Min­er­al resources in the Autonomous Repub­lic of Crimea are a key fac­tor in the devel­op­ment of the region­al econ­o­my and indus­try due to the pres­ence of sig­nif­i­cant resources that can be used in var­i­ous sec­tors.
The Crimean Penin­su­la, although rel­a­tive­ly small in area, attracts atten­tion due to its unique geo­graph­i­cal posi­tion. It bor­ders Kher­son region to the north and is washed by the Black Sea to the west and south, as well as the Sea of Azov to the north­east.

The ter­ri­to­ry of the Crimean Penin­su­la can be divid­ed into two major parts: the Plain Crimea and the Moun­tain Crimea. Plain Crimea, which occu­pies a large part of the north­ern and cen­tral ter­ri­to­ry, is locat­ed on the Scythi­an plat­form. This area is com­posed of Pale­o­zoic rock for­ma­tions over­lain by sed­i­men­ta­ry deposits of var­i­ous ages. Moun­tain Crimea is locat­ed in the south­ern part of the penin­su­la. This moun­tain sys­tem forms the north­ern part of a mega-anti­cli­no­ri­um, where the south­ern limb is tec­ton­i­cal­ly down­thrown below the lev­el of the Black Sea.

The cur­rent sta­tus of Crimea, once known for its promis­ing min­er­al resources, remains polit­i­cal­ly dis­put­ed. Regard­less of the present cir­cum­stances, the sit­u­a­tion sur­round­ing Crimea’s nat­ur­al resources is expect­ed to be resolved in the future. The penin­su­la has sig­nif­i­cant geo­log­i­cal poten­tial, and its min­er­al resources could play an impor­tant role in region­al devel­op­ment. This arti­cle exam­ines Crimea’s resource poten­tial and con­sid­ers how its min­er­al wealth could con­tribute to the recon­struc­tion and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment of the region in the future.

Oil

The Black Sea–Crimean oil and gas region is locat­ed with­in the Black Sea low­land, where oil and gas fields are sit­u­at­ed. It is part of the South­ern oil and gas province of Ukraine. The Pri­oz­ernе field is locat­ed in the north­east­ern part of the Kerch Penin­su­la. It lies with­in the south­ern mar­gin of the Indo­lo-Kuban trough. The field has a cryptodome struc­ture, with fractured–porous reser­voirs com­posed of organogenic-clas­tic and oolitic lime­stones. Ini­tial recov­er­able reserves in cat­e­gories A+B+C₁ amount to 132 thou­sand tons of oil. The den­si­ty of degassed oil ranges from 890 to 894 kg/m³. The Moshkarivske field is locat­ed in the south­west­ern part of the Kerch Penin­su­la. Pro­duc­tive hori­zons are rep­re­sent­ed by silt­stones and sands with­in a clayey sequence. The reser­voirs are of the porous type, and the oil accu­mu­la­tion occurs in strat­i­form traps. Ini­tial recov­er­able reserves (A+B+C₁) amount to 385 thou­sand tons of oil, with a degassed oil den­si­ty of 837 kg/m³.

Gas

Sed­i­men­ta­ry deposits of Pale­o­zoic, Meso­zoic, and Ceno­zoic age play an impor­tant role in the geo­log­i­cal struc­ture of the Black Sea–Crimean region. These deposits con­tain geo­log­i­cal struc­tures asso­ci­at­ed with major zones of hydro­car­bon accu­mu­la­tion. The Arkhan­hel­skе, Dzhankoi, Kirovske, and Zadorne gas fields are locat­ed with­in this oil and gas region. The Arkhan­helske field is locat­ed on the Black Sea shelf, Dzhankoi is in the Dzhankoi dis­trict of Crimea, Kirovske is near the vil­lage of Kirovske in the Chornomorske dis­trict of Crimea, and Zadorne is on the Tarkhankut Penin­su­la of Crimea. Gas reserves in these fields amount to 140 mil­lion m³, 1,020 mil­lion m³, 5,413 mil­lion m³, and 5,790 mil­lion m³ respec­tive­ly.

Gas condensate

Indus­tri­al con­den­sate accu­mu­la­tions are known in the fol­low­ing fields: Holit­synske, Shtor­move, Olenivske, Chornomorske, Kras­nop­o­lianske, Zakhid­no-Oktiabrske, Hli­bivske, Karlavske, Tetian­ivske, Piv­den­no-Syvashske, Fontanivske, and Pivnich­no-Kazan­typske gas-con­den­sate fields. These belong to the Black Sea–Crimean and Indo­lo-Kuban oil and gas regions of the South­ern oil and gas province of Ukraine. The men­tioned fields are asso­ci­at­ed with anti­cli­nal folds; their struc­ture is described as sub­lat­i­tu­di­nal brachyan­ti­clines, indi­cat­ing a broad dis­tri­b­u­tion and ori­en­ta­tion of these folds with­in Pale­o­gene deposits.

