Depend­ing on the geo­log­i­cal age and structural–geological fea­tures of the ter­ri­to­ry, min­er­al deposits in the Lviv region are asso­ci­at­ed with sed­i­men­ta­ry rock com­plex­es of Pale­o­zoic, Meso­zoic, and Ceno­zoic age. These min­er­al resources can be divid­ed into four main groups:

• fuel min­er­als
• metal­lic min­er­als;
• non-metal­lic min­er­als (includ­ing min­ing-chem­i­cal raw mate­ri­als, con­struc­tion mate­ri­als, etc.);
• ground­wa­ter resources.

Gas and oil

The ter­ri­to­ry of the Lviv region is part of the Carpathi­an oil and gas province, includ­ing the Pre-Carpathi­an oil and gas region, as well as the Voly­no-Podil­lian region with­in the Volyn oil and gas and Bug indus­tri­al areas. Most known gas fields and occur­rences are asso­ci­at­ed with Low­er Sar­ma­t­ian deposits and are grouped into sev­er­al belts.

The Low­er Sar­ma­t­ian deposits rep­re­sent the main gas-bear­ing for­ma­tion in the south­west­ern part of the Bilche-Volyt­sia zone of the Pre-Carpathi­an Fore­deep. They reach a thick­ness of up to 4.5–5.0 km and are com­posed of var­i­ous rock types, includ­ing clays, silt­stones, sand­stones, and tuffs of the Dasha­va For­ma­tion. Gas fields are main­ly locat­ed in the south­west­ern direc­tion. The only gas-oil field, the Svidnytske–Kokhanivske field, is locat­ed north­west of the city of Yavoriv and is asso­ci­at­ed with an erod­ed sur­face of Upper Juras­sic car­bon­ate deposits. Its oil is char­ac­ter­ized by high den­si­ty, low paraf­fin con­tent, and low sul­fur con­tent. Gas occur­rences are also present with­in the Lviv Pale­o­zoic com­plex.

Hard coal

The region con­tains 25 pro­duc­tive areas for hard coal extrac­tion, of which only 9 are cur­rent­ly being devel­oped. The total bal­ance reserves of hard coal amount to 1,025,752 thou­sand tonnes, while the reserves of active­ly devel­oped deposits are 305,323 thou­sand tonnes.

Hard coal in the Lviv region is extract­ed with­in the Lviv–Volyn Coal Basin, which is a con­tin­u­a­tion of the Lublin Basin. This basin is con­sid­ered a Lower–Middle Car­bonif­er­ous coal for­ma­tion of par­al­ic type, locat­ed in the fore­deep of the Her­cynides and on the west­ern slope of the Ukrain­ian Shield. The most pro­duc­tive coal deposits are asso­ci­at­ed with the upper alluvial–lacustrine–boggy regressive–transgressive sub-for­ma­tion of the Buzhan­s­ka For­ma­tion.

The Lviv region is divid­ed into three min­ing dis­tricts of the basin:

• Novo­volyn­sk dis­trict – locat­ed in the north, with a high lev­el of geo­log­i­cal explo­ration.
• Cher­vonohrad dis­trict – the cen­tral part of the basin and the main area in terms of reserves and indus­tri­al devel­op­ment.
• South-West­ern dis­trict – cov­er­ing the remain­ing basin area from the south­west­ern bound­ary of the Cher­vonohrad dis­trict to the Rava-Rus­ka fault. The Lubele and Tiahliv deposits belong to this dis­trict.

Brown coal

Brown coal occur­rences in the region are lim­it­ed and are asso­ci­at­ed with deposits of the Carpathi­an region. The coal forms a belt 7–12 km wide with­in the Rava-Ruska–Lviv area. The Rava-Rus­ka group includes deposits such as Pote­lych, Dib­riv­ka, and Monasty­rok, while the Nes­teriv group includes occur­rences such as Hlyn­sk, Novoskvarya­va, Hutyshche I and II, and Mokrotyn. The depo­si­tion­al facies include sandy-clay and coal-bear­ing sandy sed­i­ments asso­ci­at­ed with depres­sions in the Upper Cre­ta­ceous sur­face. The thick­ness of coal-bear­ing stra­ta varies from 0 to 7–30 m, con­tain­ing 1–3 coal seams with an aver­age thick­ness of 0.5–1.5 m.

Peat

Peat deposits are wide­ly dis­trib­uted and are char­ac­ter­ized by sim­ple geo­log­i­cal struc­ture, ease of extrac­tion, and suit­abil­i­ty for use as domes­tic fuel and agri­cul­tur­al fer­til­iz­er. The Lviv region is rich in peat deposits, which are main­ly locat­ed in riv­er val­leys and low­land areas. In total, there are 128 peat deposits in the Lviv region, of which 46 are cur­rent­ly being exploit­ed. The total bal­ance reserves of peat amount to 215,636 thou­sand tonnes, while the reserves of active­ly devel­oped deposits are 8,735 thou­sand tonnes. The main con­cen­tra­tion of peat deposits is observed in Male Polis­sia and the Pre-Carpathi­an region, with the largest extrac­tion areas locat­ed in the basins of the Dni­ester and Styr rivers. The largest deposits include . Cur­rent­ly, peat extrac­tion is car­ried out at the Lopatynske and Stoian­ivske deposits.

