Gold. Dis­tri­b­u­tion, gen­e­sis and min­ing prospects

Gold is a pre­cious met­al that has long attract­ed peo­ple’s atten­tion with its lus­ter, val­ue, and unique beau­ty. Ukraine, rich in var­i­ous nat­ur­al resources, views gold not only as a sym­bol of lux­u­ry and wealth but also as an object of inter­est for eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment and invest­ment. Although its resources in the coun­try are rather lim­it­ed com­pared to oth­er coun­tries, the pres­ence of gold in Ukraine can be sig­nif­i­cant for the nation­al econ­o­my and the coun­try’s over­all well-being.

Gold ores are includ­ed in the list of min­er­als of nation­al impor­tance approved in Res­o­lu­tion No. 827 of the Cab­i­net of Min­is­ters of Ukraine dat­ed 12 Decem­ber 1994, as ores of pre­cious met­als.

With the gen­er­al insuf­fi­cient study of gold pres­ence in Ukraine, 240 ore man­i­fes­ta­tions have been iden­ti­fied, of which 10 are clas­si­fied as deposits with reserves of 80–135 tons each, and three gold-bear­ing regions have been iden­ti­fied: the Carpathi­ans, the Ukrain­ian Shield, and Don­bas.

The most explored gold ore dis­tricts are locat­ed in the vol­canic belt of the Carpathi­ans, meta­mor­phic com­plex­es of the ancient Ukrain­ian Shield, black shale for­ma­tions of the Fold­ed Don­bas, in ancient and mod­ern riv­er chan­nels, com­plex tita­ni­um-zir­co­ni­um plac­ers, and in the tail­ings of iron ore enrich­ment. The promis­ing deposits of the Ukrain­ian Carpathi­ans were Muzhi­ivske, Bere­hivske, and Sau­li­ak, whose reserves amount­ed to mil­lions of tons of ore, with an aver­age gold con­tent of 6–8 g/t.

Over­all, Ukraine has the poten­tial to extract approx­i­mate­ly 3,000 tons of gold. For exam­ple, in the Carpathi­ans, the reserves of this met­al are esti­mat­ed at 55 tons, and in Don­bas, the total fore­cast­ed resources amount to about 400 tons. How­ev­er, the most sig­nif­i­cant gold-bear­ing region is the Ukrain­ian Shield, where the pos­si­bil­i­ty of extract­ing up to 2,400 tons of gold is expect­ed.

How­ev­er, cur­rent­ly, there is prac­ti­cal­ly no gold min­ing in Ukraine. One rea­son for this is insuf­fi­cient study of min­er­al resources. Anoth­er obsta­cle is the com­plex­i­ty of imple­ment­ing the tech­no­log­i­cal process and start­ing gold min­ing. At gold ore sites in Ukraine, where reserves range from 30 to 40 tons, the required invest­ments exceed 3.5 bil­lion hryv­nias.

Carpathian Gold-Bearing Province

Gold min­ing in Tran­scarpathia has been known since ancient times. The his­to­ry of gold min­ing in these places spans cen­turies, and mod­ern tech­nolo­gies allow con­tin­u­ing explo­ration and extrac­tion of this noble met­al with new pos­si­bil­i­ties and prospects.

The Muzhi­ivske deposit in the Carpathi­ans has been dis­cov­ered and pre­pared for exploita­tion. It is asso­ci­at­ed with vol­canogenic-sed­i­men­ta­ry for­ma­tions of the andesite-rhy­o­lite for­ma­tion of Miocene-Pliocene age, locat­ed in a pale­o­caldera. The upper part of the deposit con­tains gold ores with sim­pler min­ing con­di­tions, which grad­u­al­ly tran­si­tion into gold-poly­metal­lic ores; 30% of gold is con­cen­trat­ed in gold ores, and 70% in poly­metal­lic ores. Gold con­tent in ores varies from 1 to 150 g/t, with an aver­age val­ue of 7–8 g/t. The Bere­hivske poly­metal­lic deposit, with ores of sim­i­lar com­po­si­tion, direct­ly adjoins the Muzhi­ivske deposit. A sig­nif­i­cant spread of min­er­al­iza­tion has been estab­lished in ver­ti­cal and hor­i­zon­tal direc­tions (over 1 km). The deposit con­sists of three par­al­lel zones of sub­merid­ion­al strike with sul­fide min­er­al­iza­tion in the form of veins and inclu­sions.

