Daw­sonite – a unique raw mate­r­i­al with prospects for devel­op­ment in Ukraine

Daw­sonite is a high­ly scarce type of high-tech min­ing and chem­i­cal raw mate­r­i­al that is impor­tant in phar­ma­col­o­gy and the pro­duc­tion of alu­minum and soda ash. Its prop­er­ties and com­po­si­tion allow this min­er­al to be used for the needs of var­i­ous high-tech indus­tries.

Daw­sonite 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 chem­i­cal raw mate­r­i­al.

Daw­sonite (chem­i­cal for­mu­la: NaAlCO₃(OH)₂) is a min­er­al belong­ing to the car­bon­ate group and is a valu­able source of sodi­um, alu­minum, and car­bon diox­ide. Its phys­i­cal and chem­i­cal prop­er­ties make it indis­pens­able in a num­ber of indus­tries, such as phar­ma­col­o­gy, alu­minum pro­duc­tion, and soda ash pro­duc­tion. The min­er­al is char­ac­ter­ized by high ther­mal sta­bil­i­ty, chem­i­cal sta­bil­i­ty, and the abil­i­ty to form high-qual­i­ty mate­ri­als for tech­no­log­i­cal process­es.

The phys­i­cal prop­er­ties of daw­sonite include its white or slight­ly yel­low­ish col­or, silky lus­ter, and low hard­ness (3–3.5 on the Mohs scale). It occurs in the form of aci­c­u­lar crys­tals, spherulites, glob­ules, or sheaf-like aggre­gates. Struc­tural­ly, daw­sonite is a prod­uct of low-tem­per­a­ture hydrother­mal process­es that form in zones of con­tact between sed­i­men­ta­ry and deep rocks.

The gen­e­sis of daw­sonite is direct­ly relat­ed to hydrother­mal process­es in car­bon­ate rocks. Its for­ma­tion usu­al­ly occurs with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of car­bon diox­ide, sodi­um and alu­minum com­pounds that sat­u­rate the pores, cracks, and cav­i­ties of sed­i­men­ta­ry rocks. In Ukraine, daw­sonite deposits have been found in the Solotvyno Basin, the Fold­ed Carpathi­ans, and Don­bas. The most promis­ing deposits for devel­op­ment are those in Zakarpat­tia and Don­bas, where the min­er­al forms strat­i­form, lens-shaped, or brec­cia struc­tures rich in sodi­um and alu­minum.

Distribution in Ukraine

In Ukraine, daw­sonite occur­rences are found in the deposits of the Solotvyno Basin, the Fold­ed Carpathi­ans, and the mer­cury ore fields of Don­bas. How­ev­er, most of them are of no indus­tri­al sig­nif­i­cance. The most impor­tant regions are Tran­scarpathia and Don­bas, where promis­ing occur­rences of this min­er­al have been dis­cov­ered.

With­in the Solotvyno Basin, daw­sonite occurs in cracks and voids of argillites, silt­stones, and sand­stones of the Novose­lyt­sia and Teresvy­na for­ma­tions of the Miocene. It forms snow-white silky accu­mu­la­tions in the form of spherulites, glob­ules, sheaf-like aggre­gates, and veins up to 2 mm in size. In the Bushtyn area, daw­sonite deposits are locat­ed at depths of 123.2–464.1 m, with an aver­age thick­ness of 21.7 m. The aver­age daw­sonite con­tent in the rocks is 10.84%. The esti­mat­ed resources of daw­sonite ore are esti­mat­ed at 279 mil­lion tons, of which 30.2 mil­lion tons con­tain daw­sonite.

One of the largest daw­sonite deposits in Tran­scarpathia is Ruske Pole, where the esti­mat­ed resources amount to 125 mil­lion tons of ore with a daw­sonite and nat­ur­al soda con­tent of about 7%. This deposit is con­sid­ered the most promis­ing for devel­op­ment.

Sev­er­al areas with daw­sonite deposits have been iden­ti­fied with­in Don­bas. The most impor­tant of these are the Kin­dra­tivs­ka and Slo­vian­s­ka areas.

