Cherkasy region in Ukraine is rich in var­i­ous min­er­al resources, which are divid­ed into sev­er­al cat­e­gories:

• Brown coal
• Peat

• Fer­rous met­als
• Non-fer­rous met­als
• Pre­cious met­als
• Radioac­tive met­als

• Raw mate­ri­als for met­al­lur­gy (non-ore min­er­als)
• Flux­ing and pel­letiz­ing mate­ri­als for iron ore con­cen­trates
• Min­ing raw mate­ri­als
• Jew­el­ry raw mate­ri­als
• Raw mate­ri­als for fac­ing (dec­o­ra­tive) mate­ri­als
• Con­struc­tion raw mate­ri­als

Cherkasy region is locat­ed at the inter­sec­tion of two sub­provinces in Ukraine. Here, met­al­lo­genic regions are iden­ti­fied where many deposits of metal­lic min­er­als are locat­ed. This par­tic­u­lar­ly con­cerns struc­tur­al-met­al­lo­genic zones such as the Bila Tserk­va, Holo­vanivsk, and Zvenyhorodka–Bratsk regions. The ter­ri­to­ry also con­tains impor­tant deposits of sec­ondary kaolins, ben­tonite clays, and con­struc­tion mate­ri­als.

Brown coal

The indus­tri­al pres­ence of brown coal deposits is asso­ci­at­ed with sed­i­ments formed by con­ti­nen­tal process­es and is locat­ed with­in ancient pale­o­val­leys on the crys­talline base­ment rocks. Typ­i­cal­ly, the depth of occur­rence of these coal seams aver­ages from 30 to 60 meters.

With­in Cherkasy region, two deposits have been iden­ti­fied. The Ryzhanivske deposit is locat­ed in the Ryzhaniv pale­o­val­ley and includes brown coal seams occur­ring among sed­i­ments of for­mer lakes and swamps. The geo­log­i­cal sec­tion con­sists of var­i­ous deposits, includ­ing marine sed­i­ments of Pale­o­gene and Neo­gene ori­gin, as well as Qua­ter­nary deposits of dif­fer­ent types. Cur­rent­ly, this deposit is not active­ly devel­oped or exploit­ed.

The Zelenkivske deposit is locat­ed near the vil­lage of Zelenkiv and belongs to the Zelenkiv pale­o­val­ley of Buch­tach age. It con­sists of two parts. The west­ern part con­tains four sep­a­rate brown coal seams with thick­ness­es rang­ing from 0.5 to 5.1 meters and an aver­age depth of about 42 meters. The east­ern part con­tains brown coal with an aver­age thick­ness of 2.6 meters and occurs at depths of up to 51.4 meters. The deposit is not cur­rent­ly being exploit­ed.

Peat

Peat deposits are locat­ed along the Ros, Hny­lyi Tikych, and Hirskyi Tikych rivers and their trib­u­taries. Peat has a dark brown or dark brown­ish col­or and con­tains plant remains. The thick­ness of peat lay­ers varies from 0.3 to 2 meters, with an aver­age thick­ness of about 1.3–2 meters. There are 25 peat deposits with­in Cherkasy region, some of which are peri­od­i­cal­ly exploit­ed.

Iron

With­in the Volo­darsk ore field, iron ores of meta­mor­phogenic ori­gin have been iden­ti­fied. They are asso­ci­at­ed with fer­rug­i­nous quartzites of the Volodarsk–Bila Tserk­va sequence. This occur­rence is locat­ed approx­i­mate­ly 10 km north of the city of Bila Tserk­va. Mag­net­ic anom­alies are caused by the pres­ence of fer­rug­i­nous quartzites among the sur­round­ing rocks, form­ing an uplift with a com­plex fault­ed geo­log­i­cal struc­ture. The con­tent of sol­u­ble iron in these ores ranges from 16.93% to 42.15%. How­ev­er, this occur­rence has no indus­tri­al sig­nif­i­cance.

Manganese

Occur­rences of man­ganese in the Cherkasy region have been iden­ti­fied with­in the Holo­vanivsk met­al­lo­genic area, in the North­ern Yatran ore field and at the Sverd­lykivsk occur­rence. The ore zones con­tain garnet–biotite graphite-bear­ing gneiss­es with man­ganese con­tents rang­ing from 6% to 14%. These occur­rences require fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion.

At the Sverd­lykivsk occur­rence, frag­ments of gran­ites con­tain­ing up to 18.39% man­ganese have been found. Pyrolusite–psilomelane ores with up to 60% man­ganese oxide have also been iden­ti­fied in the weath­er­ing crusts of rocks. How­ev­er, these occur­rences have no prac­ti­cal sig­nif­i­cance due to their small scale.

