At the west of the Russian platform clay lithogenesis is characterized by a predominance of kaolinite in the lower Miocene and of montmorillonite in the middle Miocene-Pliocene. The recent times stream sediments have more kaolinite mixture than the flood plane sediments and gibbsite and halloysite occur in places of the erosion of paleozoic and mesozoic weathering crust. In the Anthropogene clay formations are distinguished by the predominance of hydromica development. Glacial and fluvial erosion of the preanthropogene rocks led to the origin of mixed clay composition, where clay minerals occur in different proportions. The type of clay is interpreted in terms of the physico-chemical and mechanical processes of the geological time. The paleoclimatic and paleogeochemical environments are considered to have had a very big influence on these processes. The average concentration of Cr, Ni, V, Cu, Ti in pliocene clay sediments is 1.5–2 times more than in anthropogene sediments. The distribution of microelements in the first case have a more differentiate of character in granulometric fractions. The reduction of sorption of copper content in clay rocks in the Pliocene sequence of sediments is marked. Concentration of Ni, V, Cu, Cr, Ti decreases, Zr increases and their ratio changes in clay by the transition to periglacial conditions of the lower Pleistocene and by the transition from warm to cold conditions of interglacials of the Pleistocene. Clay minerals specifics, dispersed organic matters and their components, ferrugination and carbonatization degree of the clay sediments, and the oxidation-reduction environment influence the associations and concentrations of microelements. In the pore solution of the basement of the Poltav series clays promote the concentration of V and Ni along with Cl, Na and the ratio (Na+K):(Ca+Mg). These trends testify about the lagoon conditions of the sedimentation. The concentration of Mn, Cr, V decreases and Ti and Zr increases in the range-marine-delta-rive clays. Among Pleistocene lake, alluvial and lagoon sediments of the south of the Russian platform the latter are distinguished by a maximum concentration and the specific contents on Mn in the extracts of the exchange, carbonate and organic forms. In marine conditions diagenetic mineral formation accompanied by the sharp concentration of Mn in the carbonate, organic and amorphous contents of clay sediments. Epigenetic processes of deep hydrogenesis and of hypergenesis have an important influence on the clay content. In contemporary and buried river valleys of the Pleistocene clay sediments are distinguished by the presence of concentrations and ratios of the microelements in near river and inner flood plains, oxbow, lakes, and also in normal, periglacial and glacio-alluvium. In the Pollessie region alluvial clays, of the southern drainage, formed from the weathering of the Ukraine massif, concentrate Ti, Zr, Cu, Cr and Co more than the clay of the northern drainage, derived from the river erosion of moraine deposits. Similar concentrations of the microelements took place in glacio-alluvial and glacial sediments of the lower Pleistocene in deep valleys in the region of the Byelorussian massif erosion. Known laws of the microelements distribution in clay sediments are used for the deduction of palaeogeographic and facial environments of the Cenozoic lithogenesis, the correlation of horizons, obtaining an Neogene-Anthropogene boundary, for geological prognoses and for prospecting.