The Volyn region, locat­ed in west­ern Ukraine, is known for its rich nat­ur­al resources, includ­ing min­er­al deposits. Their extrac­tion plays an impor­tant role in the devel­op­ment of indus­try and the econ­o­my of the Volyn region, con­tributes to job cre­ation, and ensures bal­anced region­al devel­op­ment.

There­fore, the main min­er­al resources of the Volyn region include:

Peat

Peat is the most wide­spread min­er­al resource in the region. The main con­di­tion for peat­land for­ma­tion is the pres­ence of peat-form­ing plant com­mu­ni­ties and con­stant water­log­ging of the sub­strate with­out oxy­gen access, which occurs when ground­wa­ter lies close to the sur­face and infil­tra­tion is slow. Such con­di­tions arise where infil­tra­tion clear­ly exceeds sur­face runoff and evap­o­ra­tion. These envi­ron­ments are typ­i­cal for riv­er val­leys, espe­cial­ly flood­plains and low riv­er ter­races. Most peat deposits are asso­ci­at­ed with the val­leys of the Stokhid, Styr, Putyliv­ka, Stublа, and Chornohus­ka rivers, as well as the inter­fluve area between the Stokhid and Styr rivers, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the north­ern, north-west­ern, and cen­tral parts of the region.

There are 73 peat deposits in the Volyn region, most of which belong to the low­land type. Accord­ing to botan­i­cal com­po­si­tion, peat­lands are main­ly reed-sedge types, along with reed, sedge, sedge-hyp­num, for­est-swamp, sphag­num-sedge, woody-sedge, and mixed types. Less com­mon­ly, raised bog, tran­si­tion­al, and mixed peat­lands occur. Raised bogs are com­posed of fern, pine-bush, while tran­si­tion­al types are for­est-swamp peat­lands.

The ash con­tent of peat deposits in the West­ern Polis­sia area ranges from 7.2% to 35.0%. In the north-west­ern and west­ern parts of the ter­ri­to­ry (char­ac­ter­ized by dis­sect­ed relief due to glacial forms and active neo­tec­ton­ic uplift), ash con­tent reach­es 40.0–51.1%. In the Volyn for­est-steppe region, ash con­tent is high­er (30.0–50.0%), reach­ing max­i­mum val­ues at the Chornohuz­ka and Lut­sk deposits (55.6% and 57.2%, respec­tive­ly). In raised and tran­si­tion­al peat­lands, ash con­tent ranges from 11.0% to 18.4%.

Peat gen­er­al­ly has a medi­um degree of decom­po­si­tion (30–43%), although poor­ly decom­posed peat (15–20%) is occa­sion­al­ly found. The calorif­ic val­ue of absolute­ly dry peat ranges from 2205 to 4454 kcal/kg and decreas­es as ash con­tent increas­es. The total area of peat deposits in the region is about 34.6 thou­sand hectares. The largest and most well-known deposits include Cherevaha‑I, Velyke Bolo­to, Velyke Bah­no, Vutishne, Peres­pa-Dukhche, and Zhu­ravy­chi. Most peat deposits are not cur­rent­ly exploit­ed, and those that were used in the past cen­tu­ry are now con­served.

Copper

Cop­per min­er­al­iza­tion in the region is con­cen­trat­ed with­in the Manevy­chi met­al­lo­genic dis­trict of the Lukiv–Ratne met­al­lo­genic zone. It is spa­tial­ly and strati­graph­i­cal­ly asso­ci­at­ed main­ly with the upper­most part of the Babyn For­ma­tion and the Luchy­chi, Zori­an, and Yakushiv beds of the Ratne For­ma­tion, which form the upper sec­tion of the Volyn series.

