Quartz sands for production of cellular concrete and lime-sand brick
Sufficiently pure, fine-grained and well sorted sands of the Quaternary age are widely used for the production of cellular concrete and bricks and sand lime blocks in the whole area of Poland. These are river and eolian sands and sands of a glacial and fluvioglacial origin. Sands with the best quality and therefore the most suitable for the mentioned above purposes include mainly fluvioglacial and eolian sands characterized by a high silica content, a good grains segregation (the content of 0.05 – 0.5 mm grains should exceed 65%), a high degree of roundness of grains and a low content of the extraneous matter.
According to the Regulation of the Minister of the Environment of the 1st of July 2015 that establishes the limit values of the parameters that defines the deposit, the exploitable quartz sand deposit requires the thickness not smaller than 2 meters with the ratio of an overburden to deposit series not higher than 0.5, the maximum content of silts of 5% and the minimum content of quartz grains of 90%.
A clastic rock raw materials occurrence in Poland (including 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 the production of cellular concrete.
Anticipated economic resources of quartz sands for the production of cellular concrete amounted in 2018 to 137.60 million m3 (247.68 million tonnes – recalculated according to the 1.8 factor). The resources decreased by 0.20 million m3 in comparison with the previous year mainly due to the crossing out Łozienica deposit (Zachodniopomorskie Voivodeship) from “The balance…” (-1 396.10 thousand m3), the exploitation and losses. The drop was compensated by the documentation of new deposits: Działyń (Lubelskie Voivodeship) (+205.92 thousand m3) and Łozienica-1 (Zachodniopomorskie Voivodeship) (+1 443 thousand m3).
Anticipated economic resources of quartz sands for the production of cellular concrete covered by a detailed exploration amount to 49.51 million m3 accounting for 36% of total anticipated economic resources. Anticipated economic resources within exploited deposits are equal 24.27 million m3 (18% of total anticipated economic resources). Economic resources within exploited deposits amount to 14.58 million m3 (60% of total anticipated economic resources of these deposits).
The output of quartz sands for the production of cellular concrete totaled 455 thousand m3 (818 thousand tonnes) in 2018 and increased in comparison with the previous year by 69 thousand m3. The exploitation grew from seven out of nine exploited deposits.
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 sands for the production of lime-sand brick decreased by 1.9 million m3 and amounted to 264.23 million m3 (475.61 million tonnes). The resources decline was mainly the result of Bełżec deposit (Lubelskie Voivodeship) resources correction (-1.19 million m3) due to the taking into account the new documentation with recalculated resources approved in 2017. Moreover, the resources dropped due to the exploitation and losses, the allocation of Dyle deposit (Lubelskie Voivodeship) from the sand deposit Kolonia Kąty (-0.10 million m3) on the basis of the new documentation (No 4), the resources settlement after the exploitation end for Pisz deposit (Warmińsko-Mazurskie Voivodeship) (-0.04 million m3). On the other hand, there was the new documentation elaborated for already documented Trąbki 1 deposit (Zachodniopomorskie Voivodeship) and quartz sands from the deposit were reclassified to the group of sands. Therefore, Trąbki 1 deposit from this year’s edition onwards, will be presented in the chapter “Sand and gravel”.
Anticipated economic resources covered by the detailed exploration are equal 136.56 million m3 accounting for 52% of total anticipated economic resources of quartz sands for production of lime-sand brick. There are 43.80 million m3 of anticipated economic resources within exploited deposits that account for 17% of total anticipated economic resources. Economic resources decreased by 0.91 million m3 and amounted to 22.05 million m3 – 50% of total anticipated economic resources of this raw material. There was only one supplement for a deposit development plan elaborated in 2018 – for Barcin-Piechcin-Pakość deposit. However, the document did not have any significant impact on the economic resources volume.
In 2018, the output of quartz sands for the production of lime-sand brick amounted to 561 thousand m3 (1,010 thousand tonnes) and slightly increased in comparison with 2017 (by 2%). The exploitation started from Czostków-1 deposit (Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship) and the output was resumed from: Czostków deposit (Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship) and Łęknica deposit (Zachodniopomorskie Voivodeship). On the other hand, the exploitation from Bystrzyca Oławska I deposit (Dolnośląskie Voivodeship) and from Lesiów-Wincentów deposit (Mazowieckie Voivodeship) was suspended, whereas from Szlachta deposit (Pomorskie Voivodeship) was abandoned.
Total anticipated economic resources of quartz sands used in the industry for the production of cellular concrete and lime-sand brick amount to 401.83 million m3 (723.29 million tonnes).
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.
Prepared by: Agnieszka Malon
Table 1. Quartz sands for the production of cellular concrete - million m3