The Ternopil region, known for its pic­turesque land­scapes and rich his­to­ry, is also notable for its min­er­al resources. Con­struc­tion min­er­als in the region account for about one-third of Ukraine’s total poten­tial. More than 300 deposits of lime­stone, chalk, marl, gyp­sum, quartz sand, sand­stone, brick and tile clays, loams, and sand-grav­el mix­tures have been explored and reg­is­tered with­in the region. In addi­tion, there are deposits of peat, brown coal, min­er­al waters, and ther­a­peu­tic muds.

The spe­cif­ic com­po­si­tion of min­er­al deposits in the region is deter­mined by its loca­tion with­in the Volyn-Podil­lia Plate of the East Euro­pean Plat­form, char­ac­ter­ized by a thick sed­i­men­ta­ry cov­er and a deeply buried crys­talline base­ment. As a result, all min­er­al resources in the region are of sed­i­men­ta­ry ori­gin.

The region uti­lizes car­bon­ate rocks of the Sil­uri­an sys­tem (used for rub­ble stone and crushed stone), ter­rige­nous deposits of the Devon­ian sys­tem (used for crushed stone, rub­ble stone, and fac­ing stone), car­bon­ates (chalk and marl) of the Cre­ta­ceous sys­tem (used as raw mate­ri­als for cement, lime pro­duc­tion, and soil improve­ment), and Neo­gene deposits (used for crushed stone, lime pro­duc­tion, ani­mal feed, glass man­u­fac­tur­ing, expand­ed clay, con­struc­tion mor­tars, and the cement indus­try).

Among fuel resources, the region con­tains small deposits of brown coal and peat. The Ternopil region stands out for its sig­nif­i­cant share in Ukraine’s min­er­al resource struc­ture, par­tic­u­lar­ly in three types of car­bon­ate raw mate­ri­als: lime­stone for the sug­ar indus­try, for soil lim­ing, and for lime pro­duc­tion.

Brown coal

Brown coal is found in the Kremenets, Shum­sk, and Zboriv dis­tricts of the Ternopil region. Its deposits are asso­ci­at­ed with Neo­gene sed­i­ments. Some of these deposits were devel­oped in the past, but due to the unprof­itabil­i­ty of the mines, they are cur­rent­ly moth­balled.

Peat

Peat deposits are main­ly con­cen­trat­ed in the north­ern and north­west­ern parts of the Ternopil region, under con­di­tions favor­able for extrac­tion. Peat is used as a fuel as well as for agri­cul­tur­al pur­pos­es.

Phosphorites

Small accu­mu­la­tions of phos­pho­rites occur in Ceno­man­ian deposits along the slopes of the Dni­ester Riv­er and its trib­u­taries. They have no sig­nif­i­cant indus­tri­al val­ue.

Construction materials

The cen­tral dis­tricts of the region are best sup­plied with raw mate­ri­als for brick and tile pro­duc­tion. The Ternopil region has rel­a­tive­ly lim­it­ed explored reserves of gyp­sum and anhy­drite, lime­stone, build­ing chalk, fac­ing and dimen­sion stone, and raw mate­ri­als for the glass indus­try. Thus, the region main­ly pos­sess­es cer­tain types of con­struc­tion raw mate­ri­als, pri­mar­i­ly car­bon­ate mate­ri­als (lime­stone, marl, chalk, dolomite), and to a less­er extent clay mate­ri­als (loams, clays), sand, and gyp­sum.

Brick and tile raw materials

Raw mate­ri­als for con­struc­tion ceram­ics have been explored in near­ly every dis­trict, although in rel­a­tive­ly small quan­ti­ties (1–5 mil­lion tons). Cur­rent­ly, 29 deposits and one reg­is­tered occur­rence are being devel­oped, while more than 90 addi­tion­al deposits have been thor­ough­ly explored, record­ed in the state bal­ance, and remain in reserve.

Limestones

The dis­tri­b­u­tion of lime­stone deposits across the region is high­ly uneven: deposits are known in 8 dis­tricts, but about 95% of raw mate­ri­als for lime pro­duc­tion are con­cen­trat­ed in three dis­tricts — Pid­volochysk, Zbarazh, and Berezhany. Lime­stone deposits are main­ly asso­ci­at­ed with Sil­uri­an and Neo­gene for­ma­tions. Sil­uri­an lime­stones are wide­spread in the south­east­ern part of the region. They are typ­i­cal­ly green­ish-gray, very dense, and suit­able for pro­duc­ing crushed stone, rub­ble stone, and for lime burn­ing. Neo­gene lime­stones occur in almost all parts of the region. The largest deposits are con­cen­trat­ed in the Tovtry Ridge area, where they are rep­re­sent­ed by organogenic-detri­tal vari­eties that are easy to process mechan­i­cal­ly.

