Kryvbas

Kryvbas may also refer to the FC Kryvbas Kryvyi Rih, the football team in Kryvyi Rih. See also Kryvbas (disambiguation) thumbnail|right|Mine "Pokrovska" in Kryvyi Rih thumb|Alexander Pol (local industrialist and forefather of the modern iron mining) Kryvyi Rih Iron Ore Basin (; ), commonly known by the portmanteau Kryvbas (; ), is an important economic and historical region stretched between central and southern Ukraine around the city of Kryvyi Rih, specializing in iron ore mining, steel industry and some uranium ore mining in the past 20th century. It is arguably the main iron ore region of Eastern Europe.

==Geography== Named after the city of Kryvyi Rih, the basin occupies the western part of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, as well as some small parts of the neighboring Kirovohrad and Mykolaiv oblasts, in a valley of Inhulets and Saksahan rivers (both are tributaries of the Dnipro). It stretches by a narrow strip (2–7 km) from north to south almost for 100 km from the town Zhovti Vody () to latitudes of the Dnipro river with total area of 300 sq km. ==Facts== Kryvbas is a major center of heavy industry in Ukraine. The region has major deposits of iron ore and some other metallurgical ores. To exploit them, first mining international companies were founded there in the late 19th century, but then were replaced by several larger ones founded in the middle of the 20th century, most of them were located in Kryvyi Rih.