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Central Ukraine Uranium - Novokonstantinivske, Smolinska, Vatutinskii, Yuzhnoye, Kalinovske, Ingulsky, Michurinske, Csentralne, Severinske, Pervomayskoye, Zheltorechenskoye, Devladovske, Novogurievske, Surske, Chervonoyarske, Safonivske, Bratske |
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Ukraine |
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U
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Super Porphyry Cu and Au
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IOCG Deposits - 70 papers
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There are more than 45 known historically mined, currently operating (2008) and undeveloped economic resources in central Ukraine distributed over an area of approximately 300 km east-west by 150 km north-south, served by three processing centres at Kirovograd, Zhovti Vody (Zheltye Vody) and Dnipropetrovsk (Dniprodzerzhinsk) in the west, centre and east of the region respectively, although more recently the ore from the Kirovgrad area has been railed to Zhovti Vody. Kirovograd is ~250 km SE of Kyiv/Kiev and 100 km NW of Kryvyi Rih (Krivoy Rog). Zhovti Vody is around 100 km ESE of Kirovograd while Dneprodzerzhinsk is a further 75 km ENE, on the Dnieper river.
(#Location: Smolins'ka Mine - 48° 35' 1"N, 31° 16' 41"E).
Regional Setting
Most of the Ukraine is situated on the SW East European Platform, NE of the collision zone and interval of tectonic activity separating the Eurasian and African lithospheric plates. The Ukrainian Shield represents the south-eastern exposed segment of the East European Craton and is composed of Archaean 3.8 to 3.2 Ga crust and 2.3 to 2.1 Ga Paleoproterozoic orogenic belts. In the Ukraine, the shield has a width of ~200 km, fluctuating from 150 to 450 km, and is exposed over a length of ~1000 km, between the Sea of Azov in the SE to the border with Belarus in the north. It covers an area of ~250 000 kmspan class="chemno">2, and trends ESE-WNW in the east, curving to near NNW-SSE in the north. It has been divided into six major terranes that are near normal to the trend of the shield margins. Each is near 100 to 300 km, but mostly ~200 km wide, and trend from north-south in the east, to near NNE-SSW in the NW. Each is separated by major faults/shear/suture zones. These terranes are of similar age, and are, from east to west the:
• Pryazovskiy - composed of granulite-amphibolite-gneiss with greenstone structures;
• Srednepridneprovskiy - mainly a granite-greenstone terrane;
• Kirovogradskiy - characterised by granite-amphibolite-gneiss metamorphics;
• Bila Tserkovskiy - composed of granite-amphibolite lithologies;
• Podolskiy - predominantly granulite-gneiss suites;
• Volynskiy - mainly granite-amphibolite-gneiss.
The core of each of these terranes is composed of granite greenstone terranes, with elongate greenstones belts generally trending north-south and/or NW-SE, which were deformed in the interval from 2.6 to 2.5 Ga.
The Shield is overlain to the NE by cover rocks of the Dnieper-Donets Depression, which evolved as a Devonian rift. The post-rift subsidence of this basin was interrupted during the late Early Permian when its southeastern sections were partly inverted, followed by further inversion pulses straddling the Jurassic-Cretaceous and the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundaries. To the west the shield was overlain by late Neoproterozoic to Devonian marine sedimentary rocks, persisting locally into the Permian, deposited on Volyn-Podolia Platform and Lvov-Volyn Depression that were thrust east onto the shield during the Caledonian Orogeny as the 9 to 10 km thick Volyn-Podilla plate. This plate is bounded to the west, in turn, by the Mesozoic to Cenozoic Carpathian fold and thrust belt. Much of the Ukrainian Shield was flooded during the Late Triassic Cimmerian orogeny, whilst the central Ukrainian Shield was inundated again during the Cretaceous as the Dniprovsky Basin. To the south the shield is truncated by a foredeep, the Black Sea or Prechenomorian Depression that contains, at its thickest, as much as 14 to 18 km of Cretaceous to Cenozoic sedimentary rocks.
