DISTRIBUTION OF GERMANIUM IN THE COAL OF THE LVIV-VOLYN BASIN

Abstract

Germanium – rare element, it is a raw material of multipurpose usage and it is included in the list of “critically important minerals” confirmed by the European Commission. The mineral base of Ukraine is characterized by considerable reserves of accompanying germanium and prospects of its development during the complex mining development of coal deposits. Purpose of the work is to study the origin of germanium in the course of the geological history of the formation of coalbearing deposits and to establish the law-governed nature of its distribution as the element-admixture in coal of the Lviv-Volyn Basin. Germanium in coal of Lviv-Volyn Basin is present in samples of the coal ash in all coal seams the Lower and Middle Carboniferous. The concentration of germanium for the seams v6, n7, n8, n8в, n9 was analyzed in the Chervonohrad geologicalindustrial region (Mezhyrichanske and Zabuzke fields). The article analyzes and constructs a map of germanium concentrations for coal of the seam v6 for the Chervonohrad geological-industrial region of Lviv-Volyn Basin. Along the lateral of the seam one can fix the rise in the concentration in the edge zones of paleopeatbog. Such distribution is explained by the mechanism of sorption accumulation of Ge in the organic mass of peats in the areas of increased water-mineral supplying. Data received while executing prospecting in the Lyubelske field of Lviv-Volyn Basin were analyzed. Coal of the seams п7 в, п8 в, п9, b1 of the Lyubelska-3 site that is planned from burning with the energy purposes, simultaneously may be used as source of germanium. At stratigraphic interval of the upper alluvial-lacustrine-marshy-lagoonal subformation of the Carboniferous formation of the Lviv-Volyn Basin (Bashkirian stages) the coal of the South-Western coal-bearing region (the Lyubelske field) is more germanium-bearing than coal from the Chervonohrad geological-industrial region (Mezhyrichanske and Zabuzke fields). The uneven distribution of germanium concentration is characteristic of the coal seams of the Lviv-Volyn Basin. The wave-like character of the distribution of concentrations is caused by the process of sedimentation which is subordinated to consedimentary movements that influenced the water regime of paleopeatsbogs, lithological and facies changing of the coalbearing deposits as a whole.