O’zbekiston respublikasi oliy va o’rta maxsus ta’lim vazirligi mirzo ulug’bek nomidagi o’zbekiston milliy universiteti

Resources, minerals. Uzbekistan owns rich natural potential. Large unique and not yet involved into production reserves of mineral — raw resources in its entrails.

Water occupies a particular place among natural riches.

The largest rivers of Uzbekistan and the whole of Middle Asia are the Amu-Darya and the Syr-Darya. The total length of the Amy-Darya is 1,473 km and the Syr-Darya — 2,137 km. Uzbekistan belongs to the regions where farming is based on artificial irrigation, that is why rivers and reservoirs are of great importance not only for preserving already existing oases and also for developing new uninhabited before lands. Taking into cosideration the importance of water for the Republic, a number of canals and storage pools have been built in the Republic.

There are few large lakes on the territory of the Republic. The largest of them is Aral. As it occupies a rather large territory the people started calling it the Aral Sea. Among other comparatively large lakes one can name Soudachye and Arnasaiskkoye.

The Republic of Uzbekistan is also rich in mineral springe which thanks to their chemical components have a medical effect on the human organism. Out of mineral waters discovered in Uzbekistan for the last years the most valuable are sulphuretted hybrogenic, iodine carrying, radon and weakly — mineralized alkaline" thermomineral waters.

More than 100 types of raw minerals located in 700 deposits have been discovered in the Republic. Among them are molibdenum, lithium, lead, tungsten, zinc, stone and potassium salts, spar, graphite, pyrites — polymetal ores and also facing, precious and half— precious stones, building materials, fuel-power resources, thermal springs, large artesian water-pools, combustible gas.

There are deposits of natural gas, coal, oil, copper manganese, gold, marble, kaolin, bauxites and many others here. In the entrails of the earth one can find the whole of Mendeleyev's table. According to the data of foreign experts the price of all these resources reaches 3 billions USS.

More than 30 deposits of gold have been discovered in Uzbekistan. The Republic holds the second place among the CIS countries, 7-8 place in the world in gold production and fifth place in per capita gold production, The total reserves of the discovered deposits already exceed 4,000 tons. And Uzbek gold in its quality corresponds to the highest world standards.

Every year 80,000 tons of copper (10-! 1 place as far as deposits are concerned) are produced. There are great deposits of uranium,

The investigated deposits of gas are 2 billion, m¹ coal — 2 billion tons.

More than 140 deposits of oil, 30 deposits of precious metals, 420 building materials have already been discovered.

According to the data of western experts the total potential of natural reserves in Uzbekistan is 1,500-2,000 billion USS. Thus Uzbekistan today is one of the most promising states in Asia as far as capital investing is concerned.

II. Answer the following questions after reading the text given below

1. 
   Why is it possible to grow such crops as cotton, grapes, peaches and many others in Uzbekistan?
   
2. 
   By what is the structure of agroindustrial complex made up in Uzbekistan?
   
3. 
   What place in the world does Uzbekistan occupy in producing cotton fibre?
   
4. 
   What is one of the main tasks to be solved in the process of economic reforms in Uzbekistan?
   
5. 
   What types of cattle-breeding products are widely known outside Uzbekistan?