Near the Muzhi­ivske deposit is the Rakhiv ore dis­trict with the Sau­li­ak deposit, locat­ed in the Mar­marosh mas­sif of ancient meta­mor­phic rocks (Riph­ean-Low­er Pale­o­zoic). The gold-quartz-car­bon­ate ores of this deposit have great poten­tial for enrich­ment. The fore­cast­ed gold resources in the Carpathi­an province con­sti­tute a quar­ter of the total fore­cast­ed gold resources in Ukraine. In the Carpathi­ans, there are high­ly promis­ing areas where indus­tri­al deposits may be dis­cov­ered, cov­er­ing an area of about 1,000 km².

Based on the results of prospect­ing and explorato­ry revi­sion stud­ies in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, the pres­ence of gold has been estab­lished in allu­vial deposits of the Prut, Cher­e­mosh, and Seret riv­er basins, as well as in the Slo­bo­da con­glom­er­ates of the Miocene and Pistyn con­glom­er­ates of the Sar­ma­t­ian. Sev­er­al areas, includ­ing Kolomyia, Doly­na, ancient Cher­e­mosh, and Yablu­niv, are rec­og­nized as promis­ing for dis­cov­er­ing small plac­er gold deposits.

The sources of plac­er gold in the allu­vi­um of the Pre­carpathi­an part of the Cher­e­mosh Riv­er val­ley and the ancient val­ley of the paleo-Cher­e­mosh Riv­er were found to be pri­ma­ry gold-bear­ing rocks of the Chyvchyny (Mar­marosh) mas­sif. For exam­ple, in the Kolomyia area of 20 km², the gold-bear­ing allu­vi­um has a thick­ness of 0.2–0.8 m, gold con­tent of 22–226 mg/m³, and fore­cast­ed gold resources are esti­mat­ed at 0.5 tons. Sim­i­lar­ly, in the Pistyn area of 3.5 km², the thick­ness of the gold-bear­ing lay­er reach­es 20 m, gold con­tent up to 2.2 g/t, and fore­cast­ed gold resources are esti­mat­ed at up to 2.0 tons. The total assess­ment of fore­cast­ed resources across four areas amounts to 16.0 tons of gold.

Gold-Bearing Province of the Ukrainian Shield

The ancient gold ore province of Ukraine is the Ukrain­ian Shield, rep­re­sent­ed by Pre­cam­bri­an plu­to­genic and meta­mor­phogenic for­ma­tions. Com­par­i­son of Pre­cam­bri­an com­plex­es and met­al­loge­ny of the Ukrain­ian Shield with high­ly pro­duc­tive ancient gold-bear­ing shields of the world (Cana­di­an, West Aus­tralian, South African, Indi­an) places it among poten­tial gold-bear­ing provinces, con­firmed by recent work. Char­ac­ter­is­tic Pre­cam­bri­an ore for­ma­tions of gold-quartz, gold-sul­fide-quartz, gold-skarn, gold-ura­ni­um, and iron ore gold-bear­ing for­ma­tions have been estab­lished here.

Among the ear­li­est and typ­i­cal for the Pre­cam­bri­an are gold-bear­ing for­ma­tions of gran­ite-green­stone areas devel­oped in the Dnipropetro­vsk region (Prid­niprovs­ka struc­tur­al-met­al­lo­genic zone). Here, in com­plex­ly built syn­cli­nal struc­tures — Verkhivt­sevs­ka, Burs­ka, Chor­tom­lyt­s­ka, Sofi­ivs­ka, Biloz­er­s­ka, and oth­ers, which make up the Verkhivt­sevsko-Sursko-Chor­tom­lyt­s­ka and Kon­sko-Biloz­er­s­ka met­al­lo­genic zones, con­trast­ing vol­canogenic for­ma­tions of var­i­ous com­po­si­tions (from ultra­ba­sic to acidic) are wide­ly rep­re­sent­ed, char­ac­ter­is­tic of green­stone com­plex­es. The rocks are schis­tose, meta­mor­phosed, and sub­ject to inten­sive meta­so­mat­ic changes: propy­l­i­ti­za­tion, listven­i­ti­za­tion, sili­ci­fi­ca­tion, bere­si­ti­za­tion, and sul­fidiza­tion.

