Krasotin L.A. Clays of Donbass. // Industrial Minerals.№ 10, 1998.P.26-27
Ceramic clays - down in Donbass.
Ukraine's ball clay deposits are located about 70km north of the regional capital Donetsk, with the most extensive reserves situated to the west and south-west of Druzhkovka. There are three main companies producing ball clays from deposits in these districts: Donbas Clays JSC (a UK-Ukrainian j-v, 250,000 tpa ball clay; see below), Vesco JSC (750,000 tpa), and Druzhkovskoe Rudokpravlenije JSC (150,000 tpa). Druzhkovskoje is working what has been described as "quite a colossal" ore body, and the company was originally the former USSR's primary source of refractory clays. Keramet JSC, a foreign economic joint stock company based in Donetsk, exports some 300,000 rра of refractory clays and kaolins from Ukraine. Privately owned Luxembourg-based West-Ost Holding Co. SA holds considerable equity shares of Keramet and Druzhkovskoje.
Donbass Clays JSC - exporting to Italy
Donbass Clays was set up to extract and market material from the extensive reserves of high quality clays found in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
The Tertiary ball clay deposits are sub-horizontal, sited along the crests of gently undulating hills. The individual deposits range in area from 2-30km2 and the clay seams occur as a series of overlapping lenses with a combined thickness of 2-4 met res. Sand and loam overburden is reduced to 2 metres at the deposits' edge, although it can reach 40 metres in central areas.
The mineralogy of the ball clays is typically:
Kaolinite –55-70%
Illitic mica 25-30%
Quartz - 5-10%
Donbas Clays is exploiting ball clays at two main sites the South October quarry, and the Novoalexyevsky and Novoshvezarskey quarries, all in the vicinity of Druzhkovka, Donetsk region, in eastern Ukraine.
The company utilises strip mining methods, using draglines to remove overburden and hydraulic backhoes to extract ball clay from 3 metre high benches. Close monitoring of the clay by on-site quality control staff allows for selective mining. The company is currently evaluating possible commercial uses for the sand derived from the overburden (which is unsuitable for glassmaking).
South October, which has been in operation for the last three years, has some 9m. tonnes of proven reserves and produces around 200,000 tpa.
At Novoalexyevsky and Novoshvezarsky quarries, combined production is in the order of 50-60,000 tpa. However, these two quarries are some 40 years old and the clays were originally utilised for refractories production. Donbas Clays is now selectively exploiting the remaining reserves - the quarries have an estimated life time of 3-4 years. Most conveniently for the j-v, the previous mining operations had removed most of the overburden at Novoshvezarsky.
Meanwhile, Donbas Clays is readying itself to open up another nearby deposit, Novostephanova, which has 15-20 years of reserves, and for which licences to mine are in place. Negotiations with the State Committee on Geology to extend the reserves are currently in progress.
Properties & uses of Donbas Clays ball clay grades(range of blends)
| J,Обозначение марки | DB-Х | DB-Y | DB-M |
| Аl2О3(%) | 30-35 | 25-30 | 25-30 |
| Fe2O3(%) | 0.6-0.8 | 0.8-1.0 | 1.0-2.0 |
| Kaolinite(%) | 70 | 55 | 55 |
| Illite (%) | 25 | 30 | 30 |
| Quartz (%) | 5 | 15 | 15 |
| Mean particle size (%<2u)(%<2М) | 90 | 80 | 80 |
| Mean MOR (Mpa) | 14 | 12 | 12 |
| Mean % water absorption | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Applications | Tableware & technical ceramics | Porcelaintiles | General ceramics |
The ball clay contains around 30% A12O3 (33-35% at Novoalexyevsky), 0.8-0.9% Fe2O3, has a high degree of plasticity, and is a remarkably strong clay with a modulus of rupture of 12-14MN/m2 (120-140kgf/cm2). Other key features include its excellent white firing properties and the absence of volatile impurities which make it ideal for fast firing applications (see table for details of properties and uses).
After extraction at South October, the ball clay is transferred by 14 tonne capacity Kraz trucks to the railhead and stockpile facilities at MertsaJavo, about 16km from the mine site. At the other sites, Donbas Clays shares a rail siding with neighbouring clay producer Vesko JSC and also transports to Mertsalavo.
At Mertsalavo, Donbas Clays has an analytical facility and is finalising plans to construct a covered storage facility. At present, the different grades of clay are stockpiled in the open, blended where required, and loaded by front end loader into 67-tonne wagons.
The ball clay is then railed either west to the port at Zaporozhye on the Dnipro River (where vessel size is limited to 3,000 dwt , or south to the Black Sea port of Mariupol. In mid-1998, some 20 wagons a day were leaving Mertsalavo.