The Kin­dra­tivs­ka area is locat­ed with­in the Druzhkiv­ka-Kos­tiantynivs­ka anti­cline. Daw­sonite has been found in strat­i­form stra­ta and crush­ing zones, which extend 7 km along the strike and up to 600 m along the dip. It fills the pores of sand­stones, the voids of ancient plant root sys­tems, forms small rosettes in cement, and pre­cip­i­tates in the form of crusts and deposits on fric­tion planes and in cracks. The daw­sonite con­tent ranges from 1% to 10%. Accord­ing to cat­e­go­ry P₂, the esti­mat­ed resources in the area are esti­mat­ed at 5.1 mil­lion tons with a side con­tent of 5%.

The Slo­vian­s­ka area is char­ac­ter­ized by soda min­er­al­iza­tion, which is local­ized in the over­bur­den brec­cia at depths of 420–940 m. Daw­sonite forms lens-shaped deposits with an area of 0.9 km². It occurs in the form of micro­con­cre­tions mea­sur­ing 0.2–0.5 mm, fills cracks, and forms radi­al­ly-rayed aggre­gates togeth­er with ankerite and cal­cite. The dis­tri­b­u­tion of the min­er­al is uneven, with con­tent vary­ing from 5% to 22% (aver­age 11.6%). The esti­mat­ed resources of daw­sonite in cat­e­go­ry P₃ are 3.96 mil­lion tons with a grade of 10% and 5.5 mil­lion tons with a grade of 5%.

A num­ber of brec­cias have been dis­cov­ered in salt dome struc­tures in the Dnipro-Donets Basin (DDB) that may be promis­ing for daw­sonite explo­ration. These struc­tures include Novod­mytrivs­ka, Stepivs­ka, Berez­ka, Lozivs­ka, Nizhyn­s­ka, Tvan­s­ka, Ivanohrad­s­ka, Parafi­ivs­ka, Ivanivs­ka, Synivs­ka, and oth­ers. Geo­log­i­cal con­di­tions and asso­ci­at­ed min­er­al­iza­tion make these areas inter­est­ing for fur­ther geo­log­i­cal explo­ration.

Although daw­sonite deposits in Ukraine have not yet gained indus­tri­al sig­nif­i­cance, indi­vid­ual deposits, such as Ruske Pole and Bushtyn­s­ka Square, show great poten­tial for devel­op­ment. Don­bas and the Dnipro-Donets Basin may also become promis­ing regions sub­ject to fur­ther geo­log­i­cal research. The high con­tent of daw­sonite, its ver­sa­til­i­ty, and its impor­tance for indus­try under­score the impor­tance of devel­op­ing this area in Ukraine’s min­ing and chem­i­cal indus­try.

Applications of dawsonite

Daw­sonite is a valu­able mate­r­i­al for many indus­tries due to its com­po­si­tion, which includes sodi­um, alu­minum, and car­bon diox­ide. In phar­ma­col­o­gy, it is used to pro­duce antacids that effec­tive­ly neu­tral­ize increased acid­i­ty in the gas­troin­testi­nal tract, pro­vid­ing a safe and nat­ur­al basis for med­i­cines. Its chem­i­cal sta­bil­i­ty and puri­ty make it an indis­pens­able com­po­nent in the cre­ation of high-qual­i­ty prepa­ra­tions.

In alu­minum pro­duc­tion, daw­sonite plays an impor­tant role as a source of alu­minum com­pounds. Due to its high alu­minum oxide con­tent, this min­er­al is used to obtain alu­minum pow­der, which is fur­ther used in met­al­lur­gy, air­craft con­struc­tion, and the pro­duc­tion of alu­minum alloys. Its abil­i­ty to pro­vide a sta­ble raw mate­r­i­al base for alu­minum pro­duc­tion in coun­tries with lim­it­ed reserves of tra­di­tion­al baux­ite deposits is par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant.

In addi­tion, daw­sonite can be used in the man­u­fac­ture of spe­cial mate­ri­als for the con­struc­tion indus­try, such as cements and con­cretes with increased chem­i­cal resis­tance and strength. In the chem­i­cal indus­try, its com­pounds serve as the basis for the syn­the­sis of spe­cial­ized prod­ucts used in the pro­duc­tion of fer­til­iz­ers, cat­a­lysts, and reagents.

Thus, daw­sonite is a strate­gi­cal­ly impor­tant min­er­al that com­bines func­tion­al­i­ty, eco­nom­ic effi­cien­cy, and prospects for fur­ther use in var­i­ous indus­tries. Its appli­ca­tion not only ensures sta­ble pro­duc­tion of key prod­ucts but also con­tributes to the devel­op­ment of Ukraine’s indus­tri­al poten­tial.