Gold ore for­ma­tions are con­fined to altered rocks and rep­re­sent­ed by min­er­al­ized zones, quartz and car­bon­ate veins, as well as gold occur­rences in fer­rug­i­nous quartzites. The deposits asso­ci­at­ed with them include: Ser­hi­ivske, Bal­ka Zolota, Bal­ka Shy­ro­ka, Piv­denne, and sev­er­al promis­ing gold man­i­fes­ta­tions. The Ser­hi­ivske and Bal­ka Zolota deposits are locat­ed in the south­ern part of the Surs­ka gran­ite-green­stone struc­ture and are con­trolled by pla­gio-liparite extru­sion. In the con­tact zones of the extru­sion, rarely inside it, gold ore veins are con­cen­trat­ed, lying sub­con­formably with its con­tacts. The Bal­ka Shy­ro­ka deposit is locat­ed in the east­ern part of the Chor­tom­lyt­s­ka gran­ite-green­stone struc­ture. Gold-bear­ing are the interbed­ded pack­ages of metavol­canics of basic and acidic com­po­si­tion with fer­rug­i­nous quartzites, on which listven­ite-bere­site series meta­so­matites are devel­oped. Min­er­al­ized zones rep­re­sent sub­ver­ti­cal lay­er-like bod­ies.

Lat­er gold min­er­al­iza­tion is man­i­fest­ed with­in Ear­ly Pro­tero­zoic mobile belts and suture troughs (Kirovohrad, West-Inhulets, Kryvyi Rih-Kre­menchuk met­al­lo­genic zones), and is also asso­ci­at­ed with lin­ear tec­ton­ic-meta­so­mat­ic zones and acti­va­tion struc­tures (Tal­nivs­ka, Per­vo­maisk-Trak­te­myriv, Zveny­horod­ka-Han­niv­ka, Kirovohrad met­al­lo­genic zones) that frame com­plex plu­tons and gran­ite mas­sifs. With­in these zones, alka­line meta­so­ma­tism, skarni­fi­ca­tion, mica­ti­za­tion, and sili­ci­fi­ca­tion are man­i­fest­ed. Ore bod­ies are rep­re­sent­ed by min­er­al­ized zones and quartz veins. Gold is pre­dom­i­nant­ly free, asso­ci­at­ed with native bis­muth, pyrite, pyrrhotite, arsenopy­rite, gale­na, and less com­mon­ly chal­copy­rite. Promis­ing deposits and ore man­i­fes­ta­tions of this type have been dis­cov­ered.

In the Kirovohrad region, with­in the Klyntsiv-Konev ore field, there are two close­ly locat­ed deposits — Klyntsivske and Yuriyivske, which are con­fined to the east­ern con­tact of the Novoukrain­ka gran­ite mas­sif. Gold min­er­al­iza­tion is local­ized in biotite, biotite-amphi­bo­lite, and cordierite gneiss­es. Min­er­al­ized zones rep­re­sent areas of inten­sive sili­ci­fi­ca­tion of rocks with steep dips. Ore inter­vals are dis­trib­uted uneven­ly with­in the min­er­al­ized zones. The ores are gold-quartz with low sul­fide con­tent.

In the Cherkasy region (Tal­nivs­ka met­al­lo­genic zone, Savran ore field), the Maiske deposit is locat­ed, con­fined to a pack­age of gneiss­es, migmatites, and amphi­bo­lites that have under­gone inten­sive hydrother­mal-meta­so­mat­ic changes (in the form of sili­ci­fi­ca­tion and bioti­ti­za­tion). Gold min­er­al­iza­tion, rep­re­sent­ed main­ly by native gold, is asso­ci­at­ed with altered rocks that form steeply dip­ping deposits.

Based on these deposits, it is planned to cre­ate a large gold min­ing com­plex on the Ukrain­ian Shield. The fore­cast­ed gold resources on the Ukrain­ian Shield are esti­mat­ed as rel­a­tive­ly large and con­sti­tute 65% of Ukraine’s pre­cious met­al resources. High­ly promis­ing areas with pre­cious met­al min­er­al­iza­tion equal 5,000 km².

