Deposits of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als in the Kiev Oblast

One of the most sig­nif­i­cant min­er­al resources in the Kiev Oblast is brick and tile raw mate­ri­als, specif­i­cal­ly clay and loam, which are the basis for brick and ceram­ic pro­duc­tion. Deposits of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als are an impor­tant resource for the con­struc­tion indus­try in the region and pro­vide the nec­es­sary raw mate­ri­als for the pro­duc­tion of build­ing mate­ri­als. The qual­i­ty of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als is reg­u­lat­ed by DSTU B V.2.7–245. The geo­log­i­cal reserves of these deposits are prac­ti­cal­ly unlim­it­ed, but only clayey rocks with spe­cif­ic prop­er­ties, which are locat­ed at shal­low depths, are used as brick raw mate­ri­als.

The best raw mate­r­i­al for brick pro­duc­tion is marl clay of the Kiev For­ma­tion and the under­ly­ing Pale­o­gene aleu­rite of the Obukhiv For­ma­tion, with a total thick­ness of about 30 meters. They are over­lain by lat­er deposits of vary­ing thick­ness. How­ev­er, only deposits of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als with thin­ner over­ly­ing lay­ers are devel­oped, the com­po­si­tion of which allows them to be includ­ed in the blend while main­tain­ing the qual­i­ty of the final prod­uct.

The marls of the Kiev For­ma­tion and the aleu­rite of the Obukhiv For­ma­tion belong to the Pale­o­gene marine sandy-clayey for­ma­tion of the car­bon­ate-clayey sub­for­ma­tion. The marls have an aver­age thick­ness of 13.2–22.3 meters in the devel­oped deposits. They are char­ac­ter­ized by high plas­tic­i­ty, vis­cos­i­ty, dis­persibil­i­ty, and com­po­si­tion­al uni­for­mi­ty. Their melt­ing tem­per­a­ture is close to the sin­ter­ing tem­per­a­ture and ranges from 1120 to 1180°C. The aleu­rites have a thick­ness of up to 9 meters and dif­fer from marls in their low car­bon­ate con­tent (2–5%) and low­er plas­tic­i­ty. They serve as good admix­tures in the blend.

To pro­duce high-qual­i­ty bricks of grades 75, 100, 125, and 150, an admix­ture of aleu­rite, loess, or loess-like loam in a vol­ume of 30–50% is added to the marls. Fir­ing is car­ried out at a tem­per­a­ture of approx­i­mate­ly 1000°C. All eco­nom­i­cal­ly viable areas for open-pit min­ing of marl clay and aleu­rite for brick pro­duc­tion are locat­ed along the right bank of the Dnieper Riv­er and on the slopes of its major trib­u­taries: Irpin, Buchanka, and Stugna.

In total, there are over 74 deposits of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als of Qua­ter­nary age , on the ter­ri­to­ry of the Kiev Oblast, 12 of which are being devel­oped. These include Mostyschenske‑I, II, Zabuchanske, Kreny­chske, Obukhivske‑I, II, Zarichanske, Romanivske, Vilkhovetske, Berezivske, and Khalepyanske. Oth­er deposits have been explored and are record­ed in the state bal­ance of reserves as reserves, such as Ozernevske, Yas­tremshchynske, Pyro­hivske, Roslavy­chske, Bezrady­chske, Obukhivske, Pohre­byschenske, Kryvetske, and oth­ers.

The Kreny­chske deposit of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als is locat­ed 0.3 km south of the vil­lage of Kreny­chi, on the right bank of the Dnieper Riv­er. The valu­able min­er­al is marl clay with an aver­age thick­ness of 17.0 meters, Pale Pale Clay — 5.3 meters, and loess-like loam — 7.5 meters. The aver­age total thick­ness of the exposed rocks is 20.8 meters. The deposit is being devel­oped and is the main sup­pli­er of raw mate­ri­als for the Korchu­vate and Kiev con­struc­tion mate­r­i­al plants.

