CURRENT STATE OF THE OVERBURDEN DUMPS OF THE INGULETS MINING AND PROCESSING PLANT

Abstract

The article analyzes the current state of the dumps of the Ingulets Mining and Processing Plant. The article summarizes the history of the formation of dumps, both modern and mothballed, their number, location, volumes of rocks accumulated in them, and the areas they occupy. At the beginning of the 80s of the last century, 88999 thousand m3 of overburden and host rocks were stored in the dumps of Inguletsky GOK on an area of 240 hectares. Today, Inguletsky GOK stores overburden and waste rock in 2 dumps - No. 1 and No. 2 and the tailings dam. Dump No. 3 has been mothballed since 2008 and is being prepared for reclamation. The types of mineral raw materials accumulated in the dumps and the distribution of these types to different dumps were determined. The rocks of the Kryvyi Rih series of the Proterozoic as part of the Skeliuvata and Saksahanska worlds were exposed in the contour of the operating quarry. The Saksaganska Suite is represented by ferruginous quartzites and shales (five ferruginous and five shale horizons). The rocks of the Skeliuvata Formation include metasandstones, quartz-sericite shales, and talc shales. A special feature of the Ingulets quarry is the large thickness of talc shale outcrop in the eastern side of the quarry (up to 160 meters). In addition to ferruginous quartzite, the resource rocks of the Ingulets deposit include talc, garnet, muscovite, and chlorite schists, which can be used to produce concentrates of certain non-metallic raw materials, mineral pigments (ocher, surik, seladonite, martite, goethite, ribekite), collectible and manufactured stones (quartz, chalcedony, opal, brushes of rock crystal, smoky quartz, morion, amethyst, citrine, radial-beam aggregates of needle-shaped bright green crystals of aegirine «aegirine sun».