Iron ores. Dis­tri­b­u­tion, gen­e­sis and extrac­tion

Ukraine is a coun­try with devel­oped fer­rous met­al­lur­gy, whose estab­lish­ment was pri­mar­i­ly influ­enced by the pres­ence of unique iron ore resources in its ter­ri­to­ry. The min­ing of these ores began at the end of the 19th cen­tu­ry with sev­er­al dozen mines and quar­ries with annu­al capac­i­ties rang­ing from 0.5 to 30–40 mil­lion tons of raw ore. The com­mer­cial prod­ucts of min­ing enter­pris­es include iron con­cen­trate, crushed rich ore, agglom­er­ate, and iron ore pel­lets. In terms of iron ore pro­duc­tion, Ukraine ranks fifth in the world after Chi­na, Brazil, Rus­sia, and Aus­tralia. Iron pro­duc­tion accounts for 4% of glob­al pro­duc­tion.

As of 2000, the total iron ore reserves in Ukraine reached 18% of world reserves — sec­ond place after Rus­sia. Explored iron ore reserves in Ukraine were 32 bil­lion tons, and con­firmed reserves were 28 bil­lion tons, or 6% of world reserves. Fer­rug­i­nous quartzites pre­dom­i­nate, espe­cial­ly mag­netite ones, with rel­a­tive­ly low iron con­tent (25.8–35.1%), while rich ores (50.6–62% iron) con­sti­tute 7% of Ukraine’s total iron ore reserves.

Iron 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 fer­rous met­al ores.

Ukraine hosts the world’s largest Kryvyi Rih iron ore basin, and the Kre­menchuk and Biloz­er­ka iron ore regions. The deposits in the Kerch basin and Prya­zovia region are cur­rent­ly not being exploit­ed. Addi­tion­al­ly, small iron ore deposits have been dis­cov­ered in the Mid­dle Bug region. The total num­ber of iron ore deposits is 48, with 25 being devel­oped. With­in the deposits that are being devel­oped and pre­pared for devel­op­ment, there are 17.8 bil­lion tons of reserves (58%), while deposits that are being explored or have been explored con­tain 12.8 bil­lion tons (36%). The poten­tial for increas­ing explored reserves is deter­mined by large fore­cast­ed resources — over 30 bil­lion tons.

Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Basin

The Kryvyi Rih basin is Ukraine’s main min­ing cen­ter, locat­ed in the Dnipropetro­vsk region. It rep­re­sents a strip of fer­rug­i­nous rocks 2 to 7 km wide, extend­ing from south to north for more than 100 km. The basin is locat­ed with­in the Ukrain­ian Shield, in the Kryvyi Rih-Kre­menchuk struc­tur­al-met­al­lo­genic zone, char­ac­ter­ized by the devel­op­ment of the fol­low­ing for­ma­tions:

• jaspilite,
• siliceous-shale,
• siliceous-car­bon­ate-sand­stone,
• meta­con­glom­er­ate-sand­stone,
• meta-andesite-basalt.

The dis­tri­b­u­tion of jaspilite for­ma­tion deter­mines the pres­ence of indus­tri­al deposits rep­re­sent­ed by rich ores and ores requir­ing enrich­ment (fer­rug­i­nous quartzites). Among rich ores, genet­ic types include meta­mor­phic ores enriched in the hyper­ge­n­e­sis zone. This type accounts for about 85% of the bas­in’s rich ores. The for­ma­tions con­tain­ing iron ores are part of the Novokryvoriz­ka, Ske­li­u­vats­ka, Sak­sa­han­s­ka, Hdan­nivs­ka, and Hleiu­vats­ka suites of the Kryvyi Rih series of the Pro­tero­zoic. Iron ores are main­ly con­fined to the Sak­sa­han­s­ka suite, which con­sists of sev­en hori­zons of fer­rug­i­nous quartzites and quartzite-shales with a total thick­ness of up to 1500 m, alter­nat­ing, some­times merg­ing and pinch­ing out. Ore bod­ies have lay­er, colum­nar, and nest-like forms. The rocks of the Kryvyi Rih series are fold­ed into a com­plex struc­ture with sub­merid­ion­al strike.

