies. Dust storms are also expected, which could lead to soil degradation and reduced crop yields.

About 388 hectares of arable land and hayfields are allocated for the quarry. Converting this territory from agricultural to industrial use deprives local farms of land and damages the agricultural sector. The district, which is one of the guarantors of the region’s food security, will lose part of its cropland and pastures.

That is already a blow to the region’s cultural heritage, as well as to the food and environmental security of local residents!

The quarry is also dangerous because it will inevitably damage the water horizons. Kaolin mining involves exposing soil layers. Groundwater enriched with heavy metal salts from the clay could flow into the Sanarka River — which runs along the border of the site — and then into the residents’ drinking wells. This threatens water quality and people’s health, as well as river ecosystems.

And please, do not tell us about “corporate responsibility” and so on — we all know how industry operates today and by what methods. Especially since any large business has only one goal: to increase profits at any cost.

People say there is yet another huge problem. The fact is that on the territory of the proposed quarry there are three livestock burial grounds, where in Soviet times infected livestock were buried (including cases of anthrax and tuberculosis). Anthrax spores and other infections can persist in the soil for decades. Residents fear that blasting and vibration could open these foci of infection, creating a direct threat of dangerous disease outbreaks.

Need we even mention the operation of heavy machinery, drilling, and blasting in the immediate vicinity of homes? This means constant vibration and noise. People will simply not be allowed to live in peace. Villagers fear soil shifts and changes to the Sanarka River’s course, which could cause bank collapses near the village of Urazaevsky. Additional stress from streams of loaded trucks threatens to destroy local roads, including the Troitsk – Stepnoye highway.

Now, a bit about interaction with the public. Is anyone at all interested in the opinion of the people?

On July 16, 2025, in the village of Nizhnyaya Sanarka, public hearings were held on (how beautifully officials play with words) amending the Master Plan and land use rules. In fact, it was about granting permission for the quarry, just veiled in wording. Naturally, residents only learned about this at the hearings and unanimously opposed it!

In the same month, the villagers began to act by all available means! They prepared requests to the authorities, detailing all environmental and sanitary threats, and very competently explained the situation regarding cultural heritage sites. They also addressed all this to the governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Alexey Teksler. People also wrote to the Presidential Administration! Moreover, their appeal was also prepared by soldiers of the Special Military Operation, who are currently carrying out tasks on the front line. Russian soldiers see the problem from the front and support their fellow countrymen in the fight for nature!

This cannot be ignored. And no short-term profit interests can stand above the future of our children, the lives of our citizens.

Unfortunately, the situation around the “Urazaevsky” reserve is not an isolated case. Under pressure from influential groups, officials and big business are actively pushing for the large-scale exploitation of our country’s wilderness. And it is precisely the protected area system that is under attack: on one hand, reducing the protection status of protected areas, and on the other, brazenly demanding the elimination of reserves altogether. And it seems that this madness has no end.

And what is happening now in Nizhnyaya Sanarka is not a local problem at all! This is part of the global destruction of the country’s protected framework.

ALLIES!

Let us help our people! We must do this. From our team, official requests to state authorities will be prepared in the very near future; we will try to influence the problem.

The most important thing is the breadth of public support. The louder the public outcry, the higher the chances of victory! Therefore, be sure to support our people and spread the material everywhere. This helps bring the issue to the top of search engine results, attract major media, and prevent the situation from being buried at the regional level.

Residents of Nizhnyaya Sanarka can contact us directly if they need help publicizing the information. We will help with all our might. The full strength of our vast number of supporters is on your side.

Fight for Life!

Do not give up.

© PAVEL PASHKOV