Oil shales

In the Crimean moun­tains, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the moun­tain­ous Crimea, menilite shales and minor occur­rences of Tau­ri­an oil shales have formed. Menilite shales are char­ac­ter­ized by a high con­tent of organ­ic com­pounds, mak­ing them a poten­tial ener­gy source. Occur­rences of Tau­ri­an oil shales, although of lim­it­ed thick­ness, also con­tain sig­nif­i­cant organ­ic mat­ter and may serve as an ener­gy resource.

Hard coal

The Beshui coal deposit, locat­ed on the north­ern slope of the Main Ridge of the Crimean moun­tains in the upper reach­es of the Chuon-Tra Riv­er, is host­ed by argillites, silt­stones, and sand­stones of the Beshui for­ma­tion. The deposit con­tains four small seam-like coal bod­ies in the west­ern part, three of which have been explored. The coal has low sul­fur con­tent and a high pro­por­tion of volatile mat­ter, ash, and mois­ture. Its calorif­ic val­ue is esti­mat­ed at 4000–4500 kcal/kg. The deposit is sed­i­men­ta­ry in ori­gin, non-indus­tri­al, and has lim­it­ed resources.

Manganese ores

Var­i­ous man­ganese ore occur­rences have been iden­ti­fied in Crimea, includ­ing in the Zundzhyn­skyi, Bal­aklavskyi, and Orlin­skyi areas. They are asso­ci­at­ed with mar­ble-like brec­cias of the Bay­dar For­ma­tion, espe­cial­ly in zones of con­tact with Low­er Cre­ta­ceous deposits. The ore bod­ies occur as lens­es or pock­ets and are main­ly com­posed of pyro­lusite, psilome­lane, goethite, and hydro­goethite, with man­ganese oxide con­tent rang­ing from 11.98% to 47.10%. Some occur­rences are relat­ed to vol­cano-tec­ton­ic struc­tures at dif­fer­ent strati­graph­ic lev­els. The region also con­tains ele­vat­ed con­cen­tra­tions of molyb­de­num, lead, sil­ver, cop­per, and gold.

Iron ores

Iron ores of the Kerch iron ore basin were formed dur­ing the Cim­mer­ian stage of the Neo­gene peri­od. The iron ore deposits in the Kerch basin are locat­ed in syn­clines and troughs of lat­i­tu­di­nal ori­en­ta­tion. The basin cov­ers an area of over 250 km². The ore hori­zon con­sists of gen­tly dip­ping lay­ers of sandy-clay sed­i­ments with brown iron­stones. The main deposits include Ocheret-Burunske, Elty­hen-Ortelske, Kyz-Aulske, Novose­livske, and oth­ers. Ore thick­ness varies from 0.5 to 40 meters. Ore types include brown and tobac­co ores, pre­dom­i­nant­ly with oolitic tex­ture. Total iron ore reserves amount to 1.8 bil­lion tons, includ­ing 560 mil­lion tons of brown ores with an iron con­tent of 37.5%.

Copper, lead, and zinc

Min­er­al­iza­tion with met­als such as lead, zinc, cop­per, and sil­ver occurs in deposits rang­ing from the Tri­as­sic to the Cre­ta­ceous peri­ods. Asso­ci­at­ed min­er­als include gale­na, spha­lerite, cas­si­terite, and native cop­per dis­sem­i­nat­ed with­in host rocks. The most stud­ied occur­rence is the Yuzh­nen­sky ore occur­rence, locat­ed about 5 km east of Bal­akla­va on Cape Yuzh­ny. Data from this site are impor­tant for under­stand­ing vol­canic-tec­ton­ic struc­tures and faults in the south­ern part of Crimea. Fore­cast resources, esti­mat­ed from total met­al con­tent, are iden­ti­fied at the Monastyrske and Her­ak­leiske occur­rences, with prospects at depth asso­ci­at­ed with anom­alies and min­er­al­iza­tion inten­si­ty up to 4.9% at depths of 250–400 m.

Gypsum

The Kuprychivskyi gyp­sum occur­rence is locat­ed 4 km south­west of the vil­lage of Zeleno­hirya, on the south­ern slope of the Kuprych Riv­er val­ley. The host rocks include deposits of the Demer­chyn For­ma­tion of the Upper Juras­sic. The gyp­sum lay­er reach­es a thick­ness of up to 25 cm and extends for about 150 m along the sur­face of homo­ge­neous lime­stones. The raw mate­r­i­al may be used for zinc ben­e­fi­ci­a­tion, pro­duc­tion of acid soils, reduc­tion of dis­solved salts (NaCl and MgCl₂), and potas­si­um enrich­ment. The occur­rence is con­sid­ered promis­ing.