Iron

Iron ores asso­ci­at­ed with Neo­pleis­tocene deposits of swampy flood­plain ter­races have a lim­it­ed dis­tri­b­u­tion in the south­west­ern part of the Lviv region. Occur­rences of these ores have been iden­ti­fied near the vil­lages of Zahur­shchy­na and Suhriv. The ore is rep­re­sent­ed by limonite con­cre­tions and nod­ules, with Fe₂O₃ con­tent rang­ing from 18.25% to 69.62%. The largest occur­rence is locat­ed near the vil­lage of Zahur­shchy­na, with an aver­age ore lay­er thick­ness of 0.8 m and a chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion includ­ing Fe, MnO, P₂O₅, and SiO₂. These ores were occa­sion­al­ly mined in the past; how­ev­er, due to their lim­it­ed dis­tri­b­u­tion, small thick­ness, and pres­ence of harm­ful impu­ri­ties, these bog iron ores are cur­rent­ly not of indus­tri­al inter­est.

Manganese ores

Man­ganese ores in the region are rep­re­sent­ed by an sedimentary–carbonate type, formed dur­ing the tran­si­tion from an arid to a humid cli­mate at the stages of the Kosiv marine trans­gres­sion onto the plat­form. In the Lviv region area, includ­ing the towns of Zhy­dachiv and the vil­lages of Luchany and Vovchaty­chi, sev­er­al man­ganese occur­rences have been iden­ti­fied. They are rep­re­sent­ed by car­bon­ate and oxi­dized-car­bon­ate types, with man­ganese oxide (MnO) con­tent rang­ing from 10.0% to 22.4%.

Titanium–zirconium ores

The most sig­nif­i­cant iron-rich con­cen­tra­tions of titanium–zirconium ores have been iden­ti­fied in the inter­fluve of the Hny­la Lypa–Narayivka rivers, near the vil­lages of Podu­siv and Bolot­nia. At the Podu­siv site (area ~1 km²), pro­duc­tive Opil­lia sands con­tain­ing quartz and a high con­tent of tita­ni­um min­er­als occur at depths from 3 to 40 m, with a thick­ness of up to 10 m. The ore min­er­als include ilmenite and rutile, with an aver­age tita­ni­um min­er­al con­tent of about 19.3 kg/m³. The Bolotnia–Zahay site also shows sands enriched in tita­ni­um min­er­als, with a thick­ness of 0.2 to 4–5 m and a depth of occur­rence of 1–5 m. The pres­ence of ilmenite, rutile, and zir­con con­firms a high total tita­ni­um min­er­al con­tent of approx­i­mate­ly 17.4 kg/m³. Geo­log­i­cal explo­ration and prospect­ing work is rec­om­mend­ed for detailed study of these areas.

Strontium

Stron­tium min­er­al­iza­tion, rep­re­sent­ed by celes­tine (celestite) and accom­pa­nied by iron-ore for­ma­tions with native sul­fur, is asso­ci­at­ed with sulfate–carbonate rocks. Stron­tium occur­rences have also been iden­ti­fied in Upper Cre­ta­ceous car­bon­ate deposits.

The high­est con­cen­tra­tions of tita­ni­um min­er­als have been iden­ti­fied in the region between the Hny­la Lypa and Narayiv­ka rivers, par­tic­u­lar­ly near the vil­lages of Podu­siv and Bolot­nia. The con­tent of ore min­er­als such as ilmenite, rutile, and zir­con ranges from 2.0 to 18.2 kg/m³, with an aver­age tita­ni­um min­er­al con­tent of approx­i­mate­ly 19.3 kg/m³. At the “Bolotnia–Zahay” site, sands con­tain­ing tita­ni­um min­er­als have also been iden­ti­fied, with a thick­ness rang­ing from 0.2 m to 4–5 m and a depth of occur­rence of 1–5 m. For a detailed study of these areas, it is rec­om­mend­ed to car­ry out geo­log­i­cal explo­ration and prospect­ing works.

Native sulfur

In the Voly­no-Podil­lian part of the East Euro­pean Plat­form, adja­cent to the Out­er Zone of the Pre-Carpathi­an Fore­deep, sev­er­al native sul­fur deposits are locat­ed, includ­ing Nemyrivske, Yazivske, Liu­betske, and Rozdilske, as well as numer­ous sul­fur occur­rences. These indus­tri­al sul­fur accu­mu­la­tions are com­mon­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the Tirasian for­ma­tions of the Upper Tor­ton­ian, some­times occur­ring in con­tact with gyp­sum lay­ers or with­in gyp­sum-bear­ing stra­ta.

