The rich nature of the Sumy region pro­vides local res­i­dents and spe­cial­ists with an inex­haustible trea­sure, reveal­ing the secrets of min­er­al resources that play a key role in the devel­op­ment of the region and its con­tri­bu­tion to ener­gy, indus­try, and the well-being of its pop­u­la­tion. With­in the oblast, 373 min­er­al deposits are record­ed, of which 134 are cur­rent­ly being devel­oped. The largest share in the struc­ture of the region’s min­er­al resource base belongs to fuel and ener­gy raw mate­ri­als (50%), while 44.8% accounts for con­struc­tion mate­ri­als deposits, 4% for ground­wa­ter deposits, and 1.2% for oth­er min­er­al resources.

Oil, gas and condensate

Explo­ration for oil and gas with­in Sumy Oblast began in the first half of the 20th cen­tu­ry. The first deposit dis­cov­ered in the region was the Rom­ny oil field. Its dis­cov­ery marked the begin­ning of explo­ration and pro­duc­tion activ­i­ties with­in the Dnipro–Donets Depres­sion. Oil reserves across 21 deposits amount to 40.9 mil­lion tonnes, of which 17 are cur­rent­ly under devel­op­ment. Gas reserves across 41 deposits (21 of which are being devel­oped) total 402.5 bil­lion m³. Con­den­sate reserves, pro­duced at 17 deposits, amount to 12.5 mil­lion tonnes.

The fol­low­ing deposits are being devel­oped:
Oil fields: Yasenivske, Buhru­va­tivske, Sha­travynske, East Rohnyntsivske, Holykivske, Prokopenkivske, Turu­tynske;
Gas fields: Rusanivske, Kras­noza­iarske;
Gas con­den­sate fields: Myko­laivske, Yarmolyntsivske, Kuli­abchynske, Val­iukhynske, Zaho­ri­anсьke, Andri­iashiv­ske, Voloshkivske;
Oil and gas con­den­sate fields: Velykyi Bub­nivske, Artiukhivske, Korzhivske, Perekopivske, Anas­ta­sivske, Lypovodolynske, Piv­den­no-Pana­sivske, Kuly­chykhynske, Kachanivske, Rybal’ske, Hlin­sko-Rozbyshiv­ske, Khukhri­anske, Vasylivske.

The Piv­den­no-Pana­sivske oil and gas con­den­sate field is locat­ed near the city of Rom­ny. It belongs to the Talalaivka–Rybalne oil and gas region and is sit­u­at­ed in the north­west­ern part of the north­ern mar­gin­al zone of the Dnipro–Donets Depres­sion. It was dis­cov­ered in 1983 dur­ing explo­ration drilling with­in the Pana­sivs­ka struc­ture.
Oil and gas con­den­sate accu­mu­la­tions were iden­ti­fied in Low­er Car­bonif­er­ous hori­zons. Struc­tural­ly, it is a north­west-trend­ing brachyan­ti­cline com­pli­cat­ed by three domes and divid­ed into two blocks by a diag­o­nal fault. Proven reserves include 4.6 bil­lion m³ of nat­ur­al gas, 2.3 mil­lion tonnes of con­den­sate, and 4.7 mil­lion tonnes of oil. The field is cur­rent­ly under devel­op­ment.

The Kachanivske oil and gas con­den­sate field is locat­ed in the Okhtyr­ka dis­trict, about 20 km from the city of Okhtyr­ka, in the cen­tral part of the north­ern mar­gin­al zone of the Dnipro–Donets Depres­sion. Struc­tural­ly, it is a north­west-trend­ing brachyan­ti­cline with a Devon­ian salt core. The fold is dis­rupt­ed by a sys­tem of trans­verse and lon­gi­tu­di­nal faults.

Prospec­tive areas for fur­ther explo­ration include: Mityaievo–Ovinivska, Ivanivs­ka, Ver­bivs­ka, Tros­tianet­s­ka, and oth­ers.

