Ukraine is one of the world leaders in iron ore reserves

In terms of explored reserves of iron ores, Ukraine, with a share of 18% of the world's reserves, is the world leader, and in terms of iron content, Ukraine's share is 10.5-11% of the world's reserves (one of the five leaders). This was reported by Valeriy Studentsov, Head of Metallurgy and Mechanical Engineering Markets Research Department, Derzhzovnishinform DP.

In Ukraine, both agglomerated and non-agglomerated iron ore raw materials (hereinafter - iron ore) are produced. The first type of iron ore includes pellets and agglomerate, and the second - concentrate, iron ore and sinter ore. The main pellet producers in Ukraine are Poltava, Severny and Tsentralny GOKs. Agglomeration of ore is carried out mainly by metallurgical enterprises - MMK im. Ilyich, AMKR, Zaporizhstal, Dneprovsky MK, as well as Yuzhny GOK. Sinter production was carried out at the Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works and at the Yenakievsky Iron and Steel Works located in the temporarily uncontrolled territories (NCP). The producers of iron ore concentrate are Poltava, Yuzhny, Severny, Inguletsky, Novokrivorozhsky and Central GOKs. Iron ore is mined both by open-pit mining (Poltava, Inguletskiy, Tsentralny, Yuzhny, Severny and Novokrivorozhskiy GOKs) and underground (Krivorozhskiy ZRK, Zaporozhskiy ZRK, Sukha Balka, Kirov Ore Administration). The cost of extracting iron ore and the percentage of iron in the ore will be different in both cases.

It is wrong to say that poor ores prevail in Ukraine only in terms of their iron content, because Chinese mining companies work with metals with a much lower iron content. If we compare Ukrainian raw materials in terms of iron content with Brazilian ore, then the comparison will not be in favor of domestic ores. In Ukraine, there are deposits with rich iron ores, for example, the Yugo-Belozersk deposit, on the basis of which the Zaporizhzhya air defense complex operates. The largest in Ukraine Krivoy Rog iron ore basin contains both poor and rich ores.

The increase in world prices for iron ore in the first half of this year led to an increase in export volumes by 8.7% compared to the same period last year to 19,814 thousand tons. In the period under review, receipts from the export of iron ore increased by 24.5% to USD 1,713,000,000. In 2018, 36,905,000 tons of iron ore were exported, which is 1.3% less than in 2017. Therefore, there is no reason to assert that the prohibition of trade from 01.03.2017 with enterprises located on the tubing (Alchevsk Iron and Steel Works, Yenakievsky Iron and Steel Works and Donetskstal) led to an excess supply of iron ore in the domestic market, which was immediately exported, there is no reason, the DP believes. Derzhzovnishinform ".