The Kirovohrad region of Ukraine plays an impor­tant role in sup­ply­ing var­i­ous types of min­er­al raw mate­ri­als for the nation­al econ­o­my. It has sig­nif­i­cant min­er­al resource poten­tial and is con­sid­ered one of the largest repos­i­to­ries of min­er­al resources in Ukraine, with more than 390 types of min­er­als iden­ti­fied.

In total, more than 50 deposits have been dis­cov­ered with­in the region in rocks of the crys­talline base­ment. These deposits belong to var­i­ous genet­ic types, includ­ing hydrother­mal-meta­so­mat­ic, mag­mat­ic, resid­ual, hyper­gene, meta­mor­phic, and ultra­m­eta­mor­phic for­ma­tions.

The geo­log­i­cal-struc­tur­al posi­tion of the Kirovohrad ore dis­trict is deter­mined by its loca­tion at the junc­tion zone of the Cen­tral axi­al uplift of the Inhul megablock and the Inhul–Inhulets syn­cli­no­ri­um.

Metal­lic min­er­al resources of the Kirovohrad region are rep­re­sent­ed by deposits of iron, nick­el, ura­ni­um, and gold, as well as occur­rences of zir­co­ni­um.

Iron

Sig­nif­i­cant iron ore deposits are locat­ed in the east­ern part of the Kirovohrad region. The deep­est man-made cav­i­ties and exca­va­tions in Ukraine are the iron ore mines and open pits of the Kryvyi Rih basin. In under­ground mines, ore is extract­ed from depths of 850–1,500 m, while in open pits — from depths of up to 300 m. The main reserves are con­cen­trat­ed with­in the Petrivske, Han­nivske, Artemivske, Horikhivske, and Popel­nas­tivske deposits.

Nickel

Nick­el ore deposits in the Kirovohrad region belong to the Pobuz­ka deep fault zone. More than 50 mas­sifs of maf­ic and ultra­maf­ic rocks are known here, includ­ing gab­bro, peri­dotites, and dacites. These rocks con­tain valu­able ore min­er­als such as pyrrhotite, pent­landite, and chal­copy­rite. Dur­ing extrac­tion, nick­el con­tent is enriched to lev­els of 0.9–1.5%, iron — 10–20%, cobalt — about 0.03%, and sil­i­ca — around 45%. The final prod­uct is fer­ronick­el — an alloy con­tain­ing nick­el, cobalt, and iron.

Uranium

The region hosts sev­er­al ura­ni­um ore deposits, includ­ing the Michurinske and Vatutinske deposits, which form a basis for nuclear ener­gy pro­duc­tion. Ura­ni­um min­er­al­iza­tion is locat­ed with­in the Kirovohrad ura­ni­um ore zone. All ore bod­ies are asso­ci­at­ed with albitites and belong to the ura­ni­um-sodi­um hydrother­mal-meta­so­mat­ic for­ma­tion.

Gold

In the Kirovohrad region, there are two deposits and 11 occur­rences of gold. All of them belong to the gold-quartz low-sul­fide ore for­ma­tion. Gold min­er­al­iza­tion is main­ly local­ized with­in the Nadiivka–Yurivka and Inhu­lo-Kami­an­ka met­al­lo­genic zones. With­in the Klynivka–Koneve ore field, two close­ly locat­ed deposits — Klynivske and Yurivske — are found, asso­ci­at­ed with the east­ern con­tact of the Novoukrain­skyi gran­ite mas­sif. Gold min­er­al­iza­tion occurs in biotite, biotite-amphi­bo­lite, and cordierite gneiss­es. Min­er­al­ized zones rep­re­sent areas of intense quartz­i­fi­ca­tion of rocks with steep dips. Ore inter­vals are uneven­ly dis­trib­uted with­in these zones. The ores are gold-quartz with low sul­fide con­tent.

Rare metals

Rare met­al ores in the Kirovohrad region are asso­ci­at­ed with gran­i­toids of the Novoukrain­skyi and Kirovohrad com­plex­es. Two occur­rences of zir­co­ni­um ores are known — Osyku­vatske and Volodymyrivske, locat­ed in the extreme north­west­ern part of the region with­in the Osyku­vatske ore field. In asso­ci­a­tion with zir­co­ni­um, the fol­low­ing ele­ments have been iden­ti­fied: nio­bi­um (up to 0.07%) and rare earth ele­ments such as yttri­um (up to 0.1%), lan­thanum, and ceri­um (up to 0.1%). The main nio­bi­um-con­cen­trat­ing min­er­al is ilmenite. This min­er­al asso­ci­a­tion is of sig­nif­i­cant inter­est for extrac­tion and pro­cess­ing due to its valu­able met­al con­tent.