Coal

Occur­rences of both hard coal and lig­nite are known in the region. Hard coal is found in Car­bonif­er­ous deposits in the north­east­ern and south­ern parts of the oblast. Coal seams are rel­a­tive­ly thin (0.1–0.6 m) and occur at sig­nif­i­cant depths (650‑1000 m and deep­er), which lim­its their indus­tri­al impor­tance. Lig­nite deposits are found in the west and south­west of the oblast and are asso­ci­at­ed with Pale­o­gene and Neo­gene for­ma­tions (Buchak, Bere­ka, and Polta­va suites). A deposit was stud­ied on the out­skirts of the Rom­ny diapir. The upper coal seam lies at depths of 61–116 m, with reserves esti­mat­ed at 411 mil­lion tons, while two oth­er seams con­tain about 202 mil­lion tons.

Peat

About 200 peat deposits are known in Sumy Oblast, with total reserves of 64.4 mil­lion tons. All are of low­land type and are asso­ci­at­ed with flood­plains of major rivers (Desna, Seym, Psel, Vorskla). Indus­tri­al­ly impor­tant deposits include Bychykhivske, Molchanske, Klevень–Obesta, as well as Yezuch and Hny­lyt­s­ka areas. A sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of peat­lands has been reclaimed and used as agri­cul­tur­al land.

Sapropel

There are 188 lakes in Sumy Oblast, where 55 sapro­pel deposits have been iden­ti­fied with total geo­log­i­cal reserves of 6.699 mil­lion tons, includ­ing 6.486 mil­lion tons of bal­ance reserves and 0.213 mil­lion tons of off-bal­ance reserves. Sapro­pel extrac­tion is cur­rent­ly not car­ried out. These reserves account for 2.36% of Ukraine’s total sapro­pel resources. In 40 sur­veyed lakes, bot­tom sed­i­ments are main­ly high-ash mud with lay­ers of high-ash sapro­pel, total­ing 4.453 mil­lion tons.

Quartzites for silicon production

The Ban­itske deposit of high-puri­ty quartzites is locat­ed in Shost­ka dis­trict, about 20 km south of the city of Hlukhiv. The deposit was first devel­oped in 1890, and since 1928 it has been exploit­ed as an indus­tri­al site. In 1958, raw mate­ri­als from this deposit began to be used for the pro­duc­tion of crys­talline sil­i­con. The pro­duc­tive sequence of quartzitic sand­stones belongs to the Buchak For­ma­tion (Eocene). The aver­age thick­ness is about 9 m. In terms of qual­i­ty, the deposit is unique due to its extreme­ly high sil­i­ca con­tent (SiO₂) of 99–99.9%. Total reserves are esti­mat­ed at 9.8 mil­lion tons, and the quar­ry area cov­ers about 20 hectares.

Low­er-qual­i­ty raw mate­ri­als are also extract­ed near the vil­lages of Khovziv­ka and Rud­nie­vo, where the sil­i­ca con­tent is 65–68%. The Matskivske deposit of quartzitic sand­stones is sim­i­lar in size and qual­i­ty to the Ban­itske deposit. It is locat­ed 5 km north­west of Ban­itske. Pre­lim­i­nary explo­ration has been car­ried out there, but due to com­plex min­ing con­di­tions and low eco­nom­ic via­bil­i­ty, it has not been rec­om­mend­ed for detailed fur­ther explo­ration.

Phosphorites

Phos­pho­rites are wide­ly dis­trib­uted with­in Sumy Oblast. They occur at shal­low depths, on aver­age 1.5–2.5 m, form­ing a lay­er between the Maas­tricht­ian deposits of the Cre­ta­ceous and the Buchak For­ma­tion of the Pale­o­gene in the south­ern part of the region. The Krolevets phos­pho­rite deposit is of rel­a­tive­ly low qual­i­ty. There is poten­tial for re-eval­u­at­ing sev­er­al deposits, par­tic­u­lar­ly near the vil­lages of Stet­skiv­ka and Mohryt­sia, where the aver­age P₂O₅ con­tent is 28–30% and 15–30%, respec­tive­ly. At the Stet­skiv­ka deposit, the phos­pho­rite lay­er is 0.3–0.6 m thick and lies at a depth of 17–25 m. At the Mohryt­sia deposit, the lay­er thick­ness is 0.2–0.5 m, with a depth of 30–50 m.

