Min­er­al Resources of Zakarpat­tia Region

Zakarpat­tia Region, locat­ed in west­ern Ukraine, impress­es with its nat­ur­al beau­ty and diver­si­ty of resources. One of the key com­po­nents of this mul­ti­fac­eted envi­ron­ment is its min­er­al resources, which deter­mine not only the eco­nom­ic poten­tial of the region but also its his­to­ry and cul­tur­al her­itage.

Below we exam­ine the var­i­ous types of min­er­al resources iden­ti­fied with­in Zakarpat­tia, their impor­tance for the econ­o­my and for local com­mu­ni­ties. We explore the wealth of the region’s sub­soil and high­light its con­tri­bu­tion to the devel­op­ment of both the region and the coun­try as a whole.

Approx­i­mate­ly 285 min­er­al deposits have been iden­ti­fied with­in Zakarpat­tia Region. The major­i­ty are deposits of con­struc­tion mate­ri­als and min­er­al waters.

Oil

Oil occur­rences in Zakarpat­tia are known from small fields such as Hrozivske, Holovetske, Khashchiv, Vely­ka Yablu­ni­v­ka, Bytl­ja and Terek.

Gas

Gas fields in the region are asso­ci­at­ed with brachyan­ti­clines. At the Solotvyno field, locat­ed near the set­tle­ment of Solotvyno, com­mer­cial accu­mu­la­tions occur in Baden­ian deposits at depths of about 1,500 m, with reserves esti­mat­ed at 352 mil­lion m³ of gas. The Korole­vo field, locat­ed between the town of Korole­vo and the vil­lage of Sasove, con­tains com­mer­cial accu­mu­la­tions in Pan­non­ian deposits at depths of 710–740 m, with reserves esti­mat­ed at 217 mil­lion m³ of gas.

At the Rusko-Komarivske field, com­mer­cial accu­mu­la­tions occur in Badenian–Sarmatian deposits, with reserves esti­mat­ed at 2.044 bil­lion m³ of gas. Com­mer­cial accu­mu­la­tions of the Stanivske (Yablu­ni­vske) field are con­fined to Sar­ma­t­ian deposits with­in an anti­cline approx­i­mate­ly 3.3–4 km in diam­e­ter, with reserves esti­mat­ed at 217 mil­lion m³ of gas. Pro­duc­tion is car­ried out at the Solotvyno and Rusko-Komarivske fields.

Brown Coal

Deposits of brown coal in Zakarpat­tia are con­fined to Neo­gene molasse and are dis­trib­uted along the periph­ery of the Vygorlat–Hutyn vol­canic ridge. These include the Lokhivske, Uzh­horodske, Berezynske and Mal­o­bi­hanske deposits. Pro­duc­tive hori­zons are also present with­in the Ilnyt­s­ka For­ma­tion. Most deposits are locat­ed with­in the Chop–Mukachevo part of the depres­sion, includ­ing the Velyko-Rakovetske, Ilnytske, Kryvske, Rokosovske and Novose­lytske deposits. With­in the Solotvyno part of the depres­sion, the Malyi Shayan and Hedes-Hed deposits are dis­tin­guished.

Iron

Occur­rences of iron in Zakarpat­tia are asso­ci­at­ed with the siderite–goethite–hydrogoethite for­ma­tion of Neo­gene vol­canics of the Vygorlat–Hutyn vol­canic ridge. The deposits are strat­i­form, irreg­u­lar in thick­ness, and accom­pa­nied by cross-cut­ting veins and vein­lets up to 1 m thick. The ores are com­posed main­ly of siderite, and in oxi­da­tion zones of goethite and hydro­goethite with traces of cop­per, lead and zinc. These deposits were mined in the past.

Lead and Zinc

Lead-zinc deposits are asso­ci­at­ed with the Bere­hove and Vyshkove ore fields, as well as schis­tos­i­ty zones accom­pa­ny­ing region­al thrust faults. At the Bere­hove deposit, ore min­er­al­iza­tion con­sists of spha­lerite, gale­na and gold.

At the Vyshkove ore field, min­er­al­iza­tion is con­fined to Neo­gene vol­canics and is rep­re­sent­ed by pyrite, mar­c­a­site, spha­lerite, gale­na, chal­copy­rite and tetra­hedrite. Lead con­tent reach­es 13.64%, zinc up to 5.5%, sil­ver from 5.5 to 980 g/t, and gold from 0.8 to 4.6 g/t.

Mercury

Deposits and occur­rences of mer­cury are asso­ci­at­ed with intru­sions and with a sand­stone belt con­tain­ing telether­mal min­er­al­iza­tion. Small deposits include Kol­hosp­ne, Smerekove, Bukove, Male and Kamyanyi Quar­ry. In addi­tion to cinnabar, metacinnabar, gale­na, spha­lerite, pyrite and mar­c­a­site occur. Telether­mal min­er­al­iza­tion is wide­spread in the out­er Fly­sch Carpathi­ans but has low mer­cury con­tent and lim­it­ed thick­ness.

Gold

Gold in Zakarpat­tia is known in the Bere­hove and Rakhiv ore dis­tricts and in the Vyshkove and Chyvchyn ore fields. Deposits of the Bere­hove dis­trict are asso­ci­at­ed with a sys­tem of north­west-trend­ing faults with­in Neo­gene vol­canic rocks. Major deposits include Muzhi­ivske, Bere­hivske, Kuk­lianske, Kelcheiske, Kva­sivske and Bihanske.

Silver

Pure sil­ver ores are known with­in the Kva­sivske deposit, while oth­er occur­rences are part of poly­metal­lic min­er­al­iza­tion. The aver­age sil­ver con­tent is 53.1 g/t.

Rock Salt (Sodium Salts)

Sodi­um salt deposits are asso­ci­at­ed with Miocene for­ma­tions. The Solotvyno and Tere­blia deposits have been explored. The Solotvyno salt dome reach­es thick­ness­es of up to 1,300 m. Total salt reserves reach 3.5 bil­lion tonnes.

Bentonite

Deposits of ben­tonite clays have been explored in vol­canic struc­tures. The main min­er­al is mont­mo­ril­lonite. Ben­tonite is suit­able for purifi­ca­tion of petro­le­um prod­ucts and as mold­ing clay.

Zeolites

Pre­lim­i­nary explo­ration of zeo­lites has been car­ried out at the Sokyrnytske deposit. The aver­age clinop­tilo­lite con­tent is 65–70%.

Building Materials

Var­i­ous deposits of sands, sand­stones, tuffs, andesites, rhy­o­lites, dolomites, lime­stones, marls and oth­er con­struc­tion mate­ri­als are devel­oped with­in the region.

Groundwater

Drink­ing water is sup­plied from springs and shal­low aquifers in allu­vial and frac­tured for­ma­tions.

>Min­er­al waters occur as springs and wells. They are clas­si­fied as car­bon­at­ed, hydro­gen sul­fide-car­bon­at­ed, hydro­gen sul­fide and methane waters.

Ther­mal waters are asso­ci­at­ed with the Solotvyno depres­sion and vol­canic struc­tures. They are used for bal­ne­o­log­i­cal pur­pos­es.

Zakarpat­tia Region pos­sess­es sig­nif­i­cant min­er­al diver­si­ty, includ­ing hydro­car­bons, met­als, con­struc­tion mate­ri­als and min­er­al waters. The pres­ence of oil, gas, brown coal, gold, sil­ver and poly­metal­lic deposits forms an impor­tant eco­nom­ic poten­tial for the region. Ratio­nal use of these resources and fur­ther explo­ration can con­tribute to sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment and improve­ment of local com­mu­ni­ties.