The Obukhivske‑I and Obukhivske-II deposits of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als are locat­ed 11.5 km north­east of the city of Obukhiv, on the right bank of the Kobryn Riv­er. The Obukhivske‑I deposit is being devel­oped and con­sists of loess-like loam and marl clay with aver­age thick­ness­es of 10.6 meters and 21.6 meters, respec­tive­ly. The aver­age thick­ness of the exposed rocks is 0.5 meters. The Obukhivske-II deposit con­tains loess-like loam, var­ie­gat­ed clay, and marl clay with a total aver­age thick­ness of 29.5 meters. The over­all thick­ness of the exposed rocks is 9.5 meters. The aver­age thick­ness of loess-like loam is 5.6 meters, var­ie­gat­ed clay is 4.2 meters, and aleu­rite and marl clay is 19.7 meters. The deposit is not being devel­oped.

The Zabuchanske deposit of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als is locat­ed on the south­ern out­skirts of the vil­lage of Zabuchchia, on the right bank of the Bucha Riv­er. The valu­able min­er­als are marl clay and aleu­rite with a total thick­ness rang­ing from 8.7 to 21.5 meters. The aver­age thick­ness of the exposed rocks is 18.4 meters. Addi­tion­al­ly, the deposit may include the devel­op­ment of New Petro­vsky clays with an aver­age thick­ness of 3.5 meters, var­ie­gat­ed clays with an aver­age thick­ness of 3.5 meters, and Qua­ter­nary sands and clays with thick­ness­es rang­ing from 1.3 to 3.0 meters. The deposit is being devel­oped, and there is a pos­si­bil­i­ty of increas­ing the reserves through the east­ern and north­west­ern parts of the deposit.

The Mostyshchenske‑I deposit of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als is locat­ed on the north­ern out­skirts of the vil­lage of Mostyshche, on the right bank of the Irpin Riv­er. The valu­able min­er­als are aleu­rite and marl clay with a com­bined aver­age thick­ness rang­ing from 3.0 to 17.9 meters. The over­ly­ing sand with an aver­age thick­ness of 8.9 meters is explored as an addi­tion­al com­po­nent.

The Mostyshchenske-II deposit of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als is locat­ed between the town of Hos­tomel and the vil­lage of Horen­ka, on the left slope of the Irpin Riv­er val­ley. The valu­able min­er­als are marl clay and aleu­rite with an aver­age thick­ness of 13.2 meters. The aver­age thick­ness of the exposed rocks is 1.9 meters. Qua­ter­nary sand is explored as an addi­tion­al com­po­nent. The deposit is being devel­oped, and there is a pos­si­bil­i­ty of increas­ing the reserves through the south­east­ern flanks of the deposit.

The Ozer­nivske deposit of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als is locat­ed 1.5 km east of the vil­lage of Ozera in Borodyan­skyi Dis­trict. The valu­able min­er­als are clayey marl and aleu­rite of the Kyiv for­ma­tion with an aver­age thick­ness of 24.2 meters. It has been explored as a base for the Irpin Con­struc­tion Mate­ri­als Plant. The accom­pa­ny­ing sand from the exposed rocks can be used for the pro­duc­tion of sil­i­cate prod­ucts. The aver­age thick­ness of the exposed rocks is 21.6 meters.

Speck­led and brown clays, belong­ing to the ter­rige­nous-car­bon­ate for­ma­tion of the con­ti­nen­tal sub­for­ma­tion, are also suit­able for brick pro­duc­tion. These clays are char­ac­ter­ized by high vis­cos­i­ty but are less plas­tic and less uni­form in com­po­si­tion com­pared to marls. The clays of the low­er part of the thick­ness have the high­est den­si­ty. In brick and tile pro­duc­tion, these clays can only be used with admix­tures. Brown clays con­tain car­bon­ate inclu­sions and iron-man­ganese con­cre­tions, which make their qual­i­ty unsta­ble. Less con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed vari­eties of brown clays are fine-dis­persed, high­ly plas­tic, and with admix­tures, they serve as qual­i­ty raw mate­ri­als for brick pro­duc­tion.

Such deposits of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als are asso­ci­at­ed with thick lay­ers of speck­led clays on the water­shed areas of the right bank of the Dnipro Riv­er, espe­cial­ly in the south­ern part of the Right Bank, in the area of the for­est plateau. Their total thick­ness reach­es 30 meters. In the north­west part of the region along the line from Stari Petrivt­si vil­lage to Pushcha-Vodit­sa town to Boyarka city to Ple­setske vil­lage to Boro­va vil­lage, they are dis­persed in the Qua­ter­nary peri­od. They are explored as valu­able min­er­als at the Shakhrivske deposit of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als, locat­ed on the north­ern out­skirts of Yuriv­ka vil­lage on the right slope of the Vita Riv­er val­ley. The aver­age thick­ness of brown clays is 4.4 meters, speck­led clays — 5.7 meters, and the exposed rocks — 4.8 meters.

