The Dobra lithium deposit in Ukraine’s Kirovohrad Region may contain between 60 and 100 million tonnes of ore, sufficient to sustain decades of production and potentially making it one of the most significant lithium assets in Europe, according to the geologists leading its development.
Mykhailo Heichenko, CEO and Chief Geologist of UkrLithiumMining, estimates the deposit at around 60 million tonnes, while Bohdan Slobodian, a PhD candidate at the Institute of Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Ore Formation of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, puts the figure closer to 100 million tonnes based on exploration data from Kirovgeology. At an extraction rate of one million tonnes per year, 60 million tonnes would support 60 years of operations; even scaling up to 1.5 to 2 million tonnes annually, the deposit would remain productive for decades. “With 100 million tonnes, our grandchildren could still be working here,” Heichenko said.
Slobodian explained that the assessment draws on borehole data collected between 1989 and 1994, with lithium ore beginning at depths of 60 to 80 metres below surface sediments and extending to 500 metres across the 1,700-hectare licensed area.
Lithium-bearing ores at the site were first identified in 1989 during gold exploration, with the discovery also revealing associated deposits of tantalum, niobium, rubidium, beryllium, tin, cesium and tungsten. In 2017, the Ukrainian State Commission on Mineral Resources consolidated the Nadiya and Stankuvata ore deposits into the unified Dobra zone. The deposit contains two key lithium minerals — petalite and spodumene — and is located in Novoukrainka district, stretching between the villages of Novostankuvata and Ternove.
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers has selected Dobra Lithium Holdings JV as the winner of a tender to develop the deposit under a production sharing agreement. The joint venture is backed by internationally recognised companies Techmet and The Rock Holdings, and the project is expected to attract at least $179 million in capital investment — $12 million for new geological exploration and international reserve audits, and $167 million for mining and processing operations subject to confirmation of industrial-scale reserves.
