History and Current State of Mining in the Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Deposit

Abstract

In 2021 one of the world’s largest iron ore deposit in Kryvyi Rih (Ukraine) celebrates 140 years of its exploitation history. During the whole period of its existence the deposit has played and continues to play an important role in the development of Ukraine’s economy, being the main basis of its iron and steel industry. More than 6 billion tons of marketable iron ore extracted during this period and some 20 billion tons of waste rock has been mined. The deposit constitutes 82% of Ukraine’s iron ore output making the country the 7th biggest producer and 5th biggest iron ore exporter with value of USD 4 billion in 2019. In this chapter the historic aspects of deposit’s development and current state of its exploration are analyzed, including processing techniques employed to produce high grade iron ore concentrate, sinter and pellets. Characteristics of iron ores’ mineralogical composition and the features of the deposit’s geological genesis are also presented. Special attention is paid to the ongoing and planned modernization and deployment of innovative technologies aimed to enhance the competitiveness and to reduce environmental footprint of exploration.