Investigation of substrates of mine rocks on the terricons of the Donbass for their agricultural recultivation agrochemistry and ecology. The methodological basis of the study is the following methods: a systematic approach, statistical and comparative methods, methods of analysis and synthesis. The article compares the data diagnostics of the mine dumps in 1975 with the samples of 2017. According to the edaphic characteristics, the mine dumps are infertile substrates both for the creation of forest vegetation and for use in agriculture. Over time, they improve their composition and properties somewhat, but they will remain infertile substrates for a long time. Dominant on the dumps of coal mines of Donbass are complex plant groups on sod embryos, in which gradual humus accumulation takes place. Over time, the percentage occupied by the humus-accumulative embryosome will grow. During the «aging» of the dumps, the acid compounds are neutralized and the soluble salts are washed out. This was facilitated by many factors, including the reformation of dumps, the creating a layer of soil that «removes» the acid reaction of the environment, planting both woody and herbaceous plants. In industrial conditions of Donbass, where the vegetation cover is depleted and insufficient for regeneration, phytorecultivation is the most economically profitable and ecologically safe, which, besides the function of increasing productive land, plays a sanitary and phytocompensatory role. The introduction of scientifically based economic methods of land reclamation with the aim of returning the territories which was extracted to agricultural production contributes to the improvement of the ecological situation and aesthetics of the natural areas of the steppe zone of Ukraine

landscape, mine dumps, slagheaps, technozem, reclamation, edaphotop, soil, fertility, ecology.