TOMSK, Sep 20 – RIA Tomsk. Geologists
of Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) study coal seams in the south and north
of Kuzbass, where deposits of rare metals formed thanks to the ashes of
volcanoes from Mongolia; research helps scientists identify new rare metal-coal
deposits, the press service of the university reported on Friday.
The report
explains that coal and peat are geochemical barriers, which forms the
manifestations and deposits of many rare metals in coal seams. Only germanium
is extracted from coal and, since recently, lithium and gallium in an
industrial scale. A group of germanium-coal deposits has been identified in
China. Rare metal-coal deposits in Kuzbass and in the Minusinsky basin are
known in Russia since the last century.
"TPU
scientists... study mineral-geochemical features of complex mineralization in
formation XI in the south and north of Kuzbass, where ash of volcanoes of
Mongolia is found... In total, researchers tested 12 sections – mountain
sections and underground workings – between 1989 and 2018. This year the
research of the TPU team continued thanks to the grant of the Russian
Scientific Foundation," – the message says.
Scientists have
proved that the source of rare elements in the studied coals is volcanic ash,
which after powerful eruptions in Mongolia was transferred by wind to the
territory of Siberia, where it settled with a layer of 5 to 20 centimeters and
got into peat. A characteristic feature of such ores is the presence of a rock
horizon with increased radioactivity, which allows to detect them at the stage
of preliminary study of coal-bearing areas.
"Thus, our
research allows to identify new rare-metal-coal deposits in order to increase
the raw material base of strategically important metals. And determining the
position of these deposits can help restore the history of the Earth at the
time of their formation,"– the press service quotes the words of Professor
of TPU, head of the research Sergey Arbuzov.
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Geologists refer
to the 36 of chemical elements of the Mendeleev Periodic System among the rare
metals, which began to be widely developed by industry only in the 1950s-1960s.
Many of these metals were discovered only at the end of the XVIII century, and
rhenium, gallium, hafnium, germanium, scandium were discovered by Dmitry
Mendeleev after creation of the Periodic System. Most of these metals are used
in electronics, mechanical engineering, rocket engineering, and so on.
Earlier it was
reported, TPU and Kemerovo region signed an agreement on cooperation within the
framework of the created world-class scientific and educational center Kuzbass.
We are talking about cooperation in the development of knowledge-intensive technologies
in the field of exploration, efficient extraction and deep processing of solid
minerals, mining engineering, integrated management of water resources of river
basins, production of environmentally friendly energy.