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 in individual documentations varied slightly: - the maximum documentation depth – 30 m (excluding Górka Lubartowska-Niedźwiada deposit); - the minimum deposit thickness – 5 m (to Niedźwiada II deposit there was one borehole with the thickness of 2 m included); the minimum glauconite content – 10% (for Niedźwiada II the average glauconite content >10% deposit was accepted).

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 4 deposits of the glauconite-bearing sediments documented so far: Górka Lubartowska–Niedźwiada, Leszkowice 1, Niedźwiada II and Niedźwiada Kolonia I. Except of Niedźwiada II deposit, others 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 lying below them 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 amount of resources documented within particular deposits of the glauconite-bearing sediments together with the deposits state of development are presented in table 1. The anticipated economic resources of the glauconite-bearing sediments as of the end of 2018 amount to 5,559 thousand m3, including 843 thousand m3 of glauconite. In 2018 where was a concession for Górka Lubartowska-Niedźwiada deposit issued – the concession allows the exploitation of feldspar-quartzitic sands (as the main raw material in the deposit) and of sediments with glauconite and amber (as co-occurring raw material). The economic resources of the glauconite-bearing sediments, calculated in the deposit development plan, amount to 325 thousand m3, including 39 thousand m3 of glauconite. In 2018, the exploitation of the main raw material lying above the glauconite-bearing sediments deposit, started. There was also the exploitation concession for Leszkowice 1 deposit issued, however only the main raw material – quarztitic sands – is the concession subject.

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

Prepared by: Agnieszka Malon