• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.47 no.5
• /
• pp.541-549
• /
• 2014

The annual borate production in Turkey is about 3 million tons, which occupies approximately 61 percent of total annual world production. Turkey has five boron deposits including Bigadic, Emet, Kestelek, Kirka, and Sultancayir. At present, Bigadic, Emet, and Kirka deposits are operating. Kirka boron deposit is distributed within volcanoclatic sedimentary group as mainly layered, rarely brecciated and massive types. Major borate is borax associated with colemanite and ulexite. They show a horizontal symmetrical zonation from Na borate (borax) in the center of deposit to Na-Ca borate (ulexite) and Ca-borate (colemanite) in margin. Bigadic boron deposit is known as the largest colemanite deposit in the world. This deposit occurs as two borate bearing horizons in Miocene volcanoclastic sedimentary group. Thickness ranges from several meters to 100 meter with a length of several hundreds meters. Borate ore bodies which are mainly composed of colemanite and ulexite are alternated with claystone, mudstone, tuff and layered limestone as lenticular shape. Sultancayir boron deposit is mainly distributed within gray limestone. Main borate minerals of this deposit are pandermite and ulexite. Pandermite and ulexite occur as colloform aggregate and small veinlet, respectively. Turkish boron deposits are evaporite deposit which were formed in Miocene playa-lake environment. Boron was supplied to the deposits by the volcanic and hydrothermal activities.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.421-434
• /
• 2022

In the present study, reference samples were prepared using ore preparation facility tailings taken from the copper mine (Kure, Kastamonu), Portland cement (PC) in certain proportions (3 wt%, 5 wt%, 7 wt%, 9wt% and 11 wt%), and water. Then natural zeolite taken from the Bigadic Region was mixed in certain proportions (10 wt%, 20 wt%, 30 wt% and 40 wt%) for each cement ratio, instead of the PC, to prepare zeolite-substituted CPB samples. Thus, the effect of using Zeolite instead of PC on CPB's strength was investigated. The obtained CPB samples were kept in the curing cabinet at a temperature of 25℃ and at least 80% humidity, and they were subjected to the Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS) test at the end of the curing periods of 3, 7, 14, 28, 56, and 90 days. Except for the 3 wt% cement ratio, zeolite substitution was observed to increase the compressive strength in all mixtures. Also, the liquefaction risk limit for paste backfill was achieved for all mixtures, and the desired strength limit value (0.7 MPa) was achieved for all mixtures with 28 days of curing time and 7 wt%, 9 wt%, 11 wt% cement ratios and 5% cement - 10% zeolite substituted mixture. Moreover, the limit value (4 MPa) required for use as roof support was obtained only for mixtures with 11% cement - 10% and 20% zeolite content. Generally, zeolite substitution seems to be more effective in early strength (up to 28th day). It has been determined that the long-term strength losses of zeolite-substituted paste backfill mixtures were caused by the reaction of sulfate and hydration products to form secondary gypsum, ettringite, and iron sulfate.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.103-111
• /
• 2016

Li-bearing hectorite, one member of trioctahedral smectite, occurred large in quantity and confirmed in Turkey western sedimentary boron deposit. Li-bearing hectorite attracted a particular attention because it is one of potential lithium resources. There have been no consensus for the change of hectorite due to heat and acid treatment although it is very important to use in industrial application. In this study, we examined changes of hectorite after heat and acid treatment as well as acid treatement followed by heating. We used clay ores collected in Bigadic deposit, which contained the highest $Li_2O$ content in Turkey boron deposits. Hectorite showed a strong endothermic reaction at $84^{\circ}C$ due to dehydration of absorbed water and interlayer water and a weak endothermic reaction above $600^{\circ}C$ owing to dehydration of crystallization water. The first endothermic reaction accompanied a large weight loss about 6%. Hectorite decomposed into enstatite, cristobalite and amorphous Fe material at $762^{\circ}C$ with exothermic reaction. When hectorite reacted with 3 kinds of 0.1 M acid during 1 hours, it had a good dissolution efficiency with $H_2SO_4{\geq}HCl$ > $HNO_3$ in order.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.167-177
• /
• 2016

Smectitic clays, occurring in Kırka and Bigadiç boron evaporite deposits formed in Miocene playa lake environment in Turkey, contain $LiO_2$ 0.02-0.21% and 0.16-0.30%, respectively, and boron tailings are also reported to contain $LiO_2$ 0.04-0.26%. Lithium in smectitic clays was identified to be retained in hectorite. The XRD results revealed that hectorite was contained in 25.7% and 79.7% of Kırka and Bigadiç deposit samples respectively. In this study, we selected a clay sample from each deposit with lithium content of ~0.18% and estimated extractable lithium by acid treatment and roasting method commercially applicable to lithium resources, such as lepidolite and hectorite. When 1 g of crushed clay (particle size less than $74{\mu}m$) was reacted with 200 mL of 0.25 M HCl solution, the amount of lithium dissolved increased with the increase of reaction time up to 10 hours for both samples. Reaction time longer than 10 hours did not significantly increased the amount of lithium dissolved. After 10 hours of reaction, 89% of lithium in the clay sample from the Kırka deposit was dissolved, while 71% of lithium was dissolved from the Bigadiç deposit tailing sample. 87% of lithium in the clay sample from the Kırka deposit was extracted and 82% of lithium was extracted from the Bigadiç deposit tailing sample by the roasting extraction method, where clays were leached after a thermal treatment at $1,100^{\circ}C$ for 2 hours with $CaCO_3$ and $CaSO_4$.