Among com­bustible min­er­als, brown coal, oil shale, and peat are present.

Brown coal

Brown coal deposits are locat­ed in the east­ern part of the region and account for about 90% of the reserves of the Dnieper brown coal basin. The depth of occur­rence of brown coal seams large­ly depends on mod­ern relief and varies from 10–30 m to 100–150 m. The deposits gen­er­al­ly have a com­plex struc­ture. The seams are most­ly hor­i­zon­tal but may be irreg­u­lar and only rarely rel­a­tive­ly uni­form. Sev­er­al deposits are not cur­rent­ly being devel­oped. How­ev­er, in gen­er­al, almost all extract­ed coal is processed and used with­in the region.

The Kirovohrad brown coal dis­trict includes the fol­low­ing deposits: Novomykhailivske, Sev­erynivske, Bal­ashiv­ske, Cher­vono­yarske, Haie­vo-Vese­livske, Zelenivske, as well as coal occur­rences such as Tru­doliu­bivske, Popivske, and Kut­sivske. The Olek­san­dri­ia dis­trict includes the Morozivske, Semeniv­ka-Olek­san­dri­ia, Moshoryne-Svit­lop­il, and South-Prazke deposits. Cur­rent­ly, Morozivske and Semeniv­ka-Olek­san­dri­ia deposits are under devel­op­ment.

Oil shale

Oil shales are con­cen­trat­ed with­in the Bov­tysh deposit. They are char­ac­ter­ized by mod­er­ate ash con­tent and calorif­ic val­ue. The low­er part of the deposit is over­lain by lay­ers of sandy and clayey Pale­o­gene sed­i­ments. The total reserves of oil shale are esti­mat­ed at approx­i­mate­ly 3 bil­lion tons.

Peat

Small peat deposits are found with­in the Kirovohrad region, main­ly in marshy areas near the Mala Vys and Vely­ka Vys rivers.

Non-metal­lic min­er­al resources of the Kirovohrad region include:

• Non-metal­lic raw mate­ri­als for met­al­lur­gy, includ­ing refrac­to­ry raw mate­ri­als (kaolin) and flux raw mate­ri­als (fluorspar);
• Min­ing raw mate­ri­als, includ­ing raw mate­ri­als for fac­ing mate­ri­als (gran­ite);
• Con­struc­tion mate­ri­als, includ­ing cement raw mate­ri­als (tripoli and marl), raw mate­ri­als for rub­ble stone (gran­ite, gneiss), sand and grav­el mate­ri­als (sand), and brick and tile raw mate­ri­als (clays, loams).

Kaolin

The Kirovohrad region con­tains deposits of kaolin: one deposit of pri­ma­ry kaolin (Verblozivske) and three of sec­ondary kaolin (Oboznivske, Kirovohradske, and Bal­ashiv­ske). The Verblozivske deposit con­tains pri­ma­ry kaolin formed by weath­er­ing of por­phyrit­ic gran­ites and is suit­able for the pro­duc­tion of semi-acid refrac­to­ry prod­ucts. The deposit is being pre­pared for devel­op­ment. The Oboznivske deposit con­tains sec­ondary kaolin, which is a high-qual­i­ty refrac­to­ry raw mate­r­i­al. The thick­ness of pro­duc­tive stra­ta ranges from 8 to 45 m. The deposit is cur­rent­ly being devel­oped. The Kirovohradske deposit con­sists of sec­ondary kaolin suit­able for refrac­to­ry bricks and chamotte pro­duc­tion. It is divid­ed into west­ern and east­ern sec­tions and is not cur­rent­ly being devel­oped. The Bal­ashiv­ske deposit is sim­i­lar in qual­i­ty to the Oboznivske deposit. It con­sists of fine­ly dis­persed mate­r­i­al of light gray to dark gray col­or and is suit­able for refrac­to­ry bricks and chamotte pro­duc­tion. It is not cur­rent­ly being devel­oped.