Sulfur

At the Buhru­va­tivske deposit, sul­fur reserves are asso­ci­at­ed with oil. They are esti­mat­ed at 400 thou­sand tons. Sul­fur is par­tial­ly dis­solved in oil, which reduces its qual­i­ty. The main reserves occur at sig­nif­i­cant depths (sev­er­al kilo­me­ters), mak­ing extrac­tion eco­nom­i­cal­ly unfea­si­ble. Dis­solved sul­fur is par­tial­ly removed dur­ing oil pro­cess­ing, but these quan­ti­ties are not of indus­tri­al sig­nif­i­cance.

Sand

More than 60 sand deposits have been iden­ti­fied in the region, with total reserves of about 101.2 mil­lion m³. Many of them are rel­a­tive­ly large (Bohdanivske, Sumske, Basivske, Podo­livske, etc.). With­in Sumy Oblast, there is one deposit of mold­ing sands — the Mayske deposit. It con­tains Pale­o­gene and Neo­gene quartz sands used in met­al­lur­gy for pro­duc­ing foundry molds.In the south­ern part of the region, occur­rences of glass sands are known. The most promis­ing areas include the Liudzhanske and Zhu­ravne deposits in Okhtyr­ka dis­trict and the Basivske deposit in Sumy dis­trict. In terms of qual­i­ty, these sands are suit­able for the pro­duc­tion of glass con­tain­ers and win­dow glass.

Build­ing sand deposits are main­ly locat­ed in the cen­tral and north­ern parts of the region and are most­ly asso­ci­at­ed with Qua­ter­nary sed­i­ments. Accord­ing to the State Bal­ance of Min­er­al Resources, 11 deposits are reg­is­tered: 5 in Sumy dis­trict, and 3 each in Shost­ka and Kono­top dis­tricts. There are 8 sand deposits suit­able for sil­i­cate brick pro­duc­tion, includ­ing Bohdanivske, Sumske, Basivske‑I, Basivske-II, and Stet­skivske. Among them, the Basivske-II deposit is active­ly exploit­ed for sil­i­cate brick man­u­fac­tur­ing.

Sandstone

Sand­stone is used as a raw mate­r­i­al for crushed stone and build­ing rub­ble pro­duc­tion. Deposits cur­rent­ly in oper­a­tion include Mosi­ivske, Romanivske, Beriukhivske, Khovzivske, Kushkinske, Zabe­livske, Kocher­hinske, and Petukhivske.

Building Stone

In Sumy Oblast, only dia­bas­es asso­ci­at­ed with the Rom­ny salt dome are suit­able for use as build­ing stone. These dia­bas­es are exposed at the sur­face and are extract­ed by quar­ry­ing for local con­struc­tion needs.

Kaolins

At the Hlukhiv deposit, lay­ers of unique­ly pure kaolin clays of Pale­o­gene age occur. The Hlukhiv (Poloshkivske) deposit was devel­oped by arti­sanal meth­ods for about 200 years. In 1974, min­ing oper­a­tions were dis­con­tin­ued. The kaolins are high­ly plas­tic and fine­ly dis­persed. Remain­ing explored reserves amount to 22 thou­sand tons. The area of the deposit also con­tains promis­ing zones for dis­cov­er­ing high-qual­i­ty sec­ondary kaolin deposits.

Raw materials for brick and tile production

In Sumy Oblast, 94 deposits of brick-and-tile raw mate­ri­als have been iden­ti­fied, of which 55 are cur­rent­ly under exploita­tion. The total reserves are esti­mat­ed at 92.766 mil­lion m³. A wide vari­ety of clay types is present in the region.