Limestone

Crimea con­tains sig­nif­i­cant reserves of build­ing lime­stone, account­ing for about 24% of Ukraine’s total reserves. These lime­stones are used as con­struc­tion mate­ri­als, flux­es, and chem­i­cal raw mate­ri­als. More than 100 quar­ries oper­ate on the penin­su­la, cov­er­ing an area of about 13,000 hectares.
Lime­stones of var­i­ous ages, from Juras­sic to Neo­gene, are used for lime pro­duc­tion. Pale­o­gene and Neo­gene lime­stones are the most suit­able in terms of occur­rence con­di­tions and raw mate­r­i­al qual­i­ty, espe­cial­ly in the plain and foothill Crimea. In addi­tion, low-grade lime­stones from flux raw mate­r­i­al deposits of the Bal­akla­va group are also used for lime pro­duc­tion. The Yev­pa­tori­iske and Inker­manske com­plex deposits are the main sources of build­ing lime.

Salts

Occur­rences of nat­ur­al min­er­al salts and brines extend as a belt along the east­ern coast of Crimea, from the vil­lage of Myko­laiv­ka in the south to lake Donu­zlav in the north. The Sasyk-Sivash deposit is locat­ed in the south­ern part of lake Sasyk, which has a total area of 41.9 km². Geo­log­i­cal explo­ration has iden­ti­fied sta­t­ic and dynam­ic reserves of sodi­um chlo­ride, mag­ne­sium, potas­si­um, and bromine.

Clays

In Crimea, low­er Cre­ta­ceous and part­ly Pliocene clays are active­ly used for the pro­duc­tion of bricks and roof­ing tiles. The Bal­akla­va deposit is locat­ed on the north­east­ern out­skirts of the city of Bal­akla­va, where dif­fer­ent types of clays are extract­ed. The deposit has been explored in sev­er­al stages since 1932 and is used for brick and drainage pipe pro­duc­tion. The Vilinske deposit, explored between 1989 and 1992, is also used for brick pro­duc­tion in accor­dance with estab­lished qual­i­ty stan­dards.

Marl

Marl deposits, espe­cial­ly wide­spread in the foothill zone of Crimea, rep­re­sent an impor­tant raw mate­r­i­al base. Marls are a key raw mate­r­i­al for cement pro­duc­tion. The best vari­eties of Eocene marls are found in the Bakhchysarai area. Marl extrac­tion is car­ried out by a build­ing mate­ri­als plant estab­lished on the basis of a for­mer inter­col­lec­tive farm cement plant. Marl deposits in this region are of great impor­tance for the con­struc­tion indus­try of Crimea and ensure the sup­ply of this essen­tial raw mate­r­i­al.

Groundwater

Ground­wa­ter in Crimea is divid­ed into min­er­al, fresh, and ther­mal waters. Geo­log­i­cal com­plex­i­ty has result­ed in four hydro­ge­o­log­i­cal regions:
1. The core of the Crimean Moun­tains fold sys­tem, where imper­me­able fly­sch deposits con­tain low-min­er­al­ized ground­wa­ter.
2. The south­west­ern block, where water is asso­ci­at­ed with frac­tured and kars­ti­fied lime­stones.
3. The north­ern flank, where ground­wa­ter is relat­ed to lime­stones, sands, and sand­stones of dif­fer­ent strati­graph­ic units.
4. The Plain Crimean arte­sian basin, where aquifers occur in var­i­ous sed­i­men­ta­ry deposits and are char­ac­ter­ized by high min­er­al­iza­tion and ele­vat­ed tem­per­a­tures.

Mineral waters

Sev­er­al min­er­al water springs are known in Crimea, includ­ing the Adzhi-Su deposit, the Novoulyanivske occur­rence, and the Melas occur­rence.
The min­er­al waters of the Adzhi-Su deposit have been used since ancient times to treat var­i­ous dis­eases, includ­ing rheuma­tism, pol­yarthri­tis, and neu­ri­tis. The Adzhi-Su spring is locat­ed near a tec­ton­ic fault, has a flow rate of 13.8 m³/day, and a min­er­al­iza­tion lev­el of 4.06–5.52 g/dm³. The water con­tains dis­solved gas­es such as methane, nitro­gen, and heli­um, as well as trace ele­ments with ther­a­peu­tic prop­er­ties.

Thermal waters

Ther­mal min­er­al waters in Crimea were dis­cov­ered between 1956 and 1959, with fur­ther inves­ti­ga­tions car­ried out for the spa resorts of Saki and Yev­pa­to­ria. As a result, two main deposits were iden­ti­fied: the Saki–Yevpatoria sys­tem, which includes both the Saki and Yev­pa­to­ria deposits. In Saki, the water known as “Crimean min­er­al water” is extract­ed; it has a chloride–hydrocarbonate–sodium com­po­si­tion and a min­er­al­iza­tion of 4.06–5.52 g/dm³. In Yev­pa­to­ria, waters from Tri­as­sic and Albian aquifers are used. Ther­mal waters are also known in the Novose­livske deposit, asso­ci­at­ed with low­er Cre­ta­ceous for­ma­tions. These waters are pres­sur­ized (arte­sian), have vary­ing min­er­al­iza­tion, and dif­fer in com­po­si­tion from oth­er sources.