Geology and Mineralisation
The uranium districts of the Ukraine lie within the western Kirovogradskiy (or Kirovgrad) and eastern Srednepridneprovskiy or (Pridneprovsky) terranes, as described above. The two terranes are separated by the Palaeoproterozoic volcanics, sediments and iron formations of the Kryvyi Rih (Krivoy Rog) zone which are within the north-south suture zone, separating the two Archaean terranes. These two terranes and much of the Ukrainian Shield are covered by 100 to 200 m of Mesozoic–Cainozoic rocks, which increases to 500 m on marginal slopes of the updomed shield.
The granite-greenstone Kirovogradskiy and Srednepridneprovskiy/Pridneprovsky terranes underwent simultaneous metamorphism and deformation and were intruded by 2.97 Ga tonalite-granodiorite bodies of the Dneprovsky Complex. Greenstone belts within these terranes are believed to have been emplaced between 3.25 and 3.0 Ga and overlie/separate gneissic-granitoid rocks. The greenstone sequences include komatiitic and tholeiitic extrusives and intrusives, iron formations, meta-dacites and meta-andesites.
The Kryvyi Rih (Krivoy Rog) zone is composed of flysch, chert and subordinate banded iron formations and mafic volcanic rocks with a total thickness of 7000 to 8000 m. This zone hosts the giant Kryvyi Rih (Krivoy Rog) iron deposits in southern Ukraine. The sediments have been dated at around 2.5 Ga from authigenic uranium minerals and are intruded by 1.88 Ma granites. The Kryvyi Rih (Krivoy Rog) zone occupies a narrow (10 km wide) north-south trending synformal zone that has been subjected to thrusting and east verging isoclinal folding (towards the Srednepridneprovskiy/Pridneprovsky terrane). The Kryvyi Rih (Krivoy Rog) iron formations are exposed in the Zhovti Vody district and are a host to at least some of the alteration and associated uranium mineralisation.
Significant clusters of mines and deposits as recognised in 2008 included:
- The major Smolino (or Vatutinskiy/Vatutinskii) mine which exploits the Vatutinske deposit near the town of Smolino, 60 km west of Kirovgrad, the Yuzhnoye (Pivdenne) and Kalinovske (Kalinovskiy) deposits which are around 50 and 100 km respectively further to the south of Vatutinsk. Other deposits in the same vicinity include Lozovatske, Sadovokonstantinovske and Bratske.
- The Ingulskyi (Ingulsky, Ingul'skii) mine 21 km south of Kirovgrad, which exploits the Michurinske deposit. The Severinske orebody is also on the outskirts of Kirovgrad.
- The Pervomayskoye (exhausted in 1967) and Zheltorechenskoye (mined out in 1989) deposits were located immediately to the south of Zhovti Vody and were early discoveries.
- The Devladovske, Novogurievske, Surske and Chervonoyarske form a generally east-west trending 100 x 50 km group between and immediately to the south of Zhovti Vody and Dnipropetrovsk.
- The Safonivske and Nikolokozelske deposits are around 90 km SSW and south respectively of Zhovti Vody.
The largest deposits were Severinskoye, Michurinskoye and Vatutinskoye. Michurinske was the first large deposit and was discovered in 1964, although mineralisation had been identified at Pervomayskoye and Zheltorechenskoye in 1945 and 1946 respectively and mined from 1959. Most of the deposits are exploited by underground workings to depths of up to 700 m below the surface (as at Michurinske) although some open pit mining was undertaken in deposits close to Zhovti Vody.