The so-called “Kyiv marls” are wide­spread with­in the oblast. Marly clays of the Kyiv hori­zon (Eocene) are suit­able for pro­duc­ing high-qual­i­ty con­struc­tion bricks with a yel­low­ish-green col­or. Green clays of the Kharkiv For­ma­tion are also wide­ly dis­trib­uted in Sumy Oblast, and brick plants oper­ate on sim­i­lar deposits in Kharkiv region. Their thick­ness ranges from 1 to 12 m.

Var­ie­gat­ed clays of the upper Polta­va series are wide­spread north of Shost­ka and Hlukhiv, and south of Sumy toward Lub­ny, Polta­va, and Kharkiv. These clays are suit­able for pro­duc­ing roof­ing tiles and oth­er ceram­ic prod­ucts when blend­ed with oth­er clays.Variegated clays from the Verkhnosirovat­ka and Mykhailiv­ka deposits can be used for ceram­ic facade tiles, Met­lakh tiles, drainage pipes, and expand­ed clay grav­el production.For the pro­duc­tion of expand­ed clay (ker­amzite) and aglo­porite, three deposits are reg­is­tered in the State Bal­ance: the Striletske and Verkhnosirovat­ka deposits (ker­amzite raw mate­ri­als), and the Toropy­livske deposit (aglo­porite raw mate­r­i­al).

Mineral pigments

The Kamyanske ochre deposit is locat­ed in the Shost­ka dis­trict. The use­ful min­er­al is rep­re­sent­ed by a brown­ish-brown pow­dery iron ore occur­ring above a peat lay­er. The thick­ness of the ore lay­er is 0.2–0.3 m, and the iron oxide con­tent ranges from 36.4% to 61.4%. With inte­grat­ed devel­op­ment of the deposit (togeth­er with peat extrac­tion) and on-site paint pro­duc­tion, the exploita­tion of this deposit can be con­sid­ered eco­nom­i­cal­ly viable. Poor­ly stud­ied ochre occur­rences are also found near the vil­lage of Hvyn­tove (Kono­top dis­trict) and near the vil­lage of Met­lakhiv (Rom­ny dis­trict).

Chalk

Chalk reserves in Sumy Oblast amount to 54.4 mil­lion m³, with a CaCO₃ con­tent of 93–95%. Indus­tri­al chalk deposits are asso­ci­at­ed with the Cam­pan­ian and Maas­tricht­ian stages of the Upper Cre­ta­ceous. Chalk deposits are locat­ed in the east­ern and north­east­ern parts of the region, where it occurs at shal­low depths and in some places crops out at the sur­face. Cur­rent­ly, 17 chalk deposits are being exploit­ed in the region. The largest include Zarutske, Shchechkyvske, Kaminske, and Pro­gre­sivsko-Porokhivske deposits.

The Zarutske deposit is locat­ed near the Zarut­sky rail­way sid­ing on the right bank of the Kle­van Riv­er. The pro­duc­tive lay­er is com­posed of white chalk up to 200 m thick, under­lain by marl and over­lain by Qua­ter­nary sands and loams with a thick­ness of 5–10 m. Accord­ing to its prop­er­ties, the chalk cor­re­sponds to grades B and C. Reserves at the Zapselske deposit amount to 3.012 mil­lion tons. The chalk is suit­able as a car­bon­ate raw mate­r­i­al for soil lim­ing.

Marl

Marl is a suit­able raw mate­r­i­al for cement pro­duc­tion. With­in the region, the Sere­dy­na-Buda deposit has been explored. The use­ful com­po­nents here include car­bon­ate mate­r­i­al (chalk and marl), and in some areas clay. As of 2010, reserves of chalk amount to 45.526 mil­lion tons (cat­e­gories B+C₁), and marl reserves amount to 32.868 mil­lion tons (B+C₁). Marl from the Pro­gre­sivsko-Porokhivske and Sorokyno-Romashiv­ske deposits can also be used as cement raw mate­r­i­al, although these deposits are not cur­rent­ly being exploit­ed.

