MINERAL RESOURCES

State, protection and utilization of mineral resources the deposits

Ukraine is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of mineral resources. While occupying 0.4% of the world’s dry land it possesses 5% of the world’s mineral resources worth US$ 11 trillion. There are 9,000 deposits distributed throughout the territory of the country. In some types of mineral resources Ukraine occupies a leading position in the Commonwealth of Independent States, Europe and the world. The mineral resources available meet 90% of the needs of the country’s industry and 80% of the needs of the construction materials industry, and they constitute 30% of Ukrainian exports.

This situation has caused the formation of a powerful industrial complex on the territory of Ukraine, and the emergence of related technogenic environmental problems, namely: a high level of technogenic pressure and environmental pollution, generation of large amounts of waste, activation and development of hazardous geological processes, deterioration of the hydrogeological situation, waste of mineral resources and non-rational use of deposits. In consequence of long-term intensive extraction, some types of  commercial reserves are nearly exhausted and many deposits are exploited at a great depth. At the same time, a large amount of raw materials are lost while extracted and processed (see Table 3.28).

WWW pages created by the Ministry for Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety of Ukraine phone: +380-044-2287343 fax: +380-044-2287343 e-mail: grid@mep.freenet.kiev.ua