Aluminium

The Zveny­horod occur­rence is locat­ed near the vil­lage of Hudziv­ka and is asso­ci­at­ed with baux­ite-like rocks formed through lat­erit­ic weath­er­ing process­es. These rocks occur at depths of up to 93 m with­in sandy-kaolin deposits of the low­er Cre­ta­ceous. The thick­ness of the deposit varies from 0.2 to 10.5 m. The baux­ite-like rocks have a loose struc­ture but a low alu­mi­na con­tent (up to 17.1%), which makes this occur­rence unsuit­able for indus­tri­al exploita­tion.

Copper and nickel

The Pavlivsk occur­rence is locat­ed about 2 km south­east of the vil­lage of Pavliv­ka and is asso­ci­at­ed with the west­ern part of the Pavliv­ka grav­i­ty anom­aly. The zones con­tain min­er­als such as pyrite, pyrrhotite, chal­copy­rite, and occa­sion­al­ly arsenopy­rite. The cop­per con­tent in these zones ranges from 0.1% to 0.3%, nick­el con­tent from 0.11% to 0.13%, and graphite con­tent may reach up to 20%. How­ev­er, the occur­rence is still insuf­fi­cient­ly stud­ied.

Titanium and titanium–zirconium

In the Cherkasy region, the Tarasivka–Tarashcha area is locat­ed, which includes the Tara­sivske deposit and sev­er­al occur­rences of titanium–zirconium ores. The Tara­sivske deposit extends for more than 20 km from south­east to north­west and con­tains sands enriched with tita­ni­um and zir­co­ni­um min­er­als. There are also addi­tion­al titanium–zirconium occur­rences with­in the Tarashcha area that require fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tion.

Tantalum and niobium

The Murzyn­sk occur­rence is locat­ed west of the vil­lage of Murzyn­ci. In peg­matites that have under­gone meta­so­mat­ic alter­ation, low con­cen­tra­tions of tan­ta­lum (0.02%) and nio­bi­um (up to 0.03%) have been found. This occur­rence is asso­ci­at­ed with tec­ton­ic faults of sub­merid­ion­al ori­en­ta­tion that are part of the Per­vo­maisk fault sys­tem. These deposits require fur­ther study.

Gold

In Cherkasy region, gold con­cen­tra­tions have been iden­ti­fied in min­er­al­iza­tion points and geo­chem­i­cal zones with­in the weath­er­ing crust of the crys­talline base­ment. With­in the Tal­niv­ka met­al­lo­genic zone (the Savyra ore field), the Maiske deposit is locat­ed. It is asso­ci­at­ed with a sequence of gneiss­es, migmatites, and amphi­bo­lites that have under­gone intense hydrothermal–metasomatic alter­ation (sili­ci­fi­ca­tion and bioti­ti­za­tion). Gold min­er­al­iza­tion, main­ly rep­re­sent­ed by native gold, is asso­ci­at­ed with these altered rocks form­ing steeply dip­ping ore bod­ies. In the low­er Cre­ta­ceous sand–gravel deposits, numer­ous gold aure­oles have been iden­ti­fied, with the high­est con­tent (920 mg/m³) record­ed at the Skrypchy­necke occur­rence. How­ev­er, due to their great depth, small thick­ness, and lim­it­ed area, these deposits have no inde­pen­dent indus­tri­al sig­nif­i­cance. Instead, they are used as indi­ca­tors for prospect­ing pri­ma­ry gold sources.

Uranium

The Berestovets occur­rence is locat­ed west of the vil­lage of Sushkiv­ka and is asso­ci­at­ed with ura­ni­um ores in gran­i­toids of the Uman com­plex, which con­tain peg­matitic gran­ites. Ura­ni­um con­tent in these ores ranges from 0.073% to 0.13%. Ura­ni­um occurs in min­er­als such as urani­nite, autu­nite, as well as thor­ite and mon­azite. Ura­ni­um is also present in car­bona­ceous deposits of the Novopetrivs­ka suite, though in dif­fer­ent min­er­al forms.