Much of the production from Donbas Clays is aimed at the Italian tile market through the group's wholly owned agent and distributor, WBB Italia Sri in Maranello. On arrival from Ukraine, further processing is carried out at Italy's west coast ports of Ravenna and Venice. The clay grades have been successfully introduced into the rapidly growing gres porcellanato sector of the tile industry.
Meanwhile, WBB has now started exporting Donbas ball clays so Spain, where the company has warehousing facilities and markets are being developed in Turkey, the Middle East and North Africa. Some material also travels to markets in India and Thailand, where it is blended with ball clay from WBB's Kalimantan venture in Indonesia (PT Clays & Minerals Indonesia - WBB Clayindo).
Dnipro Kaolin - the Engelhard connection
In July 1996, Engelhard Corp. of the USA formed with Prosyanoe Mining & Enrichment Combine called Dnipro Kaolin in the Dnipropetrovska region in south-east Ukraine.
Prosyanoe is reported to have high quality kaolin deposits and manufacturing facilities and the strategy is behind the move is to position Engelhard with a base to exploit further kaolin growth in the eastern European market.
Up to now, Engelhard has been supplying paper pigments to Europe from its mid-Georgia operations in the USA. Sales from Dnірrо Kaolin will be incremental to contracts handled out of Georgia.
Engelhard's first job was to upgrade the existing manufacturing facilities in order to produce hydrous grades of kaolin-based pigments that would meet international paper standards. The upgraded plant was expected to have a production capacity of 100,000 s.tpa and a modified existing calciner. Initial output of pigment grades was to be aimed at the paper and paperboard industries with pigments and additives for other industries to be added later.
Ceramics market - facing up to change.
Ukraine can lay claim to host a significant chunk of the CIS's ceramics sector: two-thirds of tableware producers, the only producer of extra large high voltage insulation, major tile producers, and the two largest glass and porcelain insulator works.
The ceramics industry of Ukraine is concentrated in two areas, largely based on the high quality and extensive kaolin and other ceramic clays deposited in these two areas: in the south-east, the Donbas and Sumy areas; and to the west of Kiev, in central Ukraine, in the vicinity of Zhytomir and Khmelnitsk.
The Donbas area in particular, in the Donetska region, is extremely rich in ceramic clays, and with intensive industrial development at the end of the 19th century became the foremost ceramic region of Ukraine. However, recent years have witnessed a dramatic decline in production levels and the fortunes of Ukraine's ceramics industry. In mid-July, plant capacity utilisation was reported as low as 10%, with existing equipment too obsolete for customers in eastern Europe and Germany. Although there is an existing domestic and Russian market, these customers have placed orders and yet cannot pay for the products - grim times indeed.
The years 1987 to 1992 were the good times for the ceramics sector in Ukraine, a sector built and managed on the principles of Soviet industrial strategies - large production levels and seemingly unlimited expenses. Pre-1993, gas prices were <$30 per 1,000m3, and wages were around $100-$150 per month. Raw materials supplied by nationalised resources appeared unlimited and were low cost. Significantly, customers throughout the former USSR purchased domestically produced goods only, no foreign imports were encouraged.
Under such a climate, during 1987-92, Druzkkovka Porcelain Co. sold around 26.4m. units of tableware; Slavyansk Ceramic Co. (employing 4,500 workers) sold 8.46m.m2 of tiles and 352,000 units of sanitaryware; Slavyansk High Voltage Insulators (2,000 employees) sold >13,000 tonnes of insulators; and Farko Porcelain Co. sold up to 60,000 units of tableware per annum.
Gas consumption at the time is illustrated by Slavyansk High Voltage consuming 6m.m3 to produce 13,000 tpa products, and Farko consuming 120,000m3 to produce 5,000 units per month.
However, the year 1993, two years following independence, wrought changes that were to have severe consequences on the industry. Quite simply, costs of raw materials and energy shot up (and are continuing to rise), while foreign imports flooded the market and if that was not enough to contend with, a repressive tax regime slashed any profits domestic producers had managed to eke out under these new pressures.
The upshot was a sharp drop in production all round in 1997, with producers such as Druzhkovka Porcelain, Slavyansk Ceramic, and Slavyansk High Voltage decreasing production by some 90%, and Farko by around 75%. This situation has persisted into 1998, although the feeling is now one of having weathered the storm (if indeed one has survived!), and an urgent need to adapt to the new environment and implement some new measures.
Primary problems to be addressed include outdated manufacturing equipment, low quality of products, weak management, learning to have a competitive edge, and better use and selection of raw materials and energy.
Central to helping solve some of these problems is the need to attract foreign investment, establish foreign joint ventures (in both raw materials and manufacturing), and the purchase and installation of modern ceramic manufacturing equipment. However, such activities appear to be very slow in getting off the ground.