SURFACE

Ukraine president backs US$1bln Black Iron project

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has given political backing to Canadian iron ore exploration and development company Black Iron’s long-delayed efforts to complete a mining and processing project in central Ukraine.

 Site of Black Iron's future processing plant, tailings and waste rock stockpiles

Site of Black Iron's future processing plant, tailings and waste rock stockpiles

Zelenskyy said getting the Shymanivske project in the city of Kryvyi Rih back on would give an important boost to bilateral relations between Ukraine and Canada.

"I am from Kryvyi Rih and this is an investment in my hometown. This problem has been ‘hanging' for 10 years. The size of the investment is US$1.1 billion," the president said in an interview with the Globe and Mail. "It will be a very big cooperation. It is very important for Canada, for Black Iron, and it is important for us," said Zelenskyy.

Construction at the Shymanivske iron ore project, which began in 2010, was suspended after Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014 impacted on the region's mining industry.

The deposit, which has a resource defined from around 54,000 metres of drilling, lies less than 2 kilometres from two open-pit iron ore mines owned by ArcelorMittal and Metinvest/Evraz Steel.

An NI-43 101 resource estimate has shown 646 million tonnes of measured and indicated mineral resources, consisting of 355Mt in the measured category, grading 31.6% total iron and 18.8% magnetic iron.

Black Iron has agreed with Ukraine's government to acquire a parcel of land being used by the Ministry of Defence for the location of Black Iron's future processing plant, tailings and waste rock stockpiles.

Black Iron's management said in March that it continues to make positive progress in securing interest in raising the expected US$452 million required to construct phase 1 of its Shymanivske iron ore project in exchange for securing offtake rights. 

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Magazine Intelligence team.

A growing series of reports, each focused on a key discussion point for the mining sector, brought to you by the Mining Magazine Intelligence team.

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Exploration Report 2024 (feat. Opaxe data)

A comprehensive review of exploration trends and technologies, highlighting the best intercepts and discoveries and the latest initial resource estimates.

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Future Fleets Report 2024

The report paints a picture of the equipment landscape and includes detailed profiles of mines that are employing these fleets

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Digitalisation Report 2023

An in-depth review of operations that use digitalisation technology to drive improvements across all areas of mining production

editions

Mining Magazine Intelligence Automation Report 2023

An in-depth review of operations using autonomous solutions in every region and sector, including analysis of the factors driving investment decisions