The largest deposit, Nemyrivske, con­sists of two ore bod­ies with sul­fur con­tent rang­ing from 10% to 43%, mak­ing it the largest deposit in the Pre-Carpathi­an sul­fur-bear­ing basin. Sul­fur min­er­al­iza­tion is typ­i­cal­ly asso­ci­at­ed with tec­ton­ic zones and inter­sec­tions of faults of dif­fer­ent ori­en­ta­tions, often occur­ring in hinge zones and fault inter­sec­tions. Sul­fur con­cen­tra­tions are also found near hydro­car­bon accu­mu­la­tions in oil and gas fields, indi­cat­ing a rela­tion­ship with deep ore-form­ing flu­ids.

Phosphorites

Phos­pho­rus min­er­al­iza­tion and phos­pho­rite-bear­ing rocks have been iden­ti­fied with­in the West­ern Podil­lian and Bilche-Volyt­sia struc­tur­al-facies zones. Geo­graph­i­cal­ly, they are locat­ed only with­in a part of the Lviv area, which includes Upper Albian, Low­er Ceno­man­ian, and Upper Ceno­man­ian deposits. Phos­pho­rites occur with­in glauconite–siliceous, siliceous–chalk, and inoce­ramid lime­stone for­ma­tions dis­trib­uted across the stud­ied area. Phos­pho­rus con­tent in the rocks ranges from trace amounts up to 8.3%. Phos­pho­rite-bear­ing Albian–Cenomanian deposits and inoce­ramid lime­stones have also been stud­ied at depths of 600–700 m, where sig­nif­i­cant phos­phate con­tents rang­ing from 3.6% to 50% were iden­ti­fied. The fore­cast­ed resources of the area were esti­mat­ed based on an aver­age phos­pho­rus con­tent of 6.2%.

Salt

In the Lviv region, along the Carpathi­ans, deposits of rock salt and potash salts are locat­ed with­in the Boryslav sub-depres­sion. The Vorotyshcha For­ma­tion, which is pre­dom­i­nant­ly salt-bear­ing in nature, cov­ers the sur­face of this struc­ture. Rock salt may occur as rel­a­tive­ly pure lay­ers; how­ev­er, it is more often con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed with clay mate­r­i­al or forms cement with­in sandy brec­cias. Potash salts, rep­re­sent­ed by var­i­ous min­er­al species, occur local­ly and form beds rang­ing from a few to sev­er­al tens of meters in thick­ness. The Steb­nyk deposit is the most inten­sive­ly devel­oped. In some areas, extrac­tion of table salt is car­ried out using the in-situ leach­ing method.

Construction sand

Quartz sand deposits of Neo­pleis­tocene age in the Lviv region are exposed in var­i­ous loca­tions and include deposits such as Voronivske and Stratynske. The Voronivske deposit (cur­rent­ly in oper­a­tion) has an aver­age sand thick­ness of about 31.0 m, while the Stratynske deposit reach­es up to 17.8 m. The sands are quartz-rich, fine-grained, light grey to yel­low­ish-grey, and occa­sion­al­ly con­tain minor cal­care­ous impu­ri­ties. Their phys­i­cal and tech­ni­cal prop­er­ties meet the require­ments for con­struc­tion and plas­ter­ing works, as well as for use as a base mate­r­i­al in road con­struc­tion.

Mineral waters

The Lviv region lies at the inter­sec­tion of plat­form and fold­ed hydro­ge­o­log­i­cal provinces. Aquifers in these basins are asso­ci­at­ed with Pale­o­zoic, Meso­zoic, and Ceno­zoic deposits and some­times form a sin­gle inter­con­nect­ed water-bear­ing sys­tem. The region is char­ac­ter­ized by a wide diver­si­ty of min­er­al waters in terms of for­ma­tion con­di­tions, chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion, and ther­a­peu­tic prop­er­ties, indi­cat­ing strong poten­tial for indus­tri­al-scale ground­wa­ter resources. The fol­low­ing types of waters occur: chlo­ride, sul­fate, bicar­bon­ate-chlo­ride, hydro­gen sul­fide waters, and more rarely iodine-bromine and sil­i­ca-rich waters and brines.

Drinking water resources

Most drink­ing water deposits in the Lviv region are rep­re­sent­ed by the Upper Cre­ta­ceous aquifer, which is devel­oped with­in a frac­tured zone. In total, 17 ground­wa­ter deposits across 36 sites have been explored. The most pro­duc­tive areas include Nes­terivs­ka, Rats­ka, Mokrotyn­s­ka, Novoukrain­s­ka, Horokhivs­ka, Cher­vonohrad­s­ka, Velyko­mostivs­ka, Radekhivs­ka, Kami­an­sko-Buz­ka, Yam­nen­s­ka, Novoiarychivs­ka, Bus­ka, Zolochivs­ka, Zubrivs­ka, Bibrs­ka, Holo­hirs­ka, Remezivt­sivs­ka, and Novoroz­dol­s­ka.

The Lviv region has a sig­nif­i­cant diver­si­ty of min­er­al resources that sup­port key sec­tors of the region­al econ­o­my. The iden­ti­fied deposits of sul­fur, phos­pho­rites, and gyp­sum indi­cate sub­stan­tial resource poten­tial, which may serve as a basis for fur­ther devel­op­ment of the min­ing and con­struc­tion indus­tries.