More recently, post 2020, according to Yuriy A. Bakarzhiyev, and Oleksandr Lysenko of the Nuclear Energy Systems of Ukraine LLC, Kiev, Ukraine, the principal company mining uranium deposits in Ukraine has been VostGOK (Eastern Mining Processing Combinate) which operated three mines: Smolinska exploiting the Vatutinske deposit, the Ingulska mine extracting ore form two deposits Michurinske and Csentralne, and the Novokonstantinivska mine that mines the Novokonstantinivske deposit. Reserves of Vatutinske and Michurinske deposits are almost mined out. The major portion of the Csentralne deposit reserves lie beneath the regional centre of Kropivnisckiy complicating mining. The Novokonstantinovskiy deposit in the Kirovograd region, had an original endowment of ~90 000 tonnes of contained U @ 0.14% U. It is an underground mine. The first production of 99 t U was in 2011. Mine nominal production capacity in 2019 was 1500 t of U per annum (International Atomic EnergyAgency, 2020).
Two main mineralisation styles are recognised,
i). Metasomatic-type, which include sodic-uranium (e.g., the Michurinskiy, Novokonstantinovskiy and Vatutinskiy deposits), potassic-uranium (e.g., the Kalinovskiy, Lozovatskiy, Uzhniy deposits) and vein type (e.g., the Chervonoshahtarskiy deposit). The economic examples of these deposits are restricted to the Kirovograd Terrane of the Ukrainian Shield; and
ii). Sandstone hosted uranium deposits, found within the sedimentary cover of the Srednepridneprovskiy and Bila Tserkovskiy terranes. Uranium bearing iron formation is also found in the Srednepridneprovskiy Terrane (e.g., Zheltorechenskiy and Pervomayskiy)
Sandstone-hosted deposits
Sandstone uranium deposits are located within the Dnipro-Bug metallogenic zone. The mineralised bodies are located in water saturated sandstone horizons in palaeo-valleys incised into weathered crust and the underlying crystalline rocks of the Ukrainian Shield to depths of 70 to 90 m. The palaeo-valleys were formed by rivers, which flowed from the Ukrainian Shield to the north into the Dniprovsky marine basin and to the south into the Tethys Sea. The hosts include the Paleogene Buchach Formation, and in the Dniprovskiy uranium ore region in the central part of the country, Middle Eocene coal-bearing sediments. Three types of ore lithology are recognised, coal-sand, coal-clay and brown coal. The thickness of these river facies sedimentary rocks is 30 to 60 m, overlain by Eocene to Oligocene marine sediments or by Miocene sands. Uranium occurs throughout the river facies, although the highest grades occur in the lower and middle parts of the stratigraphic section. Mineralisation is predominantly adsorbed onto the coal and clay as uranium-bearing leucoxene and iron hydroxides, sulphides, usually accompanied by uranium black (i.e., marcasite, pyrite, melnikovite, sphalerite, bravoite, etc.). The ore bodies are stratabound and have a lenticular shape with a thickness of 3 to 10 m. The uranium content in the ore is 0.02 to 0.06% U. In addition to uranium, these ores contain molybdenum, selenium and rare earth elements of the lanthanide group. Deposits of this type are exploited by in situ leaching with a 75% recovery. The hosts to this style of mineralisation is widespread in central Ukraine, from the Zhitomir to Dnipropetrovsk regions, although deposits are not large, generally containing resources from <1 to 5 Kt of U, but as they are numerous, the combined resources are significant. The Sadove, Devladovske, Bratske, Novohurivske, Surske and Safonivske deposits are palaeo-valley sandstone deposits which were/are exploited by in situ acid leach operations. Devladovskoye was mined out between 1964 and1983 and Bratskoye (Nikolayev region) between 1972 and 1983.