With­in the Manevy­chi met­al­lo­genic dis­trict, four ore-bear­ing fields have been iden­ti­fied: Telchynske, Komarivske, Lysh­nivske, and Chud­lynske. After the com­ple­tion of explo­ration works in 2003 at the Rafaliv­ka site of the Komarivske ore field, a geo­log­i­cal and eco­nom­ic assess­ment of reserves and resources was car­ried out in accor­dance with fea­si­bil­i­ty study (FS) para­me­ters. The best tech­no-eco­nom­ic indi­ca­tors of prof­itabil­i­ty were obtained for the option with a cut-off cop­per grade of 0.2% in sam­ples and a min­i­mum ore body thick­ness of 1.0 m.

Phosphorites

With­in the region, in the frame­work of the Lviv–Volyn phos­pho­rite basin, the Manevychi–Klevan phos­pho­rite zone has been iden­ti­fied (com­pris­ing four ore occur­rences). It is asso­ci­at­ed with the slopes of the south-east­ern cen­tri­cli­nal clo­sure of the Kovel–Volyn Pale­oem­bay­ment of Ceno­man­ian age. A char­ac­ter­is­tic fea­ture of the phos­pho­rite-bear­ing area is the increase in thick­ness of the pro­duc­tive hori­zon from the near-shore zone toward rel­a­tive­ly deep­er-water set­tings, and a decrease in P₂O₅ con­tent in the ore from the deep­er-water zone toward the near-shore zone.

The phos­pho­rite-bear­ing terrigenous–carbonate deposits are litho­log­i­cal­ly rep­re­sent­ed in the low­er part by phosphatic–glauconite–quartz fine- to very fine-grained sands and sand­stones of dark grey to grey colour with a green­ish tint. These are weak­ly cement­ed by a carbonate–clay matrix and grad­u­al­ly tran­si­tion into cal­care­ous phosphatic–glauconite–quartz and fine-grained light grey sand­stones with a yel­low­ish tint, cement­ed by clay–carbonate mate­r­i­al. The sec­tion of the inoce­ramid beds is com­plet­ed by sandy marls of light grey to white colour. The pro­por­tion of ter­rige­nous mate­r­i­al in the phos­pho­rite-bear­ing sequence decreas­es upward, from about 40% at the base to 5–10% at the top.

Phos­pho­rite min­er­al­iza­tion is caused by the pres­ence of gran­u­lar phos­pho­rites com­posed of fran­co­l­ite and kurskite with a fluorocarbonate–hydroxyl apatite com­po­si­tion. Most of the P₂O₅ in the gran­u­lar phos­pho­rites is asso­ci­at­ed with prisms of inoce­ramid shells (up to 70%) and phos­pha­tized glau­conite grains (about 10%), as well as irreg­u­lar aggre­gates (6.0–8.4%), oolites (1.3–3.2%), copro­lites (0.3–2.3%), and micro-nod­ules (up to 2.5%). The P₂O₅ con­tent in the pro­duc­tive hori­zon ranges from 4.0% to 10.44%.

Sapropel

In Volyn region, large-scale prospect­ing and eval­u­a­tion works on sapro­pel deposits have been car­ried out, along with detailed explo­ration of 191 lakes with a total area of 68.024 km². Accord­ing to data from the Kyiv Geo­log­i­cal Explo­ration Expe­di­tion, indus­tri­al sapro­pel reserves (cat­e­gories A + C₂) amount to 69,987.2 thou­sand tons, of which 63,621.9 thou­sand tons are clas­si­fied as bal­ance reserves. Prospect­ing and eval­u­a­tion works were per­formed on 115 lakes, where C₂ reserves were esti­mat­ed at 27,876.8 thou­sand tons, includ­ing 23,580.8 thou­sand tons of bal­ance reserves. Detailed explo­ration was con­duct­ed on 76 lakes, where cat­e­go­ry A reserves amount to 42,110.4 thou­sand tons, includ­ing 40,041.1 thou­sand tons of bal­ance reserves. Over­all, the lev­el of geo­log­i­cal study of lake sapro­pel deposits in Volyn region reach­es 81%, with about 32% of deposits cov­ered by detailed explo­ration.

