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Mineral resources of Poland> Rock raw materials and others> Quartz sands for production of cellular concrete and lime-sand brick
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Quartz sands for production of cellular concrete and lime-sand brick

Sands are widely used in production of cellular concrete and bricks and sand lime blocks in the whole area of Poland. Raw material suitable for that production has to be sufficiently pure and fine-grained and well sorted. These requirements are met by Quaternary sands of glacial and fluvioglacial origin and river and eolian sands. Sands most suitable for these purposes include mainly fluvioglacial and eolian sands characterized by high silica content, good grains segregation (the content of 0.05 – 0.5 mm grains should exceed 65 %), high degree of roundness of grains and low content of extraneous matter.

According to the Regulation of the Minister of the Environment of the 22nd of December 2011 (number of Polish act: Dz. U. Nr 291, poz. 1712.), exploitable quartz sand deposits require a minimum content of quartz grains (90 %), maximum content of silts (5 %), thickness not smaller than 2 m and the ratio of cover to deposit series not higher than 0.5.

It should be stated that accuracy of prospecting and exploration of these sand deposits has been satisfactory. The deposits are fairly evenly distributed throughout the whole area of the country, except for the Carpathian Mts. In the latter region, resources of sand deposits (especially quartz sands of good quality) appear clearly insufficient to cover the local needs.

Clastic rock raw materials occurence in Poland (inlcuding quartz sands for production of cellular concrete and lime-sand brick) is presented on the map.

Table 1 shows resources and the current state of exploration and development of quartz sands for production of cellular concrete.

Anticipated economic resources of quartz sands for production of cellular concrete sands are of the order of 144.42 million m3 (259.96 million tonnes), decreased by 1.28 million m3 in comparison with previous year.

Economic resources within exploited deposits amounted to 19.11 million m3 (55.7 % of total anticipated economic resources).

Production of quartz sands for production of cellular concrete totaled 355 thousand m3, being 59 thousand m3 lower than in the previous year.

Table 2 shows resources and the current state of exploration and development of quartz sands for production of lime-sand brick.

Anticipated economic resources of these sands increased by 0.03 million m3 and amounted to 270.49 million m3 (486.88 million tonnes). There was new deposit documented in 2012 – the Niwiska deposit (Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship).

Anticipated economic resources within deposits covered by detailed exploration are equal 143.30 million m3 and account for 53 % of total resources. There are 46.48 million m3 within exploited deposits that account for 17.2 % of total resources. Economic resources within exploited deposits amounted to 19.18 million m3 (41.3 % of total anticipated economic resources).

In 2012, production of these quartz sands decreased by 49 thousand m3, to 731 thousand m3.

Figure 1 shows changes in resources and production of quartz sands for the manufacture of cellular concrete and Figure 2 – the same data for quartz sands for the manufacture of lime-sand brick.

Total anticipated economic resources of quartz sands for production of cellular concrete and lime-sand brick amounted in 2012 to 414.91 million m3 (746.84 million tonnes).

Prepared by: Agnieszka Malon