The Volga shale basin is located in the southeastern part of the East European Platform within the Volga-Urals anteclise and the instrumental zone of the Caspian depression. The sediments of the Volga tier of the Upper Jurassic are sedimentary in the basin. The geological reserves of the Volga shale basin are more than 40 billion tons. Investigations of oil shale revealed the presence in it of significant contents of dispersed and noble metals, rhenium and platinum group metals: palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium.