Tripoli and marl

Two deposits of tripoli and marl are locat­ed in the region: Kono­pli­anske and Per­voz­vanivske. The Kono­pli­anske deposit con­tains both tripoli and marl. Tripoli is a light, het­ero­ge­neous rock of vary­ing col­ors and den­si­ty, with a thick­ness of 3.7–10.5 m. Beneath it lies marl with a thick­ness of 8.5–16 m. The deposit is cur­rent­ly being devel­oped. Tripoli is used for pro­duc­ing light­weight bricks and blocks, as well as insu­la­tion mate­ri­als, while marl is suit­able for wall blocks. The Per­voz­vanivske deposit is rep­re­sent­ed by lay­ered tripoli for­ma­tions with an aver­age thick­ness of 13 m, lying hor­i­zon­tal­ly on marls of the Kyiv suite. This deposit is not cur­rent­ly being devel­oped.

Rubble stone (building stone)

The region also hosts deposits of build­ing stone mate­ri­als, main­ly gran­ite and gneiss: The Verkhnoin­hulske deposit con­tains biotite gneiss­es, some­times with gar­net and cordierite. These rocks are strong and dense, with an aver­age thick­ness of 38 m. The deposit is not cur­rent­ly being devel­oped. Gneiss is used for rub­ble stone, crushed stone, and aggre­gate for heavy con­crete. The Tyr­livske deposit con­tains both gran­ite and gneiss. The gneiss is dark gray, fine-grained, and slight­ly weath­ered, while the gran­ite is light gray and coarse-grained. This deposit is also not cur­rent­ly being devel­oped. Gran­ite deposits in var­i­ous areas (Zhy­vanivske, Kirovohradske, Marfivske, Sub­ottsivske) con­tain biotite pink-gray gran­ite. These are used for pro­duc­ing rub­ble stone, crushed stone for con­struc­tion, and aggre­gates for heavy con­crete. They are also not cur­rent­ly being devel­oped.

Sand

Con­struc­tion sands are wide­spread through­out the region. Sands of the Novopetrivs­ka suite and the upper Miocene sand stra­ta have an are­al dis­tri­b­u­tion, while allu­vial sands of the Vil­shan­s­ka and Des­ni­an­s­ka stages occur in the val­leys of the Inhul and Adzham­ka rivers. Five deposits of con­struc­tion sand have been explored and record­ed in the State Bal­ance of Min­er­al Resources: Ivanivske, Kol­makivske, Cher­vono­yarske, Oboznivske, and Pid­hait­sivske. Four of them are deposits of con­ti­nen­tal sands of the Novopetrivs­ka suite, while one—Pidhaitsivske—consists of allu­vial riv­er deposits in the Inhul Riv­er val­ley.

The sands of the Novopetrivs­ka suite are quartz-rich, gray­ish to yel­low­ish in col­or. They con­sist of alter­nat­ing lay­ers of vary­ing thick­ness (from 0.2 to 1.0 m) and grain size: fine- to very fine-grained at the top, and medi­um- to coarse-grained at the bot­tom. The over­bur­den con­sists of Qua­ter­nary deposits with a thick­ness of about 4.4 m. These sands can be used for con­crete pro­duc­tion.

Drinking water

In the Kirovohrad region, the main sources of fresh water are aquifers, includ­ing frac­tured waters in Pre­cam­bri­an crys­talline rocks, sands of the Buchak series, as well as Pliocene allu­vial deposits. This aquifer con­sists of polymic­tic quartz sands with a thick­ness of up to 25 meters. Water from this hori­zon is extract­ed through wells and bore­holes, such as the Oboznivskyi and Lelekivskyi water intakes.

In terms of chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion, ground­wa­ter in the region belongs to hydro­car­bon­ate, hydro­car­bon­ate-sul­fate, and occa­sion­al­ly sul­fate-hydro­car­bon­ate types, with potas­si­um and sodi­um dom­i­nance. The total hard­ness of the water ranges from 1.5 to 8 mg-eq/L.

Thus, all min­er­al resources iden­ti­fied in the Kirovohrad region play an impor­tant role in the devel­op­ment of indus­try, ener­gy, and con­struc­tion sec­tors. The uti­liza­tion of these resources con­tributes to the eco­nom­ic growth of the region. The Insti­tute of Geol­o­gy has sig­nif­i­cant expe­ri­ence in sub­soil use in the Kirovohrad region and is ready to pro­vide com­pre­hen­sive sup­port to resource users.