Rocks con­tain­ing 30–45% iron (fer­rug­i­nous quartzites) are divid­ed into unox­i­dized (mag­netite, iron-mica-mag­netite, sil­i­cate-mag­netite) and oxi­dized (mar­tite, iron-mica-mar­tite, goethite-hydro­goethite-mar­tite). Deposits of eas­i­ly enriched unox­i­dized quartzites are con­fined to the hinges and wings of fold­ed struc­tures, to zones of trans­verse rock defor­ma­tion. Quartzites have devel­oped pla­nar (up to 100 m deep) and lin­ear (up to 2000–2500 m deep and more) oxi­da­tion zones.

Rich iron ores are devel­oped main­ly among fer­rug­i­nous quartzites of the Sak­sa­han­s­ka suite. Ore deposits 10 to 100 m thick are grouped into 25 deposits. By min­er­al com­po­si­tion, rich iron ores with aver­age con­tent of Fe — 56%, P — 0.02%, S — 0.16% are dis­trib­uted into mag­netite, mar­tite, hematite-mar­tite, goethite-dis­persed-hematite. Mar­tite and hematite-mar­tite ores pre­dom­i­nate. Poor iron ores are rep­re­sent­ed by quartz-mag­netite quartzites. The extrac­tion of rich mag­netite-hematite-mar­tite ores is car­ried out by under­ground method. The min­ing depth has reached 1400 m. Fer­rug­i­nous quartzites (mag­netite) are main­ly mined at Novokryvorizkyi, Piv­den­nyi, Pivnich­nyi, Inhulet­skyi, and Tsen­tral­nyi min­ing and pro­cess­ing plants by open-pit method, with most quar­ries reach­ing depths of about 300 m.

The Kryvbas con­cen­trates 21 bil­lion tons of explored iron ore reserves. Its indus­tri­al com­plex can annu­al­ly extract 190 mil­lion tons of raw iron ore and process it into 70 mil­lion tons of mar­ketable prod­ucts. The bas­in’s prospects are asso­ci­at­ed with fur­ther expan­sion of iron ore pro­duc­tion through enriched oxi­dized fer­rug­i­nous quartzites and sig­nif­i­cant increase in mag­netite quartzite min­ing by under­ground method.

Kremenchuk Iron Ore Region

The Kre­menchuk iron ore region is locat­ed on the left bank of the Dnipro Riv­er in the Polta­va region. The region forms the north­ern branch of the Kryvyi Rih-Kre­menchuk struc­tur­al-met­al­lo­genic zone, rep­re­sent­ed by a strip of Pre­cam­bri­an rocks 1–3 km wide, extend­ing north to south for 45 km. Iron ores are con­fined to the Sak­sa­han­s­ka suite of the Kryvyi Rih series of the Low­er Pro­tero­zoic. The Sak­sa­han­s­ka suite (up to 1200–1300 m thick) con­sists of five sub-suites of fer­rug­i­nous quartzites sep­a­rat­ed by shale hori­zons.

In the Kre­menchuk region, explored iron ore reserves amount to 4.1 bil­lion tons. These include rich iron ores with aver­age iron con­tent of 58.5%, mag­netite quartzites (32.8% iron), and cum­ming­tonite-mag­netite quartzites (27.4% iron). The Polta­va Min­ing and Pro­cess­ing Plant oper­ates on the basis of iron ore deposits with a design capac­i­ty of 34 mil­lion tons of ore per year. The region’s prospects are asso­ci­at­ed with the devel­op­ment of fer­rug­i­nous quartzites and imple­men­ta­tion of new enrich­ment tech­nolo­gies.

