Cherni­hiv region is not one of the lead­ers in min­er­al extrac­tion; how­ev­er, its sub­soil con­tains a fair­ly diverse range of min­er­al resources. Accord­ing to the State Bal­ance, 323 deposits are record­ed in the region (includ­ing 282 deposits and 41 account­ing objects) of six types of min­er­al resources, includ­ing com­bustible (gaseous, liq­uid, sol­id) and non-metal­lic (min­ing-chem­i­cal, non-ore for met­al­lur­gy, and con­struc­tion mate­ri­als). Out of these deposits, 106 are cur­rent­ly being devel­oped (includ­ing 72 deposits and 34 account­ing objects), while 176 deposits remain unde­vel­oped.

Oil

Out of 20 oil fields, 18 are includ­ed in eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment. They have recov­er­able oil reserves of 12.7 mil­lion tons, which accounts for 9.45% of Ukraine’s total oil reserves. The depth of oil occur­rence ranges from 1,700 to 4,000 meters. The largest oil fields are Hni­dyntsivske, Talalaivske, and Leli­akivske. Cur­rent­ly, one third of the region­al oil pro­duc­tion is pro­vid­ed by the Talalaivske field.

Coal

Coal deposits in the region amount to approx­i­mate­ly 100 mil­lion tons; how­ev­er, due to sig­nif­i­cant depth of occur­rence (almost 1,000 m), extrac­tion is not car­ried out. Hard coal is present in the Upper Bashkiri­an and Namuri­an for­ma­tions and has been iden­ti­fied with­in the Any­sivs­ka, Beriz­ni­an­s­ka, Borkivs­ka, and Vedylt­sivs­ka struc­tures.

Explo­ration has revealed the Droz­dovytske brown coal deposit, which meets mod­ern indus­tri­al require­ments. The seams range in thick­ness from 0.1 to 4.9 m and occur at depths of 11–59 m, as con­firmed by drilling.

Peat

Cherni­hiv region ranks third in Ukraine in terms of peat reserves, with proven reserves of 66.146 mil­lion tons, account­ing for 12% of the country’s total indus­tri­al reserves. Eighty-six deposits have been explored, most of which are asso­ci­at­ed with the val­leys of the Zamh­lai, Snov, Kryuko­va, Smi­ach, Teti­va, Dnipro, Desna, and oth­er rivers. The peat lay­er is gen­er­al­ly thick, local­ly reach­ing 6–7 m, but such areas occu­py small sur­faces. The aver­age thick­ness is 1–2 m, rarely up to 3 m.

The largest peat deposits — Zamh­lai, Kryukivske I, and Snovske III — are either deplet­ed by about 60% or are cur­rent­ly con­served or not active­ly devel­oped, except for Snovske III, which is inten­sive­ly exploit­ed. Peat deposits are peri­od­i­cal­ly used for small-scale extrac­tion by local res­i­dents.

Bischofite

A unique bischof­ite deposit in Ukraine has been dis­cov­ered in the region. The Novopodilske deposit is locat­ed in the Ich­nia dis­trict. Bischof­ite is a nat­ur­al polymin­er­al brine with a high con­tent of mag­ne­sium chlo­ride, bromine, and more than 20 trace ele­ments. This min­er­al raw mate­r­i­al has a wide range of appli­ca­tions, includ­ing bal­ne­o­log­i­cal treat­ments and indus­tri­al uses such as in the chem­i­cal, con­struc­tion, met­al­lur­gi­cal, pow­er gen­er­a­tion, light indus­try, and agri­cul­ture sec­tors. Mea­sures are being tak­en to expand the extrac­tion, use, and com­mer­cial­iza­tion of bischof­ite.

Chalk

Chalk is an impor­tant indus­tri­al raw mate­r­i­al used in the pro­duc­tion of cement, chem­i­cal prod­ucts, glass, and in the pulp and paper indus­try. There are six chalk deposits with total reserves of 34 mil­lion tons. The largest of them are locat­ed in the Novhorod-Siver­skyi area, includ­ing the Putyvske deposit.

Quartz sands

Sands are wide­ly dis­trib­uted in the region, includ­ing deposits of glass and mold­ing sands. The Rip­kynske deposit of mold­ing sand is known in the area. These sands are used in mold­ing and core mix­tures for cast iron pro­duc­tion. The deposit is cur­rent­ly not being devel­oped. Oth­er known deposits include Papir­ni­anske, Hry­bo­vo-Rud­ni­anske, and Hli­bivske deposits of glass sands, asso­ci­at­ed with the Novopetrivs­ka and Berets­ka for­ma­tions of the Polta­va series. The geo­log­i­cal struc­ture of these deposits includes Qua­ter­nary and Pale­o­gene sed­i­ments.

Clays

In Cherni­hiv region, the Chu­di­vske deposit of refrac­to­ry grey clays is known. It is asso­ci­at­ed with Neo­gene var­ie­gat­ed clay deposits. The clays are suit­able for the pro­duc­tion of fire-resis­tant bricks. The deposit is not cur­rent­ly being devel­oped.

At the Nevkyanske, Hol­u­bivske, Hra­bivske, and Tupy­chi­ivske deposits, var­ie­gat­ed clays are active­ly mined and used for brick and roof tile pro­duc­tion. The Lhovske deposit is con­served. The Pol­ubotske deposit con­tains clays used for the pro­duc­tion of expand­ed clay (ker­amzite) and is not cur­rent­ly exploit­ed.

Drinking water

Fresh water resources are wide­ly dis­trib­uted across Cherni­hiv region and are exten­sive­ly used by the local pop­u­la­tion for domes­tic and drink­ing pur­pos­es. From the Cherni­hiv, Slavu­tych, Mykhai­lo-Kot­si­ubynske, Shchors, and Hород­nia deposits, hydro­car­bon­ate calcium–magnesium and sodi­um waters are extract­ed. All of these deposits, except the Hород­nia deposit, are under devel­op­ment.

The Berez­na deposit is locat­ed about 3 km from the urban-type set­tle­ment of Berez­na. The aquifer is asso­ci­at­ed with Juras­sic for­ma­tions, includ­ing the Upper and Mid­dle Juras­sic units. The depth of the aquifer is 790–799 m, with a thick­ness of 150–300 m. The waters are arte­sian, with a pres­sure head of about 750 m and a sta­t­ic water lev­el at 40 m. Chem­i­cal­ly, the waters are sodi­um chlo­ride type with total min­er­al­iza­tion of 4.0 g/dm³. They have bal­ne­o­log­i­cal val­ue and are clas­si­fied as Mir­gorod-type waters. The deposit is cur­rent­ly being devel­oped.

Thus, Cherni­hiv Oblast has sig­nif­i­cant poten­tial for the extrac­tion of var­i­ous min­er­al resources, although not all deposits are active­ly exploit­ed. Increas­ing invest­ment in the devel­op­ment of the region’s sub­soil will con­tribute to improv­ing the eco­nom­ic well-being of the local pop­u­la­tion.