Vin­nyt­sia region, locat­ed in cen­tral Ukraine, pos­sess­es sig­nif­i­cant nat­ur­al resources, among which min­er­al deposits occu­py a spe­cial place due to their impor­tance for both region­al and nation­al eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment. A total of 1,159 deposits and occur­rences of 30 types of min­er­als have been dis­cov­ered with­in the region. These include iron, apatite, phl­o­go­pite, gar­net, flu­o­rite, as well as unique deposits of gran­ite and sub­stan­tial reserves of kaolin.

From a tec­ton­ic zon­ing per­spec­tive, the ter­ri­to­ry of Vin­nyt­sia region lies with­in the Dniester–Bug sub­province. A large part of it belongs to the Podil­lian struc­tur­al-met­al­lo­genic zone, which is char­ac­ter­ized by rare earth and apatite min­er­al­iza­tion. In turn, this zone is sub­di­vid­ed into two met­al­lo­genic zones: the North Podil­lian and the Khmil­nyk zones.

The Khmil­nyk zone is the most sig­nif­i­cant in terms of min­er­al resources, as it hosts the major­i­ty of deposits and occur­rences of gar­net, phl­o­go­pite, graphite, rare earth ele­ments, fac­ing and con­struc­tion stones, as well as ground­wa­ter, includ­ing radon-rich waters. Addi­tion­al­ly, min­er­al­iza­tion of molyb­de­num and cop­per has been iden­ti­fied here, and large deposits of pri­ma­ry kaolin are locat­ed with­in the weath­er­ing crust.

Thus, the main min­er­al resources of Vin­nyt­sia region include:

Iron ores

Rich iron ore deposits have been dis­cov­ered with­in the region, con­tribut­ing to the devel­op­ment of heavy indus­try. The extrac­tion and pro­cess­ing of iron ore pro­mote job cre­ation, attract invest­ment, and sup­port the growth of the local econ­o­my. One of the most well-known deposits is the North Transnis­tri­an deposit, locat­ed in the Kalyniv­ka and Haisyn dis­tricts of the region. This deposit is one of the largest in the coun­try and con­tains sig­nif­i­cant reserves of iron ore. These resources are used for the pro­duc­tion of pig iron, steel, and oth­er met­al­lur­gi­cal mate­ri­als.

Rare Metals

With­in the Vin­nyt­sia region, 1 deposit and 7 occur­rences of rare met­als are known. The con­tent of rock-form­ing min­er­als is high­ly uneven, as is the dis­tri­b­u­tion of ore min­er­als such as mon­azite, zir­con, and ilmenite. Among the rare earth ele­ments present are ceri­um, lan­thanum, neodymi­um, praseodymi­um, samar­i­um, gadolin­i­um, dys­pro­sium, and yttri­um.

Thorium ores

There are 5 known promis­ing occur­rences with radioac­tive min­er­al­iza­tion. The main tho­ri­um-bear­ing min­er­al is mon­azite, whose con­cen­tra­tions reach near-indus­tri­al lev­els. Occa­sion­al­ly, oran­gite, cher­alite, and hatch­et­to­lite are found in feldspar peg­matites. Almost all tho­ri­um occur­rences belong to the rare-metal–rare-earth for­ma­tion with­in leucogran­ites and are iden­ti­fied by radioac­tive anom­alies with inten­si­ties rang­ing from 100 to 3145 μR/h. How­ev­er, it is impor­tant to strict­ly com­ply with the require­ments of the Radi­a­tion Safe­ty Stan­dards of Ukraine (NRBU-97) dur­ing fur­ther explo­ration of these occur­rences.

Peat

With­in the Vin­nyt­sia region, 26 peat deposits have been iden­ti­fied and eval­u­at­ed to vary­ing degrees. About 70% are small deposits, with a min­i­mum indus­tri­al peat thick­ness of 0.7 m and an area of 10–50 hectares. Sev­en deposits are of medi­um size (50–300 hectares), and one large deposit exceeds 1000 hectares (Zgharivske), where the thick­ness of peat lay­ers reach­es up to 6 m, with an aver­age of 2–3 m. Peat deposits are of the low­land type, char­ac­ter­ized by increased ash con­tent and a decom­po­si­tion degree of 30–35%. Their lev­el of explo­ration is high: 11 deposits have been thor­ough­ly explored, and their reserves have been approved under cat­e­go­ry A.

Abrasive raw materials

Abra­sive raw mate­ri­als, par­tic­u­lar­ly gar­net, are valu­able nat­ur­al resources wide­ly used in indus­try due to their unique properties—high hard­ness, resis­tance to mechan­i­cal wear, and chem­i­cal inert­ness. In Ukraine, sig­nif­i­cant deposits of gar­net min­er­als have been iden­ti­fied in the Vin­nyt­sia region, par­tic­u­lar­ly at the Loz­nenske and Slo­bidske deposits. These deposits are char­ac­ter­ized by a high gar­net con­tent in the host rocks and are impor­tant for the devel­op­ment of the abra­sive indus­try, offer­ing prospects for both domes­tic use and export.

