Olga Krupenina, Specialist of Marketing Department Kislotoupor about rating of mining countries, Ukraine’s position in the mining world and the prospects of mining for the resource Liga.net
Ukraine is included in top-10 world’s companies by output of 8 raw materials
In May 2020 the International Committee of the World Mining Congress published the “World Mining Data 2020” report on the results of operation of world’s mining industry in 2018. Based on this report, we can analyze, how much mineral raw materials are mined globally, which countries top the rating of producing countries and which position is occupied by Ukraine in the world of mining.
The development of global economy is characterized by continuous growth of mineral resources consumption. The global demand for mining industry products remains consistently high. Over the recent 30 years (from 1988 through 2018) the world’s mineral resources production increased by 1.7 times: from 10.4 bln tons to 17.7 bln tons. The rise of mineral resources production was caused essentially by the growth of demand for mineral resources and metal on the part of developing countries, first of, China and India.
Source: from World Mining Data 2020, World Mining Congresses
As we can see from the diagram, the highest output of mineral raw materials is accounted for mineral fuel. This group includes all types of coal, oil, natural gas, oil shale, etc. At the period from 1988 through 2018, the mineral fuel output increased from 9.3 bln tons to 15.2 bln tons. Fuel and power resources play a significant part in the development of each country’s economy, because, on the one hand, they provide the functioning of industry, and, on the other hand, insure the energy safety of the country.
The second position is occupied by the output of iron and ferroalloys – the basis of construction materials, of manufacture of machines, aircrafts, machine tools and instruments. In the 30-year period under consideration, the output of this group increased from 545 mln tons to 1.6 bln tons.
The industrial minerals production (the increase from 505 mln tons to 811 mln tons) occupies the third position. This group is presented by such raw materials as gypsum, salt, sulfur, kaolin, phosphate raw materials, barite, fieldspar, magnesite, talc., etc. Industrial materials are essentially used in construction, metallurgy, agriculture, paper industry, medicine.
20 world’s largest manufacturers of mineral raw materials
* exclusive of diamonds/ Source: from World Mining Data 2020
Interestingly, that a half of the world’s mineral raw materials output is accounted for four countries:
Source: from World Mining Data 2020
What provides the leadership of these countries in the mining world?
China is the world’s leader by mining of 32 types of mineral raw materials. The country occupies the first position in the world by the manufacture of tungsten (80% of world’s production), vanadium (54%), aluminum (57%), antimony (64%), fluorspar (51%), graphite (60%), magnesite (66%), gallium (94%), germanium (89%), tellurium (74%), arsenic (46%), bismuth (64%), molybdenum (36%), cadmium (35%), lead (44%), titanium (26%), talc (25%), kaolin (18%), bentonite (26%) and other mineral raw materials.
The USA produces 68% of world’s beryllium, 22% of natural gas and 15% of oil.
The RF occupies the first position in the world by mining of diamonds (28% of world’s industry), palladium (41%) and asbestos (61%).
Australia is the leader in world’s manufacture of lithium (61% of world’s production), iron (37%), bauxite ore (29%) and zircon (40%).
У США виробляється 68% світового обсягу берилію, 22% природного газу та 15% нафти.
РФ займає перше місце в світі з видобутку алмазів (28% світової індустрії), паладію (41%) і азбесту (61%). Австралія лідирує у виробництві літію (61% світового виробництва), заліза (37%), бокситової руди (29%) та циркону (40%).
Ukraine on the map of the world’s mineral raw materials
In the above-specified rating of mining countries, Ukraine occupies the 28th position in the world. The country’s mineral raw materials output is estimated at 91.3 mln t, which constitutes USD 11,780 mln in value.
Despite the fact that Ukraine does not make the first 20 of the largest mining countries, it makes the top ten world’s countries by mining of 8 mineral raw materials (in 2018):
Source: from World Mining Data 2020
The prospects of mineral raw materials mining in Ukraine
The specific feature of mineral resources base of Ukraine is its complexity, because its soil contains 117 of 120 mineral raw materials consumed in the world. The country is actively mining the deposits of manganese, ore, titanium-zircon and uranium ores. Besides, Ukraine mines the great amount of non-metal raw materials, including: kaolins, fireclay and bentonite clay, limestones, dolomites, potassium salts, sulfur, graphite, trimstone, gypsum etc.
Our company has been mining mineral raw materials for more than 20 years, it has implemented 7 successful projects in the field of mining. We know from our experience, how important for the development of the industry are the trust to the specialized state agencies and the transparence of their work, as well as the creation of favorable conditions for investment promotion.
In our opinion, the measures, implemented by the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine headed by Roman Opimakh, provide the transparence and modernity of regulations for the users of subsoil resources. In particular, it is due to the electronic auctions of specialized permits and the investment atlas of subsoil user that any investor can choose an interesting and vacant deposit and compete for the purchase of a license for the use of subsoil resources at public bidding.
The “minerals of the future”, the strategic and scarce types of raw materials, including lithium, cobalt, nickel, gallium, germanium, graphite, gold, vanadium, titanium, beryllium, tantalum, niobium, rare-earth elements etc., are the lucrative for development of mineral raw materials in Ukraine. According to the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine, the deposits of lithium, titanium, gold as well as oil- and gas-bearing sites on the Black Sea shelf are prepared for bringing to the auction by the end of 2020.
Due to the state support of mining industry and creating the conditions for improvement of investment climate in the country, the development of mineral raw materials can become the driver of economic development of Ukraine, and the country will be able to take the lead of the largest mining countries of the world.
Source, photo: https://biz.liga.net