Ser­pen­tine. Gen­e­sis, prop­er­ties, and indus­tri­al sig­nif­i­cance

Ser­pen­tine is a valu­able ultra­ba­sic rock used as a raw mate­r­i­al for the man­u­fac­ture of refrac­to­ry and fac­ing mate­ri­als, as well as in the chem­i­cal, con­struc­tion, and agri­cul­tur­al indus­tries. The devel­op­ment of the ser­pen­tine resource base in Ukraine could be an impor­tant step in strength­en­ing the coun­try’s eco­nom­ic poten­tial.

Ser­pen­tine 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 refrac­to­ry and fac­ing mate­ri­als.

Properties and genesis

Ser­pen­ti­nite is an ultra­ba­sic rock con­sist­ing main­ly of min­er­als from the ser­pen­tine group. The main min­er­als in this group include lamel­lar antig­orite, lizardite, fibrous chrysotile, bastite, and oth­ers. Sec­ondary min­er­als include car­bon­ates, mag­netite, talc, antig­orite, tremo­lite, brucite, mag­ne­sium amphi­bole, chlo­rite, quartz, chal­cedony, etc. Relict min­er­als are also present in small quan­ti­ties – olivine, rhom­bic and mon­o­clin­ic pyrox­enes, horn­blende, gar­nets, chrom­spinels, and chromite.

In most cas­es, ser­pen­tinites are formed main­ly from mag­ne­sian ser­pen­tinites: lizardite, antig­orite, and chrysotile. They appear as dense, mas­sive, often spot­ted or striped rocks with a rel­a­tive­ly soft struc­ture, which have a green, gray-green, or yel­low-green col­or. Due to its mot­tled appear­ance and col­or shades, the rock resem­bles snake skin, which is why ser­pen­tine is also known as “snake rock.”

Depend­ing on the quan­ti­ta­tive com­po­si­tion of the main and sec­ondary min­er­als, dif­fer­ent types of ser­pen­tinites are dis­tin­guished, includ­ing acti­no­lite, antig­orite, gar­net, horn­blende, talc, tremo­lite, etc. Light-col­ored and dense ser­pen­tine with a uni­form struc­ture belongs to the cat­e­go­ry of pre­cious dec­o­ra­tive stones.

Distribution in Ukraine

There is no infor­ma­tion avail­able on the reserves, pro­duc­tion, export, and import of ser­pen­tinites in glob­al prac­tice. Deposits of these rocks are wide­spread in Pre­cam­bri­an shield com­plex­es and Phanero­zoic fold­ed regions, where they are usu­al­ly asso­ci­at­ed with ultra­ba­sic com­plex­es.

In Ukraine, ser­pen­ti­nite deposits have not been explored or mined, although they are found with­in the Pre­cam­bri­an for­ma­tions of the Ukrain­ian Shield (US). The most promis­ing for indus­tri­al devel­op­ment are the ser­pen­tinites of the Tyk­it­s­ka struc­ture and the Tarnovatskoye sil­i­cate nick­el deposit with resources to a depth of 200 m, esti­mat­ed at 546 mil­lion tons. Also promis­ing are the deposits of green­stone struc­tures of the Seredno­pryd­niprovsky megablock, includ­ing the Pravdin­sky talc-mag­ne­site deposit, whose resources exceed 500 mil­lion tons.

Use of serpentines

Ser­pen­tines have a wide range of indus­tri­al appli­ca­tions due to their phys­i­cal, chem­i­cal, and dec­o­ra­tive prop­er­ties. They are used as a high-mag­ne­sium raw mate­r­i­al for the man­u­fac­ture of refrac­to­ry and acid-resis­tant prod­ucts. Ser­pen­tized ultra­b­a­sites per­form a sim­i­lar func­tion. Ser­pen­tines con­tain­ing car­bon­ate are used as raw mate­ri­als for the pro­duc­tion of mag­ne­sia min­er­al wool. After remov­ing impu­ri­ties of mag­netite, chromite, and chrom­spino­lite, ser­pen­tines are used as fillers for paper, rub­ber, and plas­tics.

Due to its den­si­ty and soft­ness, ser­pen­tine is easy to process, which allows it to be used as a dec­o­ra­tive stone for the man­u­fac­ture of artis­tic and house­hold prod­ucts. Car­bon­at­ed ser­pen­tines are raw mate­ri­als for the pro­duc­tion of steatite, forsterite, and cordierite ceram­ics. Quartz­i­fied vari­eties (quartz­i­fied, opal­ized, chal­cedonized) are char­ac­ter­ized by high den­si­ty, hard­ness, and a vari­ety of col­or pat­terns, which is why they are val­ued as a fac­ing mate­r­i­al for metro sta­tions, lob­bies, and halls.

Crushed ser­pen­tinites and their pro­cess­ing waste can be used as soil improvers and mag­ne­sian fer­til­iz­ers, which increas­es the yield of grain, pota­toes, sug­ar beets, and oth­er agri­cul­tur­al crops. In some coun­tries, metal­lic mag­ne­sium is obtained from ser­pen­tinized dunites, olivines, and unal­tered dunites. These rocks are also used as raw mate­ri­als in the chem­i­cal indus­try to pro­duce var­i­ous mag­ne­sium com­pounds.

The com­pre­hen­sive use of nick­el-bear­ing ser­pen­tinites is par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant, as it allows for the pro­duc­tion of nick­el, pyrite, talc, olivine, ser­pen­tine, and asbestos con­cen­trates, as well as mag­ne­sia prod­ucts and build­ing mate­ri­als. Thanks to this, the extrac­tion and pro­cess­ing of ser­pen­tinites are high­ly eco­nom­i­cal­ly prof­itable.

Thus, ser­pen­tine is a mul­ti­func­tion­al raw mate­r­i­al with high poten­tial for indus­tri­al use. Ukraine has sig­nif­i­cant ser­pen­tine resources, but their deposits are not yet being devel­oped. Promis­ing deposits in the Tik­it­s­ka struc­ture and the Mid­dle Dnipro megablock amount to hun­dreds of mil­lions of tons. The com­pre­hen­sive devel­op­ment of these resources will allow for the pro­duc­tion of a wide range of prod­ucts, includ­ing refrac­to­ries, fac­ing mate­ri­als, and chem­i­cal com­pounds. The ratio­nal use of ser­pen­tine will con­tribute to the growth of pro­duc­tion capac­i­ties and the devel­op­ment of Ukraine’s domes­tic raw mate­r­i­al base.