The Loz­nenske deposit is locat­ed in the Khmel­nyt­skyi dis­trict of Vin­nyt­sia region. Geo­log­i­cal­ly, it is rep­re­sent­ed by a ridge-like body of biotite-gar­net gran­ites. The gar­net con­tent in the rock ranges from 9.2% to 17.4%, aver­ag­ing 12.1%, with total resources esti­mat­ed at 7.6 mil­lion tons. The Slo­bidske deposit is sit­u­at­ed on the right bank of the South­ern Bug Riv­er. It is rep­re­sent­ed by expo­sures of biotite-gar­net gran­ites extend­ing for about 1 km and 600–700 m in width, sur­round­ed by migmatites. The migma­tized vari­eties exhib­it a band­ed struc­ture, where dark bands (1–2 cm), enriched in biotite and gar­net, alter­nate with lighter bands dom­i­nat­ed by quartz and feldspars. The gar­net con­tent ranges from 14% to 17%, and resources down to a depth of 50 m are esti­mat­ed at 10 mil­lion tons.

In addi­tion, the Vin­nyt­sia region pos­sess­es sig­nif­i­cant reserves of con­struc­tion mate­ri­als, includ­ing lime­stone, sand, and rub­ble stone. These mate­ri­als are used in road con­struc­tion, infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment, as well as in the build­ing and indus­tri­al sec­tors. The avail­abil­i­ty of local con­struc­tion mate­ri­als sup­ports the devel­op­ment of the con­struc­tion indus­try and reduces import costs.

Limestone

As a raw mate­r­i­al for sawn wall mate­ri­als, soft and medi­um-strength oolitic lime­stones of the Mid­dle Sar­ma­t­ian sub­stage are main­ly used. These rocks are vari­ably cav­ernous and porous. Their most com­mon out­crops occur in the val­leys of the Murafa, Murash­ka, and Lozo­va rivers. The thick­ness of lime­stone lay­ers varies from 2.4 to 38 m, and they occur at depths of up to 60 m. In total, 11 deposits are locat­ed in this area, the largest being Dere­bchynske, while oth­ers of medi­um scale include Kozlivske, Murafske, Dovzhotske, Khomenkivske, Lozivske, and oth­ers.

Addi­tion­al­ly, lime­stones of the Mid­dle Sar­ma­t­ian sub­stage from some Vin­nyt­sia deposits are suit­able for lime pro­duc­tion if they con­tain about 85–99% CaCO₃, no more than 5–8% SiO₂, and no more than 2–3% MgCO₃ and oth­er impu­ri­ties. The largest such deposit is the Rivske lime­stone deposit, locat­ed north­east of the vil­lage of Riv in Zhmeryn­ka dis­trict. This deposit is active­ly exploit­ed, with lime­stone con­tain­ing 85–95% CaCO₃. Small­er but promis­ing deposits include Zhdanivske, Dzhurynske, and Ver­bivske.

Construction sand

Sandy deposits have lim­it­ed dis­tri­b­u­tion and are main­ly con­cen­trat­ed in the val­leys of the South­ern Bug Riv­er and its trib­u­taries. Sand deposits have a lens-like shape, with a max­i­mum over­bur­den depth of 6.5 m and pro­duc­tive lay­er thick­ness rang­ing from 0.6 to 18.8 m. All deposits are small and of local impor­tance, includ­ing Pry­buzke, Pry­borivske, Bokho­nytske, and Tyvrivske.

The sands from most deposits are of rel­a­tive­ly low qual­i­ty, typ­i­cal­ly fine-grained with a fine­ness mod­u­lus of 1.5–2. In most cas­es, the clay frac­tion exceeds the per­mis­si­ble stan­dards (3% for con­crete sand and 5–7% for con­struc­tion mor­tars), so local sands require wash­ing before use.

Brick and tile raw materials

In Vin­nyt­sia region, the State Bal­ance of Min­er­al Resources records 27 deposits of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als, 13 of which are cur­rent­ly being exploit­ed. The largest among them are Zarvant­seve, Vin­nyt­sia, and Brat­slav deposits. The raw mate­ri­als for brick pro­duc­tion are wide­spread aeolian–deluvial and loess-like loams, which often occur at or near the sur­face or at shal­low depths. When pro­duc­ing bricks, loams are used in their nat­ur­al state; there­fore, to obtain high-qual­i­ty prod­ucts, addi­tives such as clays with a plas­tic­i­ty index of 24–36 are required. Brick grades range from 75 to 150, typ­i­cal­ly 75–100.

Rubble stone

In terms of reserves of raw mate­ri­als for rub­ble stone pro­duc­tion, Vin­nyt­sia region ranks among the lead­ing regions in Ukraine. There are 25 known deposits, reserves have been esti­mat­ed for 12 of them, and 8 are cur­rent­ly being exploit­ed. These are main­ly Ear­ly Pre­cam­bri­an gran­ites, char­ac­ter­ized by high strength and oth­er prop­er­ties suit­able for pro­duc­ing mate­ri­als with grades 800‑1400.

