DOMESTIC PECULIARITIES OF FINANCING AND ORGANIZING GEOLOGICAL RESEARCH OF IRON ORES

The mineral base of iron ores is characterized by intensive use and includes explored and pre-explored reserves, most of which belong to a distributed subsurface fund. The objects of accounting (deposits) are grouped according to the size of stocks and on the basis of involvement in industrial development. The allocated groups of deposits, for which the volumes of reserves are set, make up 100 million tons, 100–500 million tons, 500–1000 million tons. and more than 1000 million tons. The grouping of reserves of iron ore deposits by size allows us to state that about 80 % of the reserves of iron ores for the developed deposits are provided with reserves of 500 million tons. and more, which confirms the average level of their exhaustion. The degree of provision of iron ore reserves according to the existing special permits for the use of subsoil and project output for production was introduced. Groups of fields for which the terms are set are up to 30 years, 30–50 years, 50–100 years and over 100 years. It has been determined that financing of exploration works (GAR) for iron ores in the framework of the current National Program for the Development of the Mineral Base of Ukraine until 2030 is provided exclusively at state cost and non-state funding is not taken into account. In order to identify the optimal distribution of financing for exploration works by stages, comparison of funding rates under the Program up to 2030 with the distribution of the main geological risks and general risks of mining business has been made. At the stage of search and search-and-appraisal, a high level of geological risks of 50 % and mining risks in 70 % is accompanied by public funding for iron ore and reaches a critical value of 80 % with a similar indicator for the entire program at 65,7 %. The level of financing of the III stage of exploration for iron ore accounts for 20 % of the total volume, with a rather low level of geological risks of 10 % and mining risks at 10 %, respectively.