Glauconite-bearing sediments

The entrepreneurs in Poland have recently paid their attention to the use of glauconite-bearing sediments (sands and silts with glauconite) which co-occur with feldspar-quartzitic and quartzitic sands deposits. The glauconite-bearing sediment has not been documented as a mineral raw material so far and therefore is not included in the Regulation of the Minister of the Environment of the 1^st of July 2015 (number of Polish act: Dz. U. 2015, poz. 987) – the limit values of the parameters that define the deposit and its boundaries have not been defined. Thus – on the basis of the performed geological works – geologists documenting the glauconite-bearing sediment have initially determined the scope of the requirements for the glauconite-bearing sediment documentation. The criteria of the limit values accepted for the glauconite deposit documentation are: - the maximum documentation depth (only Leszkowice 1 deposit) up to 30 m; - the minimum deposit thickness – 5 m; the minimum glauconite content – 10%.

The presence of iron oxides in glauconite makes him usable for the production of glass and vitreous shells of wide range of colors, the ceramic pigments, the colorful and vitreous ceramic or stone decorations. The mineral as a potential potassium source can also be used in agriculture as an slow acting fertilizer with a significant content of the magnesium, iron and organic trace elements. Moreover, due to its chemical features it can be used in the technologies of water and sewage treatment – to remove the heavy metals contaminations.

There have been 2 deposits of the glauconite-bearing sediments documented so far: Górka Lubartowska – Niedźwiada and Leszkowice 1, which were allocated from the already documented deposits: sand deposit Górka Lubartowska and amber deposit Górka Lubartowska. The geological structure of the Górka Lubartowska area contains mainly the sands of the Quaternary age and the Tertiary silts and sands with glauconite of the Upper Eocene age (the so-called Parczew delta) in which the amber occurring was stated.

The anticipated economic resources of the glauconite-bearing sediments as of the end of 2017 amount to 2,926 thousand m³, including 546 thousand m³ of glauconite.

Table 1. List of glauconite-bearing sediments deposits - thousand m³

Prepared by: Agnieszka Malon