Coal in Ukraine

Coal [mining] or Coal Industry in Ukraine is one of the country's biggest industries, but it is dangerous for its miners. As an industry it is often associated with mining. Nonetheless, coal is part of much bigger variety of industries such as mining, energy, chemical, and others.

Coal mining in Ukraine is often being associated with the Donets Black Coal Basin in the eastern Ukraine, but there are some other located throughout the country. Ukraine has a well developed mining industry of bituminous coal (black or rock coal), anthracite, lignite (brown coal) as well as peat.

In 2016 Ukraine exported 520,585 tonnes of coal and anthracite worth of $44.762 million and it imported 15.648 million tonnes coal and anthracite worth of $1.467 billion. In the year before the current Ukrainian crisis, 2013, Ukraine exported 500 thousand tonnes and imported 25 million tonnes.

Ukraine's main coal reserves are located in the Donets Coalfield (easternmost part of the country) and in the northwestern area between the cities of Lviv and Volodymyr-Volynskyi known as Lviv-Volhynian Coalfield. In the early 21st century, country's economically extractable coal reserves were estimated at more than 10 billion tonnes. According to the Ukrainian mining trade union, coal constitutes 95% of Ukraine's domestic energy resources.

There are also abundant deposits of lignite (brown coal) in central Ukraine, so called Dnieper Coalfield, but the mining of lignite stalled in the 1990s.

In 2012 coal mining in Ukraine amounted to 85.946 million tonnes, up 4.8% from 2011. In 2003, Ukraine produced 79.3 million tonnes. Ukraine in 2013 saw a 2.6% decline in coal production from 2012, to 83.698 million tonnes.

Coal mining is one of the biggest industries in Ukraine. The country's coal industry employs about 500,000 people. More than 90 percent of Ukraine’s coal production comes from the Donets Basin ("Donbass") region.

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