Metasomatic Deposits
Approximately 75% of Ukraine's uranium resources occur as uranium-bearing albitites ± potassic alteration, in deep fault zones within the Kirovograd Terrane of the Ukrainian Shield crystalline shield. These are associated with sodic metasomatism superimposed on the granite-gneiss basement within an area of tectonomagmatic activity which occurred at the end of the Ukrainian shield orogenesis. The uranium mineralisation and associated albities, were emplaced between 1.85 and 1.70 Ga, following the main phase of regional granitisation at ~2.0 Ga. The ore fields and individual deposits are controlled by the intersection between regional structurally controlled zones of metasomatism and cross-cutting north-westerly or near east-west trending faults. The zones of regional alkaline metasomatism may be up to 10 km wide. The extent and degree of albitisation and uranium mineralisation depends upon the intensity of tectonic activity and the country rock. Some zones of albitisation can be traced for several hundreds of metres up to a kilometre with widths ranging from 10 to a few hundreds of metres and depth extent of as much as 3200 m. Uranium mineralisation is generally found towards the centre of these albitite bodies, occurring as fine disseminations or micro-veins in zones of fine fracturing or places of accumulation of mafic minerals. The morphology of the ore bodies includes tabular, lenses and stocks. The uranium ores comprise albite veining with a complex morphology, ranging from 2 to 3 m to 50 m in thickness. The albitites are developed in a variety of hosts, including gneiss, migmatite, granite and pegmatite, and as such are represented by albitites of differing compositions, such as chlorite-epidote, riebeckite, hydromica-phlogopite, and carbonate-hematite. The albitite always has associated hematite, magnetite, apatite, malacone (a zirconium silicate and source of zirconium) and rutile. The principal uranium minerals are oxides (uraninite), silicates (uranophane, boltwoodite, betauranotile, coffinite) and titanates (brannerite, davidite). Grades on average are between 0.1 and 0.2% U. Uranium ore minerals include uraninite, coffinite, and brannerite. The uranium grade in the ore is 0.1 to 0.2%. Deposits of this type are exploited by underground mining. The deposits of this type include Novokonstantynivske, Michurinske, Centralne, Vatutinske, Severynivske, Zhovtorichenske and Pervomayske.
In addition to the albitite-style mineralisation, several of the smaller deposits (Yuzhnoye, Kalinovskoye, Lozovatskoye) are associated with pegmatite-type potassium metasomatism and close in the age to the regional granitisation.
In 2000 resources/reserves included: Severinske - 64 000 t U at an average grade of 0.1% U; Vatutinskoye - 25 500 t U: Michurinskoye - 27 000 t U; Yuzhnoye, Kalinovskoye and Lozovatskoye - 15 000 t U.
Resources known in the Ukraine as of 1 January 2019 (International Atomic EnergyAgency, 2020) were:
Reasonably assured in situ resource at a cost of <USD 80.00 per kg U
• Sandstone ore - 3718 tonnes of contained U;
• Metsomatic ore - 42 512 tonnes of contained U;
• TOTAL - 46 230 tonnes of contained U;
Inferred in situ resource
• Sandstone ore - 402 tonnes of contained U;
• Metsomatic ore - 26 284 tonnes of contained U;
• TOTAL - 26 686 tonnes of contained U.
Few figures are available on historic production although two tailings dumps at Zhovti Vody contain 19 Mt and 45 Mt of radioactive waste respectively from operations between 1959 and 1982. Similar dumps at Dniprodzerzhinsk, which operated from 1947 to 1990 contain 42 Mt of radioactive waste.
According to the International Atomic EnergyAgency (2020), the total cumulative production to 2019 from Ukrainian deposits is estimated at 132 933 tonnes of U, with 22 571 t U since 1992, mostly from underground mining.
The most recent source geological information used to prepare this decription was dated: 2020.
Record last updated: 17/6/2024
This description is a summary from published sources, the chief of which are listed below.
© Copyright Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd. Unauthorised copying, reproduction, storage or dissemination prohibited.
Smolinska Mine
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Porter GeoConsultancy Pty Ltd (PorterGeo) provides access to this database at no charge. It is largely based on scientific papers and reports in the public domain, and was current when the sources consulted were published. While PorterGeo endeavour to ensure the information was accurate at the time of compilation and subsequent updating, PorterGeo, its employees and servants: i). do not warrant, or make any representation regarding the use, or results of the use of the information contained herein as to its correctness, accuracy, currency, or otherwise; and ii). expressly disclaim all liability or responsibility to any person using the information or conclusions contained herein.
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