two circumstances have prevented western specialists from becoming acquainted with the mineral resources of the southern caucasus. firstly, under the ussr regime, mineral resources were always considered a matter of strategic secrecy. secondly, the resource base has been considered in political-economic terms, helping the enormous country to survive and to develop independently from the rest of the world. in free countries the resource base represents a macroeconomic category with an exactly determined value. thus, the present book is the first one to provide all necessary geological and economic characteristics of the most important deposits and mines of the southern caucasus, as well as their distribution. the book will interest economic and mining geologists, geoeconomists, macroeconomists, experts in governmental management of the resource base, investors, and the general public interested in the southern caucasus.