Kher­son region is a true trea­sury of nat­ur­al resources that deserves detailed explo­ration and atten­tion. This arti­cle exam­ines the min­er­al resources of Kher­son region, eval­u­at­ing their sig­nif­i­cance and appli­ca­tions in var­i­ous sec­tors of the econ­o­my.
From a struc­tur­al and tec­ton­ic per­spec­tive, the ter­ri­to­ry of Kher­son region belongs to the Black Sea Depres­sion, which is expressed in the relief as the Black Sea Low­land. With­in the region, 112 min­er­al deposits have been iden­ti­fied, 92 of which are reg­is­tered in the State Bal­ance of Min­er­al Reserves of Ukraine.

Natural gas

The Strilkove gas field is locat­ed in the north­ern part of the Ara­bat Spit, approx­i­mate­ly 25 km from the city of Henich­esk. The deposit is asso­ci­at­ed with the sub­si­dence zone of the Azov Ridge of the Scythi­an Plate. The pro­duc­tive stra­ta con­sist of deposits of the Maykop Series with a thick­ness of 855–875 m. The gas accu­mu­la­tions are dome-shaped lay­ered reser­voirs asso­ci­at­ed with three sandy-silty sequences. Devel­op­ment of the field began in 1976. Since then, approx­i­mate­ly 1,907.3 mil­lion m³ of nat­ur­al gas have been extract­ed, which rep­re­sents about 62% of the ini­tial reserves.

Peat

Peat deposits are con­cen­trat­ed in the flood­plains of the Dnipro Riv­er val­ley. There are three peat deposits in the region, the most devel­oped of which is the Kar­dashynske deposit. Peat is main­ly used as an organ­ic fer­til­iz­er.

Iron

Three iron ore occur­rences are locat­ed with­in Kher­son region: the Prysy­vaskyi, Utliuk­skyi, and Kher­son occur­rences. The Prysy­vaskyi ore occur­rence forms a sub­merid­ion­al belt up to 35 km long and up to 20 km wide. The ore-bear­ing stra­ta occur at a depth of about 50 m in the north, grad­u­al­ly deep­en­ing south­ward to 60–62 m.

The Utliuk­skyi ore occur­rence is locat­ed with­in the waters of the Utliuk Estu­ary. The aver­age thick­ness of the ore-bear­ing sequence is 8 m. The ores are rep­re­sent­ed by oolitic vari­eties and fer­rug­i­nous sand­stones with an aver­age iron con­tent of 30–34%. The Kher­son ore occur­rence is con­sid­ered the south­ern con­tin­u­a­tion of the Kryvyi Rih iron ore basin. This occur­rence extends approx­i­mate­ly 30 km from west to east, with an aver­age width of 20 km. The depth of occur­rence ranges from 36–66 m in the north to 78–124 m in the south. Ore bod­ies are rep­re­sent­ed by lens­es or lay­ers of oolitic ores up to 1 m thick, interbed­ded with fer­rug­i­nous sand­stones and fer­rug­i­nous clays.

Titanium

Tita­ni­um-bear­ing plac­er deposits are rep­re­sent­ed by lacus­trine-allu­vial for­ma­tions of Pliocene–Holocene pale­ochan­nels of the Dnipro Riv­er, the Molochna Riv­er, and their trib­u­taries, dis­trib­uted in the north­ern part of the region, as well as by ter­rige­nous estu­ar­ine-marine and marine for­ma­tions occur­ring along the Karkinit Bay coast. The aver­age con­tent of ilmenite in the plac­ers reach­es 3 kg/t, rutile — 1.4 kg/t, and zir­con — 1.75 kg/t.
Among the lacus­trine-allu­vial for­ma­tions, the high­est con­cen­tra­tions were iden­ti­fied at the Stanislavske ore occur­rence, which is 2.5 km long, 6.5 m wide, and 0.2 m thick. Among the marine-for­ma­tion ore occur­rences, the Dzharyl­hach ore occur­rence is of the great­est impor­tance. It is locat­ed on Dzharyl­hach Island and on the main­land from the vil­lage of Lazurne to the Ten­drivs­ka Spit. The pro­duc­tive stra­ta con­sist of fine- to medi­um-grained sands. The Novoolek­si­ivske ore occur­rence extends from Ten­driv Bay in the west to Dzharyl­hach Bay in the east, with a length of 27 km, a width of 10–210 m, and a thick­ness of 0.1–0.6 m. The host stra­ta are com­posed of fine- and medi­um-grained sands.

Gold

Gold occur­rences are asso­ci­at­ed with the left bank of the Dnipro Riv­er. Gold is found in coastal sandy and deep­er-water silty Holocene deposits. The dis­tri­b­u­tion of gold in coastal and bot­tom sed­i­ments ranges from 1–3 mg/t to 3–5 mg/t. Gold occur­rences have been iden­ti­fied near the vil­lages of Pami­atne, Lazurne, and Hola Prys­tan.

Manganese ores

The Fedorivske man­ganese ore deposit has been explored, with oper­a­tional reserves exceed­ing 30 mil­lion tons. The ores are main­ly oxi­dized and are suit­able for pro­duc­ing per­ox­ide con­cen­trates. At present, the deposit is not being devel­oped.

Brick and tile raw materials

Kher­son region con­tains 20 deposits of brick-and-tile raw mate­ri­als with total reserves of about 38.5 mil­lion m³. The raw mate­r­i­al base con­sists main­ly of Qua­ter­nary loams, which cov­er the entire ter­ri­to­ry of the region. Loess-like loams and red­dish-brown clays are also used.

