Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and natural resources 2016 number 6S

The Pre-Baikal quartz-bearing province holding the second largest quartz resources amongst all known geological and commercial types of quartz deposits in the Russian Federation is of considerable scientific and practical interest for manufacturers of high-purity quartz concentrates. Quartzite deposits of the Gargansky terrain with the discovered ten occurrences of new non traditional high-purity raw quartz should be of primary concern. The Bural-Sardyk «superquartzite» and fine-grained quartzite display a number of favorable features distinguishing them from other geological-commercial types. Weakly-metamorphosed chemogenic-sedimentary quartzite-silicite regarded as an original rock for «superquartzite» and fine-grained quartzite appear highly promising in terms of expanding the mineral resource base. The unique chemical, technological and production properties of these rocks are of great value. Quartzite of the Gargansky terrain has a low initial content of chemical impurities whose concentrations decrease several times during the enrichment process, which ranks this quartz equal to such known products as IOTA-quartz, quartz of the Kyshtym Mining and Processing Plant and others. Basic mineral impurities for these types of raw material include micas for «superquartzite» and carbonates for quartzite-silicite which can be easily removed during the enrichment processes. Technological feasibility of this quartz type is underpinned by such components as a deposit size (hundred thousand tons of resources), close proximity to transport networks, stable qualitative characteristics of a useful component through the whole thickness of productive beds. Eastern Siberia possesses sufficient resources for quartz enrichment and concentrate production necessary to optical glassmaking, manufacturing of readily marketable quartz ceramics and solar power application.