Bilozerka Iron Ore Region

The Biloz­er­ka iron ore region is locat­ed in the Zapor­izhzhia region, on the south­ern slope of the Ukrain­ian Shield, extend­ing in a sub­merid­ion­al direc­tion for 65 km, with a width of 5–20 km. The geo­log­i­cal struc­ture of the region includes meta­mor­phosed sed­i­men­ta­ry-vol­canogenic rocks of the Archean con­tain­ing iron ores (lay­ers of fer­rug­i­nous quartzites). Fer­rug­i­nous quartzites form lay­ers 60 to 250 m thick, which can be traced along strike for sev­er­al kilo­me­ters and along dip for more than 1500 m. Rich iron ore deposits up to 100 m thick are con­fined to fer­rug­i­nous quartzites.

In the Biloz­er­ka region, explored iron ore reserves amount to 0.7 bil­lion tons, with iron con­tent of 60.6%, of which 40% are rich Besse­mer-grade ores. The Zapor­izhzhia Iron Ore Plant oper­ates on their basis, min­ing about 3 mil­lion tons of ore.

Pryazovia Iron Ore Region

The Prya­zovia iron ore region is locat­ed in the south of Zapor­izhzhia and Donet­sk regions, with­in the south­east­ern part of the Ukrain­ian Shield. The total area of the region is 360 km². Iron ores are con­fined to Low­er Pro­tero­zoic and Archean for­ma­tions of the fer­rug­i­nous-siliceous for­ma­tion. Ore deposits are asso­ci­at­ed with brachyan­ti­cli­nal struc­tures and nar­row graben-like syn­clines. The total iron ore reserves of the Prya­zovia region deposits amount to 3.5 bil­lion tons — this is a pri­ma­ry reserve base for Ukraine’s fer­rous met­al­lur­gy. Prya­zovia ores can pro­duce iron ore con­cen­trates with iron con­tent of 69–72%, suit­able for qual­i­ty met­al­lur­gy.

Kerch Iron Ore Basin

The Kerch iron ore basin is locat­ed on the Kerch Penin­su­la of the Crimean Autonomous Repub­lic. Iron ores are con­fined to muldes and depres­sions of lat­i­tu­di­nal strike 6–40 km long and 1.5–13 km wide. The ore hori­zon is asso­ci­at­ed with marine Kim­mer­ian deposits of the Low­er Pliocene and is rep­re­sent­ed by gen­tly dip­ping lay­ers of sandy-clayey rocks with brown iron ores. The thick­ness of ore deposits ranges from 0.5–2 m in mar­gin­al parts to 25–40 m in cen­tral parts of muldes. The main ore types are: brown, com­posed of hydro­fer­rochlo­rite, fer­ri­mont­mo­ril­lonite, hydro­goethite, and tobac­co (lep­tochlo­rite). Brown iron ores formed in the upper part of the lay­er due to oxi­da­tion of tobac­co ores. The pre­dom­i­nant part of them is char­ac­ter­ized by oolitic tex­ture. The bas­in’s iron ore reserves amount to 1.8 bil­lion tons, includ­ing 560 mil­lion tons of brown ores (with iron con­tent of 37.5%). The deposits were devel­oped by quar­ries. Cur­rent­ly, iron ore min­ing has been sus­pend­ed.

Under­stand­ing the impor­tance of Ukraine’s iron ore poten­tial in the glob­al con­text opens prospects for eco­nom­ic growth and indus­tri­al devel­op­ment of the coun­try. Iron ore reserves are a key ele­ment not only for the domes­tic mar­ket but also for inter­na­tion­al trade and meet­ing glob­al indus­try needs. The devel­op­ment of tech­nolo­gies that will improve the qual­i­ty of iron ore prod­ucts and help reduce neg­a­tive envi­ron­men­tal impact are extreme­ly impor­tant tasks for the state and indus­try enter­pris­es. Only by con­sid­er­ing these aspects can Ukraine ensure sus­tain­able and respon­si­ble use of its nat­ur­al resources and con­tribute to envi­ron­men­tal preser­va­tion for future gen­er­a­tions.