Ozokerite. Char­ac­ter­is­tics, types, dis­tri­b­u­tion

Ozokerite is a bitu­mi­nous min­er­al. It is formed dur­ing the crys­tal­liza­tion process dur­ing the cool­ing of paraf­fin oil and is a nat­ur­al mix­ture of alka­nes.

General characteristics

Ozokerite con­sists of paraf­fin, min­er­al oils, resins and oth­er sub­stances. The most valu­able part of ozokerite is sol­id hydro­car­bons, the con­tent of which in ozokerite of var­i­ous deposits, in par­tic­u­lar, and in var­i­ous oil sam­ples, ranges from 15 to 90%. The less valu­able part is liq­uid and soft hydro­car­bons (8–80%), the melt­ing point of which is below 50 °C, and resinous com­pounds (6–30%). Some of them con­tain nitro­gen, oxy­gen and sul­fur com­pounds.

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

Ozokerite has a num­ber of unique phys­i­cal prop­er­ties that deter­mine its wide appli­ca­tion in var­i­ous indus­tries:

• Vis­cos­i­ty and plas­tic­i­ty: This allows it to be eas­i­ly machined, which makes it ide­al for use in the pro­duc­tion of plas­tic lubri­cants and oth­er mate­ri­als.
• Ther­mal con­duc­tiv­i­ty: Ozokerite has low ther­mal con­duc­tiv­i­ty, which makes it an effec­tive insu­la­tor. This prop­er­ty is also used in med­ical pro­ce­dures such as heat treat­ment.
• Heat preser­va­tion: It is able to retain heat for a long time, which is impor­tant in med­ical and ther­a­peu­tic pro­ce­dures.
• Chem­i­cal resis­tance: Ozokerite has high resis­tance to acids and alka­lis, which makes it a reli­able mate­r­i­al in the chem­i­cal indus­try.
• Elec­tri­cal insu­la­tion prop­er­ties: Due to its dielec­tric char­ac­ter­is­tics, ozokerite is used in the elec­tri­cal indus­try as an insu­lat­ing mate­r­i­al.

When solid­i­fied, ozokerite com­press­es, reduc­ing in vol­ume by approx­i­mate­ly 10%. This reduc­tion in vol­ume pro­motes the for­ma­tion of tight con­tact between the ozokerite and the sur­face to which it is applied. This prop­er­ty is espe­cial­ly impor­tant in med­ical pro­ce­dures where tight con­tact with the body is required for effec­tive heat treat­ment. The use of ozokerite in this form ensures longer heat reten­tion and a bet­ter ther­a­peu­tic effect.

Distribution of ozokerite

Ozokerite is formed in the near-sur­face parts of oil fields as a result of oil ris­ing through cracks and rapid cool­ing with the pre­cip­i­ta­tion of paraf­fin hydro­car­bons. Ozokerite man­i­fes­ta­tions are present in all oil fields of the Pre-Carpathi­an depres­sion. The State Bal­ance of Min­er­al Resources of Ukraine takes into account three (Boryslavske, Dzvy­ni­atske, Starunske) ozokerite deposits, the bal­ance reserves of which are 191,933 tons in cat­e­gories B + C₁, and off-bal­ance reserves are 127,846 tons.

The Boryslavske deposit is locat­ed in the Lviv region. Its area reach­es 291 hectares. In tec­ton­ic terms, area of the Boryslavske ozokerite deposit is locat­ed in the Boryslav-Pokut­skа zone of the Pre-Carpathi­an depres­sion and is asso­ci­at­ed with the dome of the Boryslav fold. The ozokerite deposit is direct­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the vault of the fold. Min­ing oper­a­tions have estab­lished a rather com­plex and pecu­liar branched sys­tem of cleav­age cracks, with which ozokerite accu­mu­la­tions are asso­ci­at­ed.

The main geo­log­i­cal fac­tors of the for­ma­tion of the Boryslavske deposit are the pres­ence of paraf­finic oil at the depth of the deposits, which, decom­pos­ing, migrat­ed upward along the cracks, and the pres­ence of a com­plex sys­tem of tec­ton­ic dis­tur­bances, which caused the for­ma­tion of numer­ous, dif­fer­ent types and direc­tions of cracks, which became the reser­voir of ozokerite.

Two types of min­er­al­iza­tion are not­ed at the deposit, one of which is char­ac­ter­ized by a veined accu­mu­la­tion of ozokerite, fill­ing the frac­ture cracks in the Polyanyt­skyi deposits. The sec­ond type of min­er­al­iza­tion is lay­ered, asso­ci­at­ed with sandy-clay brec­cia. The sat­u­ra­tion of rocks with ozokerite is het­ero­ge­neous both hor­i­zon­tal­ly and ver­ti­cal­ly. There is an alter­na­tion of rich ores with poor vari­eties and even void rocks. The reserves of the deposit under cat­e­go­ry C₁ were approved in the amount of 139,100 tons.

The Dzvy­ni­atske deposit is locat­ed in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. The strong dis­lo­ca­tion and dis­lo­ca­tion of the rocks of the Vorotyshchen­s­ka for­ma­tion con­tributed to the for­ma­tion of indus­tri­al deposits of ozokerite. In addi­tion, traces of liq­uid oil and gas are also observed in these deposits.

In the rocks of the deposit, ozokerite fills cracks or forms inclu­sions and indi­vid­ual small-sized clus­ters, uneven­ly and com­plex­ly dis­trib­uted in the pro­duc­tive lay­er. The reserves are approved under cat­e­go­ry C₁ in the amount of 21,840 tons. Due to the sig­nif­i­cant depth of the ozokerite deposit (over 150 meters) and the low qual­i­ty of the raw mate­r­i­al (belongs to the III-IV grade), the exploita­tion of the deposit is cur­rent­ly imprac­ti­cal.