Kaolin

Sec­ondary kaolin deposits are locat­ed in pale­o­val­leys with­in the crys­talline base­ment and in sed­i­ments of the Smi­la stra­ta of the Low­er Cre­ta­ceous. Sec­ondary kaolin is formed as a result of rework­ing and trans­port of weath­er­ing crust mate­r­i­al. It is main­ly used in fer­rous met­al­lur­gy for the pro­duc­tion of refrac­to­ry mate­ri­als. The pres­ence and qual­i­ty of kaolin depend on alu­mi­na con­tent and sand con­t­a­m­i­na­tion. Some deposits are active­ly devel­oped (Murzynske, Novose­lytske, Ryzhanivske), while oth­ers require fur­ther study (Zal­iz­ni­achkivske, Ozir­ni­anske, Zveny­horodske).

Bentonite clay

In the Cherkasy region, ben­tonite clays are wide­spread over large areas — about 1,270 km². These clays belong to the ter­rige­nous col­loidal-sed­i­men­ta­ry type and are genet­i­cal­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the Boyarka for­ma­tion of the upper Miocene. Cur­rent­ly, the unique Cherkasy deposit is being devel­oped, par­tic­u­lar­ly the Dashukiv­ka area. The clays have vary­ing com­po­si­tion and prop­er­ties and are used for the pro­duc­tion of ceram­ic prod­ucts, drilling flu­ids, sor­bents, and oth­er pur­pos­es. With­in the Cherkasy deposit, there are also pre­lim­i­nar­i­ly explored areas and occur­rences of ben­tonite clays.

Graphite

Six graphite occur­rences have been iden­ti­fied. Among them, the Pavliv­ka occur­rence is the most promis­ing in terms of graphite con­tent and min­ing con­di­tions. Oth­er graphite occur­rences, such as Mezhyrich, Sverd­lykiv, Skaliv, Kami­anchechiv, and Hol­ubenkiv, have no indus­tri­al sig­nif­i­cance due to low graphite con­tent. The Pavliv­ka occur­rence is locat­ed near the vil­lage of Pavliv­ka Per­sha and is asso­ci­at­ed with a struc­tur­al zone con­tain­ing graphite-bear­ing gneiss­es and oth­er rocks.

Granite, gneiss, migmatite

The region con­tains four reg­is­tered deposits of dec­o­ra­tive stone (gran­ite): Bohuslav, Starob­a­banske, Tanske, and North-Tanske. The Bohuslav deposit is locat­ed near the city of Bohuslav and con­tains light-gray gran­ite used for blocks and crushed stone. The Starob­a­banske deposit is locat­ed near the vil­lage of Stari Babany and con­tains gray and pink­ish-gray gran­ite for cut stone and fac­ing slabs.

The Tanske deposit is locat­ed near the vil­lage of Tanske and also con­tains gray and pink­ish-gray gran­ite used for blocks and fac­ing slabs. The North-Tanske deposit is locat­ed on the north­ern exten­sion of the Tanske deposit and is cur­rent­ly being devel­oped.

Raw mate­ri­als for crushed stone and rub­ble stone pro­duc­tion main­ly come from deposits of gran­ite, gneiss, and migmatite. Some deposits are active­ly mined, while oth­ers are con­served. These mate­ri­als are used in rail­way con­struc­tion, heavy con­crete struc­tures, and oth­er con­struc­tion projects.

Sand

Sand deposits in the region are asso­ci­at­ed with var­i­ous deposits from the Pale­o­gene, Neo­gene, and Qua­ter­nary sys­tems. The sands are most­ly fine- and medi­um-grained in struc­ture, some­times with clay con­tent. Coarse-grained sands are rare. The largest sand extrac­tion sites include Pishchanske, Synyavske, Yerkyvske, and Katerynopil II. The sands are used for con­struc­tion mor­tars, as fillers in heavy con­crete, and in road con­struc­tion.

Groundwater

Cherkasy region con­tains deposits of fresh and min­er­al under­ground waters, includ­ing min­er­al radon springs in some cities. One deposit of min­er­al radon waters is locat­ed in the Bila Tserk­va dis­trict and is asso­ci­at­ed with a deep aquifer and a high radon con­tent. Anoth­er deposit is locat­ed in Zveny­horod­ka and is oper­at­ed by the “Radon” sana­to­ri­um. In addi­tion, there are deposits of fresh ground­wa­ter such as Tarashchanske, Kahar­lytske, and Umanske, which dif­fer in depth and well yields.

Thus, Cherkasy region has sig­nif­i­cant poten­tial for the use of its min­er­al resources in var­i­ous sec­tors of the econ­o­my, which may lead to increased pro­duc­tion, reduced import depen­dence, and region­al devel­op­ment. It is impor­tant to ensure sus­tain­able devel­op­ment and envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion dur­ing min­er­al extrac­tion activ­i­ties.