GENESIS OF DAWSONITE MINERALIZATION: THERMODYNAMIC ANALYSIS AND ALTERNATIVES

Abstract

Although the mineral dawsonite NaAlCO3(OH)2 is not well known to geologists, dawsonite mineralization is quite widely known and was documented, for example, in the Carpathians, Kuznetsk Basin, Donets Basin, Northern Caucasus, Caspian Sea area, Khibina, and Colorado. The Lower Carboniferous deposits of the Pripyat’ foredeep in Belarus (sandy–clayey rocks with carbonate beds of the Visean stage filling the El’sk depression) host the Zaozerskoe dawsonite deposit [1]. The sandstones, siltstones, and mudstones of the coal-bearing Balakhonskaya Group (Lower Permian–Upper Carboniferous) contain 2- to 35-m-thick tabular and lens-shaped bodies with average dawsonite contents of 10–15%.