Ceramic clays from the western part of the Tamnava Tertiary Basin, Serbia: deposits and clay types

Slobodan Radosavljević; Jovica Stojanović; Ana Radosavljević-Mihajlović; Nikola Vuković; Srđan Matijašević; Mirjana Stojanović; Vladan Kašić

doi:10.2298/GABP1475075R

Slobodan Radosavljević Institute for Technology of Nuclear and Other Mineral Raw Materials, Applied Mineralogy Unit, Belgrade
Jovica Stojanović Institute for Technology of Nuclear and Other Mineral Raw Materials, Applied Mineralogy Unit, Belgrade
Ana Radosavljević-Mihajlović Institute of Nuclear Sciences “Vinča”, Laboratory for Materials, Belgrade
Nikola Vuković Faculty of Mining and Geology, Department for Mineralogy, Laboratory for Scanning Electron Microscopy, Belgrade
Srđan Matijašević Institute for Technology of Nuclear and Other Mineral Raw Materials, Applied Mineralogy Unit, Belgrade
Mirjana Stojanović Institute for Technology of Nuclear and Other Mineral Raw Materials, Applied Mineralogy Unit, Belgrade
Vladan Kašić Institute for Technology of Nuclear and Other Mineral Raw Materials, Applied Mineralogy Unit, Belgrade

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2298/GABP1475075R

Keywords: ceramic clays, deposits and clay types, Tamnava Basin, western Serbia

Abstract

Based on geological, mineralogical, physical, chemical and technological investigations in the Tamnava Tertiary Basin near Šabac town (western Serbia), deposits of ceramic clays were studied. These ceramic clays are composed of kaolin-illite with a variable content of quartz, feldspars, mica, iron oxides and hydroxides, and organic matter. Four main types of commercial clays were identified: i) red-yellow sandy-gravely (brick clays); ii) grey-white poor sandy (ceramic clays); iii) dark-carbonaceous (ceramic clays); and iv) lamellar (“interspersed”) fatty, poor sandy (highly aluminous and ferrous clays). Ceramic clays are defined as medium to high plastic with different ranges of sintering temperatures, which makes them suitable for the production of various kinds of materials in the ceramic industry.