The sec­ond most abun­dant raw mate­r­i­al for brick pro­duc­tion is loamy clays of the Qua­ter­nary peri­od, which are vari­ably devel­oped direct­ly on the sur­face across almost the entire region. Their suit­abil­i­ty for brick pro­duc­tion depends on their plas­tic­i­ty and the pres­ence of car­bon­ate cemen­ta­tion. Bricks made from loamy clays have low­er grades (50 and 75), while the more plas­tic vari­eties pro­duce grades of 75 and 100. Deposits of Qua­ter­nary clays and loamy clays con­sist of com­plex­es of clayey and non-clayey elu­vial and aeo­lian-delu­vial (loamy clays) con­ti­nen­tal sed­i­men­ta­ry for­ma­tions, which are exploit­ed with­out dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion. The qual­i­ty of the raw mate­r­i­al is fair­ly con­sis­tent for deposits with­in the entire lithos­trati­graph­ic com­plex, the extent of which is con­trolled by the pro­duc­tive thick­ness.

Over 10 deposits of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als in Qua­ter­nary deposits have been explored in the ter­ri­to­ry of Kyiv region, the most well-known of which are Muzichanske, Kodatske‑I, Yatskivske, and Cher­ni­akhivske. The largest and the only one being exploit­ed is the Cher­ni­akhivske deposit of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als locat­ed on the north­ern out­skirts of Cher­ni­akhiv vil­lage with­in two sec­tions. The use­ful min­er­al is loamy clays with a total thick­ness of 4.8 meters, and the aver­age thick­ness of exposed rocks is 0.4 meters. Oth­ers require fur­ther detailed explo­ration to deter­mine their eco­nom­ic fea­si­bil­i­ty for devel­op­ment.

In gen­er­al, the deposits of brick and tile raw mate­ri­als in the ter­ri­to­ry of Kyiv region are known for the high qual­i­ty of loamy clays and clays, which enables man­u­fac­tur­ers to pro­duce high-qual­i­ty bricks and ceram­ic prod­ucts. They also play a sig­nif­i­cant role in the devel­op­ment of the local econ­o­my by cre­at­ing jobs and con­tribut­ing to the growth of the con­struc­tion indus­try in the region. How­ev­er, it is impor­tant to ensure prop­er man­age­ment of the loamy clay and clay deposits to ensure their sus­tain­able use and avoid neg­a­tive envi­ron­men­tal impacts. It is cru­cial to con­sid­er the prin­ci­ples of sus­tain­able devel­op­ment and envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards in the extrac­tion and pro­cess­ing of these raw mate­ri­als.

The pro­duc­tion of bricks and ceram­ic prod­ucts from loamy clays and clays should adhere to envi­ron­men­tal reg­u­la­tions and ensure effi­cient resource uti­liza­tion. Ratio­nal man­age­ment of the deposits, mon­i­tor­ing of extrac­tion lev­els, and imple­ment­ing mea­sures for resource restora­tion are impor­tant. Addi­tion­al­ly, it is essen­tial to adopt mod­ern pro­cess­ing and man­u­fac­tur­ing tech­nolo­gies that reduce the impact on the envi­ron­ment. These may include ener­gy-effi­cient kilns for fir­ing, water fil­tra­tion and purifi­ca­tion sys­tems, as well as waste dis­pos­al and mate­r­i­al recy­cling.

Arti­cle from the series “Use­ful Min­er­als of Kyiv Region”

REF­ER­ENCES
1. Антропогеновые отложения Украины. — К.: Наукова думка, 1986
2. Веклич М. Ф., Сиренко Я. А., Матвишина Ж. Я. и др. Палеогеография Киевского Приднепровья. — К.: Наукова думка, 1984.
3. Минерально-сырьевая база строительных материалов Украинской ССР. Киевская обл., 1989.