The largest num­ber of explored sapro­pel deposits is locat­ed in the north­ern dis­tricts of the region, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the lakes of Ratne, Turiysk, and Starovyzhiv dis­tricts (40.8% of all deposits). Sig­nif­i­cant reserves are also record­ed in Kov­el (11.0%), Manevy­chi (10.0%), and Shatsk (9.4%) dis­tricts. In the cen­tral and south­ern dis­tricts such as Horokhiv, Ivany­chi, and Lut­sk, the num­ber of lakes is much small­er, and sapro­pel reserves are there­fore lim­it­ed.

Accord­ing to com­po­si­tion, sapro­pel deposits are high­ly diverse. The largest deposits con­sist of sev­er­al types: Povurske – organo-clayey, mixed algal, and cal­care­ous; Borove – organo-siliceous and car­bon­ate; Sered­nie – peat and organo-clayey. The remain­ing deposits are dom­i­nat­ed by a sin­gle type, includ­ing: organo-cal­care­ous (Oze­ri­anske, Velyke, Pisochanske, Shku­ratnske), organo-sandy (Ozerce, Oze­ro), mixed algal (Lisovske, Sli­ple-II), organo-fer­rug­i­nous (Male, Bolotne), cal­care­ous (Svi­ate).

Amber

The ter­ri­to­ry of Volyn region belongs to the Dubrovitsia–Volodymyrets amber-bear­ing zone, which includes the Volodymyrets and Manevy­chi amber-bear­ing dis­tricts. The Manevy­chi dis­trict cov­ers the north­ern part of the ter­ri­to­ry, bound­ed from the west and east by the incised pale­o­val­leys of the Stokhid and Styr rivers, and from the south by the shore­line of the Okon­sk pale­ou­plift of Upper Cre­ta­ceous deposits. The depth of occur­rence of poten­tial­ly amber-bear­ing Mezhyhirya–Bereka for­ma­tions ranges from 2–3 m to 10–15 m. With­in this dis­trict, four amber occur­rences are locat­ed: Lisovyi Volyn­skyi, Velykoved­mezkyi, Huta Lisovs­ka, and Kamenukha. These are genet­i­cal­ly asso­ci­at­ed main­ly with the Mezhy­hirya For­ma­tion of the Low­er Oligocene and, to a less­er extent, the Bere­ka For­ma­tion of the Upper Oligocene.

The extreme north-east­ern part of the region belongs to the Volodymyrets amber-bear­ing dis­trict, which is bound­ed from the west and south by the incised pale­o­val­ley of the Styr Riv­er. With­in this dis­trict, three amber occur­rences have been iden­ti­fied: Bal­akhovy­chi, Mayun­y­chi, and Velykoos­nyt­skyi. These deposits are genet­i­cal­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the Mezhy­hirya For­ma­tion and, to a less­er extent, the Bere­ka For­ma­tion, and were dis­cov­ered dur­ing asso­ci­at­ed explo­ration with­in the Rafaliv­ka ore node of native cop­per min­er­al­iza­tion. The depth of occur­rence of the Mezhyhirya–Bereka for­ma­tions in this area varies from 0.5–1.0 m to 10–15 m.

Raw materials for brick and tile production

In Volyn region, clay mate­ri­als used for brick and ceram­ic tile pro­duc­tion include clays of the Bere­ka For­ma­tion of the Upper Oligocene, morainic loams and clays of the Dnieper cli­mat­ic stage of the Mid­dle Neo­pleis­tocene, as well as Upper Neo­pleis­tocene loess, loess-like loams and sandy loams of aeolian–deluvial, eluvial–deluvial, and allu­vial ori­gin.

