THE METAL-BEARING CAPACITY OF THE ORGANIC AND MINERAL FRACTIONS OF OIL BITUMINOUS ROCK

Heavy high-viscosity oils and natural bitumen are increasingly attracting research attention as al-ternative sources of hydrocarbon raw materials. The development and rational use of their deposits is considered to be essential for extracting synthetic oil and rare earth metals, as well as for obtaining astringent materials for road construction. Since natural bitumen is rich in microelements, this research sets out to investigate their distribution across the mineral and organic fractions of the rock, as well as in the tar-asphaltene substances contained in natural bitumen. The concentration of nickel, vanadium and accompanying trace elements is found to be uneven in all kir constituents. The largest share of the metals is observed to be concentrated in highmolecular compounds. The data obtained on the distribution of metals in the mineral and organic fractions of petroleum bituminous rock, as well as in the tar-asphaltene substances obtained from natural bitumen are deemed useful for developing technological schemes for their comprehensive processing. In addition, complete utilization of oil bituminous rock can be achieve