Sands

In the region, 22 deposits of con­struc­tion sands have been explored, three of which are cur­rent­ly being devel­oped: Shabovske, Kalan­chatske, and Kar­dashynske. Total sand reserves in the region are esti­mat­ed at 194 mil­lion m³.

Limestone

As flux raw mate­r­i­al, lime­stones of the Meot­ian Stage of the Neo­gene are extract­ed in Kher­son region and are used by met­al­lur­gi­cal plants in Kryvyi Rih. The Starosilske deposit (Arkhan­hel­s­ka area) is locat­ed near the set­tle­ment of Arkhan­helske in the Beryslav dis­trict. The pro­duc­tive stra­ta con­sist of dense den­drit­ic, oolitic, and pelit­o­mor­phic lime­stones of the Sar­ma­t­ian Stage (Miocene), with a thick­ness of up to 16 m. The deposits are strat­i­form. Devel­op­ment of the deposit began in 1969.

For lime pro­duc­tion, 7 deposits are being devel­oped in the region. Lime­stones of the north­east­ern sec­tion of the Starosilske deposit are suit­able for pro­duc­ing grade I and II lime. The Bilokrynytske deposit is locat­ed in the Beryslav dis­trict, between the vil­lages of Bilousove and Kari­erne. The raw mate­r­i­al is rep­re­sent­ed by three vari­eties of Pon­tian lime­stones: weath­ered lime­stone crushed into rub­ble, frag­men­tal platy lime­stone, and crys­talline lime­stone. These types grad­u­al­ly tran­si­tion into one anoth­er. The total thick­ness varies from 1.2 to 7.2 m, aver­ag­ing about 4 m.

For dimen­sion stone pro­duc­tion, lime­stones of the Pon­tian and Meot­ian stages of the Neo­gene are devel­oped. For crushed stone and rub­ble pro­duc­tion, the Zakhid­no-Tyahynske deposit is exploit­ed, locat­ed west of the vil­lage of Tyahyn­ka in the Beryslav dis­trict on the right bank of the Tiahyn­ka Riv­er. The raw mate­r­i­al includes Pon­tian, Meot­ian, and Sar­ma­t­ian lime­stones. Sar­ma­t­ian lime­stones are oolitic and detri­tal-oolitic with thick­ness­es up to 14 m. Meot­ian lime­stones are shell-oolitic and oolitic, up to 4.3 m thick. Pon­tian lime­stones are shell-oolitic, shell-detri­tal, and aphanitic, with thick­ness­es up to 6.8 m.

Marl

The Zapovitne marl deposit has been explored in the region, with reserves exceed­ing 3.5 mil­lion tons. At a pro­duc­tion rate of 100 tons per day, these reserves would be suf­fi­cient for about 100 years of exploita­tion.

Mineral salts

Min­er­al salts in the region are con­cen­trat­ed in brines of water bod­ies such as the Syvash Bay, as well as in the brine of some lakes.

Therapeutic muds

Kher­son region is rich in deposits of ther­a­peu­tic muds. The Lyman Lake deposit is locat­ed on the north­east­ern coast of the Utluk Estu­ary, near the vil­lage of Azovske. The Henich­esk Lake deposit is sit­u­at­ed on the Ara­bat Spit, west of the vil­lage of Shchaslyve. The Salkove Lake deposit is locat­ed on the Chon­har Isth­mus, south­east of the Salkove rail­way sta­tion. The Kruh­lo Lake deposit is found on the east­ern shore of the Ten­drivs­ka Bay, near the set­tle­ment of Novo­chornomo­ria. The Soliane (Hopri) Lake deposit is locat­ed with­in the city of Hola Prys­tan. The Solone Lake deposit lies west of the vil­lage of Raden­sk in the Oleshky dis­trict. Near the vil­lage of Kruhloser­ka, the Prokofi­ivske Lake deposit is locat­ed.

Groundwater and mineral waters

Kher­son region is locat­ed with­in the Black Sea Arte­sian Basin. Aquifer sys­tems in the ter­ri­to­ry are asso­ci­at­ed with Qua­ter­nary, Neo­gene, and Pale­o­gene deposits. A char­ac­ter­is­tic fea­ture of the region is the increase in both the depth of ground­wa­ter occur­rence and water min­er­al­iza­tion from north to south.

Five min­er­al water deposits have been explored in the Kher­son region. In the area of the city of Henich­esk, ther­mal iodine-bromine waters have been iden­ti­fied in Upper Cretaceous–Paleogene deposits at depths exceed­ing 1.5 km. In the Skadovsk area, iodine-bromine, hydro­gen sul­fide, and chlo­ride-sodi­um waters have been dis­cov­ered at depths of about 400 m. The North­ern Syvash deposit of iodine waters is also known in the region, with an esti­mat­ed annu­al iodine pro­duc­tion poten­tial of up to 450 tons.

In sum­ma­ry, Kher­son region pos­sess­es sig­nif­i­cant min­er­al and raw mate­r­i­al resources that play a key role in its eco­nom­ic and social devel­op­ment. The uti­liza­tion of these resources con­tributes to eco­nom­ic growth and the cre­ation of new jobs. How­ev­er, it is impor­tant to main­tain a bal­ance between resource exploita­tion and envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion to ensure the long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the region’s nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment for future gen­er­a­tions.