Cop­per is one of the most impor­tant non-fer­rous met­als, wide­ly used in indus­try, con­struc­tion, elec­tri­cal engi­neer­ing, and the ener­gy sec­tor. Its pri­ma­ry source of extrac­tion is cop­per ores—natural min­er­al for­ma­tions con­tain­ing eco­nom­i­cal­ly viable con­cen­tra­tions of cop­per. The devel­op­ment of cop­per deposits is of key impor­tance for nation­al economies, espe­cial­ly giv­en the grow­ing demand for elec­tri­fi­ca­tion, renew­able ener­gy, and high-tech man­u­fac­tur­ing.

Cop­per ores are includ­ed in the list of min­er­als of nation­al impor­tance, approved by Res­o­lu­tion of the Cab­i­net of Min­is­ters of Ukraine No. 827 of Decem­ber 12, 1994, as ores of non-fer­rous met­als.

Physicochemical properties

Cop­per is a soft, mal­leable met­al of red­dish-yel­low col­or that has been known to human­i­ty since the 4th mil­len­ni­um BCE. It belongs to the group of chem­i­cal­ly low-reac­tive met­als. Under nor­mal con­di­tions, cop­per does not sig­nif­i­cant­ly change when exposed to air; how­ev­er, at tem­per­a­tures above 200°C in the pres­ence of oxy­gen, it begins to oxi­dize, form­ing oxides—primarily copper(I) oxide (Cu₂O) and copper(II) oxide (CuO).

Chem­i­cal­ly, cop­per does not react with water and is resis­tant to many acids, although it read­i­ly dis­solves in nitric acid and hot con­cen­trat­ed sul­fu­ric acid. It forms numer­ous com­plex com­pounds with ammo­nia, cyanides, and halo­gens. In the pres­ence of hydro­gen sul­fide, a black coat­ing of cop­per sul­fide forms on the met­al sur­face.

Its phys­i­cal prop­er­ties include a den­si­ty of 8.96 g/cm³, a melt­ing point of 1083°C, and a boil­ing point of 2567°C. Due to its crys­tal struc­ture (face-cen­tered cubic lat­tice), cop­per exhibits excel­lent elec­tri­cal and ther­mal con­duc­tiv­i­ty, sur­passed only by sil­ver. It is also high­ly duc­tile and can be eas­i­ly rolled, drawn, and stamped.

Copper minerals

In nature, cop­per occurs both in native form and as part of more than 200 min­er­als. The most impor­tant for indus­tri­al use are sul­fide and oxi­dized min­er­als. Among the sul­fides, the most wide­spread is chal­copy­rite (CuFeS₂), which con­sti­tutes the bulk of cop­per ores. Oth­er impor­tant min­er­als include chal­cocite (Cu₂S), cov­el­lite (CuS), bor­nite (Cu₅FeS₄), tenorite (CuO) — a cop­per oxide, and cuprite (Cu₂O), anoth­er oxide min­er­al.

Oxi­dized min­er­als such as mala­chite (Cu₂(CO₃)OH₂), azu­rite (Cu₃(CO₃)₂(OH)₂), and chryso­col­la (Cu₂H₂Si₂O₅(OH)₄·nH₂O) form in the oxi­da­tion zone of cop­per deposits and usu­al­ly dis­play bright green and blue col­ors, mak­ing them easy to iden­ti­fy in the field.

Sul­fos­alts are also com­mon­ly encountered—complex min­er­als con­tain­ing cop­per togeth­er with oth­er met­als, par­tic­u­lar­ly sil­ver or arsenic. These include tetra­hedrite, enar­gite, and boulan­gerite. Their pres­ence indi­cates more com­plex geo­chem­i­cal con­di­tions dur­ing deposit for­ma­tion.

Copper deposits in Ukraine

More than 150 cop­per occur­rences are known with­in the ter­ri­to­ry of Ukraine, although none of them are cur­rent­ly under indus­tri­al exploita­tion. Among the promis­ing regions, the Ukrain­ian Shield (USH), the Volyn-Podil­skyi Plate, the Dnipro-Donet­sk Basin and the Carpathi­ans stand out.

In Zhy­to­myr region, with­in the Ukrain­ian Shield, impor­tant cop­per-pyrite occur­rences are asso­ci­at­ed with gab­broid intru­sions, par­tic­u­lar­ly the Pru­tiv­ka occur­rence. Numer­ous zones of cop­per min­er­al­iza­tion are also found with­in the Mid­dle Dnipro megablock and along the Kryvyi Rih–Kremenchuk fault zone.

With­in the Volyn–Podillia Plate, cop­per min­er­al­iza­tion is relat­ed to the Ven­di­an Volyn series, where up to 11 min­er­al­ized hori­zons have been iden­ti­fied. The fore­cast resources of the Izynske, Kukhitske, Rafalivske, and Shep­etivske deposits are esti­mat­ed at approx­i­mate­ly 25 mil­lion tonnes of cop­per.

In the Dnipro–Donets Depres­sion, the Zinkivske and Beres­tianske deposits with­in Low­er Per­mi­an sed­i­ments are of con­sid­er­able inter­est. Cop­per min­er­al­iza­tion is also present in Donet­sk region, par­tic­u­lar­ly at the Mari­inske deposit. The fore­cast resources of the region exceed 1 mil­lion tonnes.

In the Carpathi­an region, cop­per-bear­ing shales and sand­stones are known with­in Cre­ta­ceous, Paleogene–Neogene, and red-bed for­ma­tions occur­ring in the Dukla–Chornohora and Ski­ba zones, as well as in the Fore-Carpathi­an Depres­sion. The Mar­marosh Mas­sif also con­tains cop­per-pyrite min­er­al­ized zones.

Techno­genic deposits are of par­tic­u­lar inter­est as well. For exam­ple, the waste dumps of the Kostyan­tyniv­ka “Ukr­cynk” plant in Donet­sk Oblast con­tain approx­i­mate­ly 8 thou­sand tonnes of cop­per, 24 thou­sand tonnes of zinc, and 10 thou­sand tonnes of lead. Pro­cess­ing these wastes through heap leach­ing could pro­vide sec­ondary recov­ery of met­als while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly improv­ing the envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tion of the region.