The toponym "red layer" is taken from an old tradition of naming the local deposits of iron ore. Ore deposits of the Red stripe stretched over 3 km. The iron content in the Red stripes ore ranged from 58 to 62%.
Ore extraction in the Red Layer started in the late 80's of the nineteenth century. In 1904 there were 13 mines in the Red Layer. Most of the mines were small. Overall, all the mines in the early twentieth century gave up to 320 tons of ore. By the end of the first 10 years of the twentieth century. the iron ore was extracted in open pits, ore was mainly lifted by horses. Later, after deepening of extraction activities, an underground ore extraction method was used, quarries were reequipped with steam lifts. 7 small mines of depth of 55-150 m deep appeared. Offices, administrations and workers' settlements were placed near some mines.
During 1930-1941 in Red Layer the iron ore was extracted in "Sushkova Balka" mines and up to 1973 in Illich mine. In the postwar period until 1973 the only DPU mine was working, and then all extraction activities were ceased.
All subjects of the mining industrial heritage of the Red Layer are of 3 categories - mining, road and settler. Mining facilities of mines comprise quarries, dumps, mines, dips, above ground mining structures. Before the revolution, only earth cart road to the Chervona railway station or Gdantsivka Ironworks was used for ore haulage. In Soviet times, rolling railways were driven only to 2 mines named after ZOT and DPU. The largest mines in the Red Layer had their own workers' villages.
Talking about a degree of preservation of industrial heritage mines, we have to note that the best preserved objects are the old pre-revolutionary sites of the central part of the Red Layer - a set of remains of 5 quarries, 8 dumps, 1 mine, 1 rolling platform and mining buildings compactly located. There is a dump of Sushkova Balka a little bit to the north. This proves a high historical value of the Kryvyi Rih area. The objects of the industrial heritage of the Soviet period have not been preserved because the iron ore extraction at that time was only in mines and it was ceased long ago. Only the abyss of the earth's surface and 3 small dumps have been preserved.