The largest deposit is the Demy­di­vske deposit, locat­ed near the vil­lage of the same name in Zhmeryn­ka dis­trict, about 5 km from Hni­van rail­way sta­tion. The raw mate­r­i­al is suit­able for pro­duc­ing rub­ble stone of grade 800 and crushed stone of grades 800‑1000. Geo­log­i­cal­ly and in terms of raw mate­r­i­al qual­i­ty, sim­i­lar large deposits include Sabarivske, Vitavske, and Stryzhavske.

Decorative and facing stone

Upper Pobuzhzhia is known for its dec­o­ra­tive and fac­ing stones, includ­ing mar­ble, ender­bite, and sand­stone. Mar­ble is a high-qual­i­ty nat­ur­al build­ing mate­r­i­al used for both inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or dec­o­ra­tion of build­ings, as well as for sculp­tures and mon­u­ments. This sup­ports the devel­op­ment of stone­ma­son­ry and con­tributes to unique archi­tec­tur­al styles in the region.

Ender­bite is extract­ed at the Tyvrivske and Rakhny-Polivske deposits locat­ed near the urban-type set­tle­ment of Tyvriv. The rock is grey to dark grey, fine- to medi­um-grained, thin­ly band­ed, and rel­a­tive­ly homo­ge­neous, with almost no rem­nants of crys­talline schists. Due to its high dec­o­ra­tive and pol­ish­ing qual­i­ties, ender­bite meets mod­ern archi­tec­tur­al require­ments. Besides mon­u­ments, it is used for exte­ri­or and inte­ri­or cladding, floor­ing, stair­cas­es, and more. When pol­ished, the stone has a black-grey col­or with­out pat­tern, mak­ing it suit­able for large-scale con­struc­tion with­out the need to match blocks by tex­ture.

Sand­stone is mined at the Dovzhok deposit, locat­ed 1 km from the vil­lage of Dovzhok in Sharhorod dis­trict. The mate­r­i­al con­sists of fine-grained white Mid­dle Sar­ma­t­ian rocks, suit­able for pro­duc­ing dec­o­ra­tive tiles with a “rock” tex­ture, curb stones, and oth­er archi­tec­tur­al ele­ments.

Primary kaolin

Among oth­er min­er­al resources in Vin­nyt­sia region, kaolin—a soft white clay—stands out due to its impor­tance in the ceram­ic and phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal indus­tries. Kaolin occurs in large quan­ti­ties in sub­sur­face deposits and is an impor­tant export com­mod­i­ty. The north­east­ern part of the region is char­ac­ter­ized by well-pre­served weath­er­ing crusts with a clear­ly defined kaolin zone devel­oped on Pre­cam­bri­an gran­i­toids of the Berdy­chiv com­plex. The most well-known deposit is the Tur­bivske deposit near the urban-type set­tle­ment of Tur­biv, along with sev­er­al promis­ing occur­rences such as Koro­livske, Litynske, and Sutyskivske. Large kaolin pro­cess­ing plants pre­vi­ous­ly oper­at­ed in the region, once account­ing for about half of the total kaolin pro­duc­tion vol­ume in the USSR.

Groundwater

Ground­wa­ter deposits in the Vin­nyt­sia region are asso­ci­at­ed with the frac­tured zone of crys­talline rocks and lime­stone for­ma­tions of the Sar­ma­t­ian stage. Over dif­fer­ent years, reserves have been explored and approved for 6 deposits of potable ground­wa­ter and 6 deposits of table and min­er­al radon waters in the region.

The most well-known among them is the Khmil­nyk radon water deposit, dis­cov­ered in 1935, which became the basis for the devel­op­ment of the Khmil­nyk health resort spe­cial­iz­ing in the treat­ment of mus­cu­loskele­tal sys­tem dis­or­ders. The waters of the Khmil­nyk deposit are clas­si­fied as low-radon (10–25 nCi/dm³) and low-min­er­al­ized (0.6–1.1 g/dm³).

Nat­ur­al table and min­er­al sil­i­ca-rich waters from sev­er­al deposits in the city of Vin­nyt­sia are char­ac­ter­ized by high qual­i­ty and are rec­om­mend­ed for indus­tri­al bot­tling. The largest is the “Pan­da” deposit, where well yields from frac­tured Pre­cam­bri­an rocks reach 0.65 thou­sand m³ per day. Min­er­al waters of the “Myrhorod­s­ka” type have also been iden­ti­fied.

All these min­er­al resources are of great impor­tance for the devel­op­ment of indus­try, ener­gy, and con­struc­tion. Their use con­tributes to region­al eco­nom­ic growth, cre­ates new jobs, attracts invest­ment, and pro­motes sus­tain­able devel­op­ment of the region as a whole.