Donetsk Gold-Bearing Province

By the scale of man­i­fes­ta­tion and lev­el of indus­tri­al con­tent of gold and sil­ver (small and medi­um-sized con­di­tion­al ores), the Donet­sk struc­tur­al-met­al­lo­genic zone belongs to the promis­ing gold-bear­ing regions of Ukraine. In the Nahal­nyi gold ore dis­trict, indus­tri­al ore-bear­ing capac­i­ty for gold-sil­ver ores (Bobrykivske and Hostrobuhirske deposits) and gold-sil­ver ores with poly­met­als (Zhu­ravske deposit) has been estab­lished. The geo­log­i­cal posi­tion, age of pre­cious met­al min­er­al­iza­tion, ore for­ma­tion, and min­er­alog­i­cal fea­tures of these deposits are sim­i­lar to black shale type deposits.

The best-stud­ied is the Bobrykivske deposit, which is con­fined to the south­ern limb of the epony­mous brachyan­ti­cline, com­posed of sandy-clay deposits of the Car­bonif­er­ous. Gold-sul­fide min­er­al­iza­tion is local­ized in a tec­ton­i­cal­ly weak­ened zone. Min­er­al­iza­tion is of vein and stock­work-dis­sem­i­nat­ed type. The fore­cast­ed gold resources of Don­bas com­prise about 10% of all fore­cast­ed resources in Ukraine. High­ly promis­ing areas with pre­cious met­al min­er­al­iza­tion occu­py sev­er­al hun­dred square kilo­me­ters.

The most pro­duc­tive gold-bear­ing poten­tial of Ukraine’s ter­ri­to­ry is asso­ci­at­ed with tran­sre­gion­al long-lived (Late Archean — Ceno­zoic) acti­va­tion mega­zones of lat­i­tu­di­nal strike, which are the main ore-con­cen­trat­ing struc­tures. The Cen­tral Ukrain­ian acti­va­tion mega­zone cross­es the entire Ukrain­ian Shield, south­ern parts of Don­bas, and the Ukrain­ian Carpathi­ans. With­in this zone, the main gold ore, rare met­al, and ura­ni­um objects of the Ukrain­ian Shield, gold-poly­metal­lic and mer­cury min­er­al­iza­tion of the Carpathi­ans and Don­bas are locat­ed.

The North Ukrain­ian mega­zone encom­pass­es the north­west­ern mar­gin­al part of the Ukrain­ian Shield, the north­ern part of the Volyn-Podil­lia plate, and con­tin­ues into the ter­ri­to­ry of Poland and the Voronezh crys­talline mas­sif. The zone con­trols rare met­al, sil­ver-poly­metal­lic, flu­o­rite min­er­al­iza­tion of the Ukrain­ian Shield, native cop­per in the Volyn traps, rare met­al and gold min­er­al­iza­tion of the Voronezh crys­talline mas­sif, and sil­ver-poly­metal­lic ores of Sile­sia in Poland.

In the for­ma­tion of Ukraine’s endo­genic gold ore poten­tial, four main epochs are dis­tin­guished: Late Archean-Ear­ly Pro­tero­zoic (2450–2900 mil­lion years), Mid­dle Pro­tero­zoic (1650–1720 mil­lion years), Per­mi­an-Tri­as­sic (220–300 mil­lion years), and Neo­gene (15 mil­lion years).

Gold in Ukraine remains an impor­tant resource both from eco­nom­ic and socio­cul­tur­al per­spec­tives. The results of geo­log­i­cal explo­ration work indi­cate sig­nif­i­cant gold ore poten­tial in Ukraine, the real­iza­tion of which could place it among the lead­ing coun­tries pro­duc­ing pre­cious met­als. How­ev­er, sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges arise relat­ed to envi­ron­men­tal and social aspects of min­ing, which require atten­tion and care­ful reg­u­la­tion. The devel­op­ment of the gold ore sec­tor in Ukraine has great poten­tial for stim­u­lat­ing eco­nom­ic growth and ensur­ing the coun­try’s sta­bil­i­ty but requires a bal­ance between eco­nom­ic inter­ests and respon­si­ble atti­tude towards nat­ur­al resources and social needs of com­mu­ni­ties.