The iron ore deposits are located within the southern part of the Krivorozhsky iron-ore basin. The iron mineralization is hosted by early Proterozoic rocks containing seven altered ferruginous quartzite strata with shale layers. The major iron ore bearing units in the open pit mines have carbonate-silicate-magnetite composition. In addition, oxidized quartzite is mined simultaneously with primary ore but cannot be processed at present and is stored separately for future possible processing. Only the magnetite mineralization is included in the 2015 open pit iron ore reserve estimates. The underground mine is hosted by a ferruginous quartzite with martite and jaspilite.

The Kryvyi Rih Basin contains mostly Precambrian sedimentary-metamorphic rocks and is divided into three suites. The middle suite, with a thickness of up to 2,000 m, is the main ore-bearing formation. It consists of seven to eight seams of ferruginous quartzites (represented by hematites, magnetites, and mixed hematite-magnetite varieties) and schists. The average iron content is 30–40 percent in the ferruginous quartzites and 25–30 percent in the magnetite varieties (which compose 20 percent of the total quartzite reserves). Rich iron-ore bodies are dispersed throughout the ore-bearing formation. The ore is formed in columnar, lenticular, and pocket-like bodies that descend to a depth of over 1,000 m. In several places the bodies merge into large sloping ore beds. The rich ores are divided into magne ........

The iron ore extracted from the Kryvyi Rih’s underground mine by a modified sub-level caving method.

Rich iron ores (with the useful component content 58 – 65% in the massif) of the Underground Mine Group (as underground mines) of the Mining Department of the PJSC “ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih” (the PJSC “ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih”) are mined applying underground methods at the depths of over 1100 m. Deepening of mining operations causes deterioration of mining-geological conditions of the iron ore deposit. Decrease of the deposit thickness and iron content in ores is one of the major deterioration indicators. Iron content decrease results in loss of iron ore consumers as current leading iron ore producers offer ores with iron content of not less than 62%.

The minefield of the deposit is located in the southern part of Saksahanska band which is the eastern Kryvorizka syncline limb. The deposit contains six schist and six ferruginous levels.

The fifth horizon is an economic one and occurs directly on the rocks of the 5th schist level excluding the anticlinal part where the 5th ferruginous level rests on the 4th ferruginous and schist level rocks due to several complicated tectonic shifts.

This level is the richest in ore and its thickness is 45 – 120 m. The lithographic composition of the level is characterized by dominance of martite hornfels and jaspilites over hydrohematite-martite hornfels and jaspilites occurring in the form of s ........

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