Asbestos is a fibrous min­er­al that eas­i­ly breaks down into thin, flex­i­ble, and strong fibers. In terms of chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion, it belongs to the group of hydro­gen sil­i­cates of mag­ne­sium and iron, and part­ly cal­ci­um and sodi­um.

Asbestos is includ­ed in the list of min­er­als of nation­al impor­tance approved by Res­o­lu­tion of the Cab­i­net of Min­is­ters of Ukraine No. 827 of Decem­ber 12, 1994, as a raw mate­r­i­al for refrac­to­ries and elec­tri­cal and radio engi­neer­ing.

Properties of asbestos

Asbestos is clas­si­fied into two main groups, each with its own chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion, struc­ture, and prop­er­ties: chrysotile asbestos and amphi­bole asbestos. Chrysotile asbestos, which belongs to the ser­pen­tine group, has a tubu­lar fibrous struc­ture, high flex­i­bil­i­ty, elas­tic­i­ty, and heat resis­tance, and is also resis­tant to high tem­per­a­tures and acids. It is wide­ly used in indus­try due to its abil­i­ty to eas­i­ly break down into long fibers. Amphi­bole asbestos is char­ac­ter­ized by high strength, acid resis­tance, and heat resis­tance, but its fibers are less flex­i­ble and more brit­tle than chrysotile asbestos. Amphi­bole asbestos is more dif­fi­cult to break down, so it is main­ly used in con­di­tions where chem­i­cal resis­tance to aggres­sive envi­ron­ments is required.

Chrysotile asbestos is a mag­ne­sium hydrox­ide sil­i­cate with a tubu­lar struc­ture and var­i­ous col­ors rang­ing from white-green to black.
Its phys­i­cal prop­er­ties are as fol­lows:

• Hard­ness: 2–2.5 on the Mohs scale
• Den­si­ty: 2500 kg/m³
• Melt­ing point: approx­i­mate­ly 1500°C
• Fiber strength: up to 3–3.3 GPa
• Heat resis­tance up to 700°C, low elec­tri­cal con­duc­tiv­i­ty, resis­tance to acids and alka­lis

Amphi­bole asbestos is a group of min­er­als with a fibrous struc­ture with­out a tubu­lar struc­ture. The main min­er­als in this group are:

• Antho­phyl­lite: yel­low-gray or green, inelas­tic, resis­tant to acids even when heat­ed to 900°C.
• Cro­ci­do­lite: blue min­er­al with a melt­ing point of 1150°C, high acid and alka­li resis­tance.
• Amosite: gray­ish-white min­er­al with a melt­ing point of up to 1200°C, fiber strength up to 3 GPa.
• Rezik­it: blue, with high acid resis­tance and fiber length up to 2–3 cm.

Asbestos deposits in Ukraine

No sig­nif­i­cant asbestos deposits have been found in Ukraine yet. Only iso­lat­ed occur­rences of antho­phyl­lite asbestos are known, asso­ci­at­ed with the basic and ultra­ba­sic rocks of the Pre­cam­bri­an Ukrain­ian Shield (UCS). These occur­rences are locat­ed in the Azov and Dnipro regions.

In the Azov region, asbestos occur­rences include the Kuiby­shev, Osipenko, Kolar­iv, and Vysh­ni­akiv occur­rences, which are locat­ed in the Zapor­izhzhia region.

In the Dnipro region, there are the Petro­vsky and Zapor­izhzhia deposits, locat­ed in the Dnipropetro­vsk region and Zapor­izhzhia region.

Asbestos bod­ies are lens-shaped, rang­ing from 15 to 500 meters in length and up to 150 meters in thick­ness. At the Kuiby­shev deposit, asbestos is char­ac­ter­ized by a tan­gled fibrous struc­ture, with fibers up to 1.5 cm long and a con­tent of up to 10%. These min­er­als have an acid resis­tance of 94–96%. Oth­er deposits have a sim­i­lar com­po­si­tion and struc­ture, but are not yet of prac­ti­cal sig­nif­i­cance.

Uses of asbestos

Due to its unique phys­i­cal prop­er­ties, asbestos is wide­ly used in var­i­ous indus­tries. Chrysotile asbestos is used in the man­u­fac­ture of refrac­to­ry tex­tiles, ther­mal insu­la­tion, fire-resis­tant paints, fil­ters, and asbestos cement. Its fibrous struc­ture, heat resis­tance, and elas­tic­i­ty make this mate­r­i­al indis­pens­able in prod­ucts that must with­stand extreme con­di­tions. Amphi­bole asbestos, due to its resis­tance to chem­i­cals and high heat resis­tance, is used in the pro­duc­tion of elec­tri­cal paper, card­board, paints, and lubri­cants used in aggres­sive envi­ron­ments.