In total, about 100 lime­stone deposits are known in the Ternopil region. The largest num­bers are found in Zbarazh, Pid­volochysk, Berezhany, Buchach, Kremenets, and Zboriv dis­tricts. The region also has sig­nif­i­cant reserves of raw mate­ri­als for cement pro­duc­tion (over 97 mil­lion tons), con­struc­tion stone (over 94 mil­lion tons), build­ing and coarse ceram­ics, and con­struc­tion sand. Reserves of raw mate­ri­als for crushed stone and rub­ble are known in almost all dis­tricts, with about half con­cen­trat­ed in the Bor­shchiv dis­trict.

Sand and gravel raw materials

Deposits of grav­el and peb­ble mate­ri­als are con­cen­trat­ed in the south­ern part of the region, asso­ci­at­ed with flood­plains and riv­er ter­races of the Dni­ester Riv­er and its trib­u­taries. They are poor­ly stud­ied, and only a few deposits are cur­rent­ly being devel­oped. Peb­bles and grav­el are main­ly used in road con­struc­tion and repair. The pres­ence of sig­nif­i­cant min­er­al resources cre­ates favor­able con­di­tions for the devel­op­ment of the con­struc­tion mate­ri­als indus­try in the region.

Quartz sand

The largest deposits of quartz sand are found in the north­ern and cen­tral parts of the region, with more than 50 deposits iden­ti­fied. These are main­ly con­struc­tion sands used for mak­ing mor­tars, in road con­struc­tion, and as addi­tives in tile pro­duc­tion. Com­po­si­tion­al­ly, these sands are monomin­er­al­ic quartz sands with over 90% quartz con­tent. They are suit­able for pro­duc­ing high-qual­i­ty glass.

Sandstones

Devon­ian sand­stones are com­mon­ly used in the region for cladding the low­er parts of build­ings, dec­o­ra­tive fin­ish­ing, pro­duc­tion of mon­u­ments, rub­ble stone, and crushed stone. The largest deposits of Devon­ian sand­stones are locat­ed in the Tere­bovlia, Buchach, and Chortkiv dis­tricts of the Ternopil region. In total, more than 30 sand­stone deposits are cur­rent­ly being devel­oped.

Chalk

Chalk is wide­spread in the north­ern part of the Ternopil region. The occur­rence con­di­tions are favor­able for extrac­tion, and its qual­i­ty is high. Indus­tri­al devel­op­ment is car­ried out in the vicin­i­ty of Kremenets. The extract­ed chalk is main­ly used for soil lim­ing and lime pro­duc­tion. Its phys­i­cal and chem­i­cal prop­er­ties allow for sig­nif­i­cant­ly broad­er appli­ca­tions in oth­er sec­tors of the econ­o­my.

Dolomites

Deposits of high-qual­i­ty Mid­dle Devon­ian dolomites are found near the vil­lage of Zavadi­v­ka. Their chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion and phys­i­cal prop­er­ties make them suit­able for use in many indus­tries, espe­cial­ly glass­mak­ing and met­al­lur­gy. How­ev­er, due to the con­sid­er­able dis­tance from rail­ways and con­sumers, their devel­op­ment is lim­it­ed, and they are main­ly used for road con­struc­tion and par­tial­ly for the pro­duc­tion of fac­ing tiles.

Gypsum

Gyp­sum is con­cen­trat­ed in the Dni­ester region, where more than 20 deposits are locat­ed. The largest reserves are found between the Seret and Zbruch rivers. Total reserves amount to tens of mil­lions of tons. Indus­tri­al extrac­tion is cur­rent­ly car­ried out only at the Holovchynske deposit in the Zal­ishchyky dis­trict. The extract­ed gyp­sum is used for soil treat­ment, as a bind­ing mate­r­i­al in con­struc­tion, for wall par­ti­tions, and in med­i­cine. Stronger vari­eties of plas­ter are suit­able for sculp­tur­al and hab­er­dash­ery, fac­ing plates, etc.

Groundwater

The Ternopil region is locat­ed with­in the Volyn-Podil­lia arte­sian basin. Numer­ous aquifers and com­plex­es are dis­tin­guished, asso­ci­at­ed with both fresh and min­er­al waters. The min­er­al waters of the region are main­ly rep­re­sent­ed by hydro­gen sul­fide waters relat­ed to Tor­ton­ian deposits. There are also known sources with ele­vat­ed iron con­tent, as well as waters of the “Naf­tu­sia” type.

Numer­ous bot­tling plants for table water oper­ate in the region, using drink­ing ground­wa­ter as their raw mate­r­i­al base.

Despite the fact that the Ternopil region is rich in var­i­ous raw mate­ri­als for the con­struc­tion indus­try, the lev­el of anthro­pogenic pres­sure is rel­a­tive­ly low com­pared to oth­er west­ern regions of Ukraine. Min­er­al resources of the Ternopil region are impor­tant not only for indus­try but also for meet­ing local needs. The use of these resources can stim­u­late eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment and con­tribute to the region’s sus­tain­able growth in the future.