Kovdor (russian: Ковдор, fi, Koutero) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

and the

administrative center An administrative center is a seat of regional administration or local government, or a county town, or the place where the central administration of a commune is located. In countries with French as administrative language (such as Belgium, Lu ...

Kovdorsky District Kovdorsky District (russian: Ковдо́рский райо́н) is an administrative district ( raion), one of the six in Murmansk Oblast, Russia.Law #96-01-ZMO It is located to the west of the Kola Peninsula. The area of the district is .Depar ...

Murmansk Oblast Murmansk Oblast (russian: Му́рманская о́бласть, p=ˈmurmənskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ, r=Murmanskaya oblast, ''Murmanskaya oblast''; Kildin Sami: Мурман е̄ммьне, ''Murman jemm'ne'') is a federal subject (an oblast) o ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

, mostly known for its mining industry. Population:

History

By 1965, Kovdor was a work settlement in the district of Kirovsk.''Administrative-Territorial Division of Murmansk Oblast'', p. 57 By the September 20, 1965

Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic was the collective head of state of the Russian SFSR and the permanent body of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian SFSR that was accountable to the Supreme Sovi ...

Decree, it was granted the status of a town under district jurisdiction and subordinated to Kirovsk Town Soviet. However, by the June 28, 1967 Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Decree, Kovdor was subordinated to Apatity—a town under oblast jurisdiction which was granted this status a year before.

Economy

Kovdor is located in the center of a large

mineral resources Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...

field. The town's industry is mostly tied to

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the econom ...

. A

carbonatite Carbonatite () is a type of intrusive or extrusive igneous rock defined by mineralogic composition consisting of greater than 50% carbonate minerals. Carbonatites may be confused with marble and may require geochemical verification. Carbonati ...

mine is located near the town.

Public limited company A public limited company (legally abbreviated to PLC or plc) is a type of public company under United Kingdom company law, some Commonwealth jurisdictions, and the Republic of Ireland. It is a limited liability company whose shares may be fr ...

"Kovdor's Mining Plant" (''Kovdorsky gorno-obogatitelny kombinat'', or Kovdorsky GOK) is the largest company in the town and in Kovdorsky District. Kovdorsky GOK is a part of Russia's largest mineral fertilizer producer

EuroChem EuroChem Group AG is a Swiss fertilizer producer. It is a fertilizer manufacturer with its own capacity in all three primary nutrients – nitrogen, phosphates and potash. It is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland. It manufactures and markets ag ...

. The area around Kovdor is rich in

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the ...

, and

vermiculite Vermiculite is a hydrous phyllosilicate mineral which undergoes significant expansion when heated. Exfoliation occurs when the mineral is heated sufficiently, and commercial furnaces can routinely produce this effect. Vermiculite forms by the we ...

. The town is named after Kovdoro lake.Information about Kovdorsky District and Kovdorsky GOK
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International relations

Twin towns and sister cities

Kovdor is twinned with: *

Haparanda Haparanda (; fi, Haaparanta, , aspen shore or bank) is a locality and the seat of Haparanda Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden. It is adjacent to Tornio, Finland. Haparanda had a population of 4,856 in 2010, out of a municipal total of 10, ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

Salla Salla (''Kuolajärvi'' until 1936) ( smn, Kyelijävri) is a municipality of Finland, located in Lapland. The municipality has a population of () and covers an area of of which is water. The population density is . The nearby settlement of ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

References

External links

Map of Kovdor
*
Kovdor-OnLine!
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Murmansk Oblast