Saima Karimova

Saima Safievna Karimova (; 31 October 1926 – 1 January 2013) was a Soviet and Russian geologist. She was a senior geologist at the South Yakutsk complex expedition as a senior geologist of coal exploration and thematic parties from 1955 to 1968 and led its geological department. Karimova was the chief geologist of the South Yakut Complex Expedition from 1968 to her retirement in 1988 and was a significant contributor to the geological study of South Sakha. She opened the Elga coal mine in 1981, evaluated alluvial deposits of gold, uranium, molybdenum, granite, marble, building materials, facing raw materials in Yakutia and helped to develop coal deposits, iron ore deposits and phlogopite deposits. Karimova was the recipient of various state awards such as the Order of Lenin and the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.

Biography On 31 October 1926, Karimova was born into a working-class family in the city of Frunze in the Kirghiz ASSR. Her parents had moved from Tatarstan to Kyrgyzstan in 1921. The family later moved to the mining village of Rutchenkovo in the Donbas (today in Donetsk) in 1937 because of the fear of reprisals. Karimova completed her studies at a Ukrainian school and excelled academically. When the Great Patriotic War broke out in 1941, she and her family were evacuated to the Eastwards to the village of in the Buinsky District, Tatarstan. she began working as a geologist and later senior geologist at the Aldan geological exploration expedition in the village of , South Yakutia. She was an elected deputy of the fifth convocation of the Supreme Soviet of the Yakut ASSR from 1976 to 1988.

Personal life She was married to the geologist Salimkham Vafinovich Zinuro and the couple had three children. Karimova retained her maiden name during the marriage. She died in the town of Neryungri on 1 January 2013. She would become an Honorary Citizen of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) on 24 April 1997. Karimova was also made an , and a Honoured Geologist of the Yakut ASSR. On 7 November 2015, a public garden at Neryungri city gymnasium No. 1 district library system that featured a memorial plaque was opened and named for Karimova.