Research-and-production enterprise "Carbon-Shungite" (Petrozavodsk, Russia):

Kalinin Yu. K., Chief Executive Officer, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, e-mail: shungitnpk@onego.ru

Shungite is named after Karelian village Shunga on the shore of Onega Lake, where the first deposits of this mineral were discovered.

In 1960s, scientists of the Karelian Institute of Geology of Russian Academy of Sciences began to study the composition, physical and chemical properties of shungite rock as well as spheres of its practical application. As a result of this work, the unique properties of this mineral were identified and attributed to two factors: the structure of carbon, which was imbedded in shungite, and the structure of rock itself.

Today, the shungite carbon is defined as radioamorphous, fulleren-like and non-graphitizing. Its main specific feature is a tendency to form the spherical structures and the presence of elementary structural unit – globule with onion structure (a sphere inside a sphere) of 10-30nm in size.

Today, a one shungite deposit – Zazhoginskoye deposit – is being exploited. It is situated in Medvezhyegorsk region in Karelian Republic (5 km from the Tolvuya village) and is represented by two vulcanic bodies: Zazhoginskoye (with reserves of 5 mln. tones) and Maksovskoye (with reserves of 30 mln. tones). The deposit is excavated in open pit.

Shungites of Zazhoginskoye deposit contain the following minerals: 30% of carbon, 45% of quartz, 22 % of composite silicates (mica and chlorites), 3% of sulphides. The average chemical composition is: 57.2 % of SiO₂; 0.2 % of TiO₂; 4 % of Al₂O₃; 2.5 % of FeO; 1.2% of MgO; 0.3 % of CaO; 0.2 % of Na₂O; 1.5 % of K₂O; 1.2 % of S; 30 % of C; 1.7 % of H₂O cryst. Alumina module M_Al=Al₂O₃/C is not more than 0.14, the sum of C and SiO₂ is about 83-87%.

Due to the unique properties, shungite found the wide application in metallurgy (production of foundry cast iron and ferroalloys), chemistry (production of composite materials), in the solution of many questions of ecology (preparation of quality drinking water, cleaning of drains of many organic and inorganic substances, protection of the person against an adverse effect of electromagnetic radiations of high and ultrahigh frequencies, cleaning of soils of toxic organic substances in particular oil products). Shungite is one of the best enterosorbents. It provides the leaving of toxins from an organism of animals and birds and improves the quality of production. Shungite infusions, shungite pastes and rooms for a relaxation from shungite materials found an application in improving practice.

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