Gypsum

In the past, the Rom­ny gyp­sum deposit was exploit­ed in the region and sup­plied up to 6% of local demand. The deposit is now exhaust­ed. Some remain­ing gyp­sum is still present but is mixed with clays and marls, which sig­nif­i­cant­ly increas­es the cost of extrac­tion.

Rock and potassium salt

Halite deposits in the region are asso­ci­at­ed with salt diapirs, par­tic­u­lar­ly the Rom­ny and Syniv­ka diapirs. The Rom­ny deposit is locat­ed east of the Rom­ny rail­way sta­tion. It is a dome-shaped struc­ture in which Meso­zoic sed­i­ments are pierced by Devon­ian-age salt. In plan view, the salt stock has an ellip­ti­cal shape mea­sur­ing approx­i­mate­ly 6 km along its major axis and 2–3 km along its minor axis.

At the Rom­ny deposit, the qual­i­ty of the salt is rel­a­tive­ly low: approx­i­mate­ly 60% con­sists of halite itself, while about 40% is com­posed of mechan­i­cal impu­ri­ties such as gyp­sum, clays, and marls. Explored reserves of the deposit amount to 435 mil­lion tons; how­ev­er, exploita­tion of the deposit is cur­rent­ly con­sid­ered eco­nom­i­cal­ly unprof­itable. Potash salts with rel­a­tive­ly high potas­si­um con­tent occur at cer­tain lev­els of the Rom­ny salt dome, sug­gest­ing poten­tial for future uti­liza­tion. The Syniv­ka deposit was exploit­ed dur­ing the Sec­ond World War.

Groundwater

Ground­wa­ter in the south­ern part of the region belongs to the Dnipro-Donets arte­sian basin. Fresh ground­wa­ter occurs with­in Mesozoic–Cenozoic aquifers and is used for water sup­ply pur­pos­es. Begin­ning from the Per­mi­an aquifer hori­zon, high­ly min­er­al­ized waters and brines are encoun­tered. Min­er­al water deposits occu­py an impor­tant place among the region’s nat­ur­al resources. By chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion, the waters are siliceous, bicar­bon­ate-cal­ci­um-mag­ne­sium-sodi­um, as well as bicar­bon­ate-cal­ci­um-mag­ne­sium and bicar­bon­ate types.

Table waters pro­duced in the region include “Tros­tianet­s­ka” (min­er­al­iza­tion 0.4–1 g/L), “Ivolzhan­s­ka” (0.2–0.9 g/L), and “Krys­tal-Romen” (up to 0.5 g/L). Sev­er­al min­er­al water deposits have become the basis for the estab­lish­ment of health resorts. For exam­ple, the “Tokari” sana­to­ri­um in Sumy dis­trict uti­lizes chlo­ride-sodi­um min­er­al waters of the “Myrhorod­s­ka” type (known local­ly as “Tokarivs­ka” water). An iron-rich hydro­gen sul­fide min­er­al water spring is also known in the Vakalivshchy­na tract; how­ev­er, it is not wide­ly used for ther­a­peu­tic pur­pos­es.

Sumy Oblast is an impor­tant region dis­tin­guished by the diver­si­ty of its min­er­al resources. The devel­op­ment of oil and gas deposits, clays, marls, and peat plays a sig­nif­i­cant role in the econ­o­my and infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment of the region. How­ev­er, it is essen­tial to ensure the ratio­nal use of these resources, main­tain eco­log­i­cal bal­ance, and apply mod­ern tech­nolo­gies to max­i­mize the ben­e­fits of extrac­tion activ­i­ties. Eco­nom­ic fea­si­bil­i­ty and sus­tain­abil­i­ty of extrac­tion should also be con­sid­ered in order to ensure long-term sta­bil­i­ty and well-being for the local pop­u­la­tion.