The Starunske deposit is locat­ed in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. A dis­tinc­tive fea­ture of the Vorotyshchen­s­ka series at the Starunske deposit, which is also char­ac­ter­is­tic of the Boryslavske deposit, is the dis­tur­bance and dis­or­der of these deposits, due to which it is not always pos­si­ble to observe indi­vid­ual lay­ers and clear tran­si­tions between them. In most cas­es, the tran­si­tion between lay­ers is grad­ual, although it also occurs abrupt­ly.

A grad­ual tran­si­tion is more often observed between clays and salt. It occurs by increas­ing salt min­er­als in clays to areas of salts with a low clay con­tent and vice ver­sa. Salts are main­ly devel­oped in the east­ern part of the deposit, where they lie in the form of a pow­er­ful mas­sif, which can become an object of exploita­tion. Sig­nif­i­cant dis­tur­bance and dis­or­der of deposits and the brec­cia-like tex­ture of clays have cre­at­ed favor­able con­di­tions for ozokerite for­ma­tion. Ozokerite in host rocks is found in a vari­ety of forms and shapes.

The main dis­tri­b­u­tion in the deposit is ozokerite of the vein type. The thick­ness of the veins varies from frac­tions of a cen­time­ter to one and more meters. Thin veins, smears and deposits are often found. In addi­tion, ozokerite fills the cav­i­ties of cracks and small voids in strong­ly sandy brec­ciat­ed clays. Ozokerite veins have been traced by numer­ous pits and explo­ration wells, which were drilled to detect and eval­u­ate oil and ozokerite.

The reserves of the deposit were approved with cat­e­gories B+C₁ in the amount of 61398 tons. Due to the dif­fi­cult hydro­ge­o­log­i­cal con­di­tions and low qual­i­ty of raw mate­ri­als (II-III grade), the devel­op­ment of the deposit is cur­rent­ly unprof­itable.

Areas of use

The com­bi­na­tion of phys­i­cal prop­er­ties has led to the wide­spread use of ozokerite in the med­ical field, espe­cial­ly for heat ther­a­py, where it is used in the form of com­press­es and wraps for the treat­ment of var­i­ous dis­eases. How­ev­er, its use is not lim­it­ed to med­i­cine. It is also used in indus­try, in par­tic­u­lar for the pro­duc­tion of plas­tic lubri­cants, in the elec­tri­cal indus­try and oth­er areas. Its spe­cial prop­er­ties make it indis­pens­able in many indus­tries.

Ozokerite is used in the form of raw ozokerite and in the form of ceresin. Ceresin is used in the pro­duc­tion of plas­tic lubri­cants, which are capa­ble of form­ing very thin and sta­ble mois­ture- and gas-tight films on met­als, which deter­mines the high antifric­tion and anti­cor­ro­sion prop­er­ties of such lubri­cants.

Due to their high dielec­tric prop­er­ties, ozokerite and ceresin are used in the elec­tri­cal indus­try. Ceresin is used for impreg­nat­ing paper in the pro­duc­tion of elec­trodet­o­na­tors. Ozokerite is used for insu­lat­ing and anti-rot impreg­na­tion of cot­ton braid­ing of wires and cables.

The val­ue of ozokerite is deter­mined, first of all, by the per­cent­age of ceresin yield — the main gross prod­uct of pri­ma­ry pro­cess­ing of raw mate­ri­als. The con­di­tions of the para­me­ters for cal­cu­lat­ing reserves were ori­ent­ed towards this. Bal­ance reserves include ore reserves with an on-board con­tent of ozokerite of 1% at a droplet sep­a­ra­tion tem­per­a­ture of not low­er than 60℃. Under such con­di­tions, indus­tri­al bod­ies with rel­a­tive­ly high-qual­i­ty ores are iso­lat­ed.

In recent decades, the use of the flota­tion method for puri­fy­ing waste­water from elec­tro­plat­ing indus­tries from heavy met­al ions has been active­ly stud­ied in Ukraine and abroad. Sci­en­tif­ic devel­op­ments and prac­ti­cal expe­ri­ence in imple­ment­ing this tech­nol­o­gy demon­strate its prospects and obvi­ous advan­tages com­pared to tra­di­tion­al purifi­ca­tion meth­ods.

Flota­tion allows to increase the effi­cien­cy of water treat­ment, reduce reagent con­sump­tion, short­en the clean­ing time, reduce the mois­ture con­tent of sed­i­ments and sim­pli­fy their fur­ther pro­cess­ing in order to sep­a­rate and return heavy met­als for reuse in the elec­tro­plat­ing process. There­fore, the search for new, effec­tive and eco­nom­i­cal col­lec­tors is an impor­tant task. Ozokerite, which is mined in Ukraine, in par­tic­u­lar at the Boryslavske deposit, may be promis­ing in this regard. It has a nat­ur­al abil­i­ty to flota­tion and is prac­ti­cal­ly insol­u­ble in water, acids and alka­lis.

Ozokerite is an impor­tant nat­ur­al resource of Ukraine. This min­er­al is wide­ly used in var­i­ous indus­tries due to its unique prop­er­ties, such as high plas­tic­i­ty, heat capac­i­ty and chem­i­cal sta­bil­i­ty. The poten­tial for the devel­op­ment of ozokerite min­ing remains high, espe­cial­ly tak­ing into account mod­ern tech­nolo­gies and inno­va­tions.