The physi­co-mechan­i­cal prop­er­ties of the loams are char­ac­ter­ized by a con­tent of coarse inclu­sions (>0.5 mm) rang­ing from 0.03% to 0.69% (aver­age 0.24%), includ­ing car­bon­ate inclu­sions from 0.01% to 0.30% (aver­age 0.17%). The frac­tion fin­er than 10 μm ranges from 20.70% to 39.72%, while the frac­tion fin­er than 1 μm varies from 12.43% to 22.92%. Plas­tic­i­ty ranges from 3.15 to 8.0 (aver­age 6.09). The loams are clas­si­fied as low to mod­er­ate­ly plas­tic raw mate­ri­als. Based on the con­tent of fine-dis­persed frac­tions, they belong to a group of coarse, low-dis­persed raw mate­ri­als with a low con­tent of fine and medi­um (up to 3 mm) coarse inclu­sions, main­ly of car­bon­ate com­po­si­tion.

More than 20 deposits of clay raw mate­ri­als have been record­ed in the region. Among them, the Povoriske, Zabolot­tivske, Holob­ske, Liubchenske, Kivert­sivske, Harazdzhynske, Lut­sk, and Kadishche deposits are exhaust­ed. The Arsen­ovy­chi, Torchyn, Olytske-II, and Olytske‑I deposits are con­served. The Zaborol and Hni­davka deposits are cur­rent­ly being devel­oped, while the Lyshche and Ostrozhets deposits have not been exploit­ed.

Sand

There are 8 deposits of con­struc­tion sands record­ed with­in the region, asso­ci­at­ed with moraine, sub-moraine and supra-moraine glacioflu­vial and allu­vial Qua­ter­nary sed­i­ments. Among them, the Sokulske, Kulchynske‑I, Syrnykivske and Pid­dubt­sivske deposits are cur­rent­ly being exploit­ed, the Rozhyshchenske and Bryshchenske deposits are exhaust­ed, and the Manevytske and Mochulkynske deposits are not being devel­oped.

Also known is one deposit of sil­i­cate sands — Kulchynske-II, which is being devel­oped by the Kulchyn­sk Sil­i­cate Plant. The use­ful min­er­al con­sists of Mid­dle Neo­pleis­tocene allu­vial sands of grey to yel­low­ish-grey col­or, medi­um- to fine-grained, clayey, and par­tial­ly water-sat­u­rat­ed. The thick­ness of dry sand is 0–3.2 m, and of water-sat­u­rat­ed sand — 0.4–4.0 m. The chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion of the sands (%) is: SiO₂ – 91.87–94.51; Al₂O₃ – 2.42–4.02; Fe₂O₃ – 0.66–0.76; TiO₂ – 0.16–0.20; CaO – 0.16–0.46; MgO – 0.03–0.05; SO₃ – 0.05–0.07; K₂O – 0.63–0.72; Na₂O – 0.21–0.27. The con­tent of dust, silt, and clay frac­tions ranges from 5.1–29.1%. The strength grade of sil­i­cate bricks is M‑75 to M‑100.

Mineral waters

Min­er­al waters are anoth­er impor­tant resource of the region, used for drink­ing water sup­ply, agri­cul­tur­al irri­ga­tion, and indus­tri­al needs. The ter­ri­to­ry of Volyn region, based on its geostruc­tur­al fea­tures, lies with­in the Volyn-Podil­lia arte­sian basin, where the cir­cu­la­tion and dis­tri­b­u­tion of min­er­al waters depend on struc­tur­al fea­tures of the geo­log­i­cal sec­tion of a wide strati­graph­ic range. Min­er­al ground­wa­ter is asso­ci­at­ed with zones of slow water exchange. Cur­rent­ly, two min­er­al water deposits have been explored: the Lut­sk deposit of chlo­ride-sul­fate sodi­um low-min­er­al­ized waters and bicar­bon­ate cal­ci­um low-min­er­al­ized waters with­out spe­cif­ic com­po­nents, and the Zhu­ravy­chi deposit of bromine chlo­ride sodi­um waters of medi­um min­er­al­iza­tion.