DAWSONITE-BAUXITIC ROCKS OF BELARUS
Dawsonite was discovered for the first time in Canada in 1971, but some large commercial deposits of this one and some other sodium minerals - as early as in 1937 (Green-River formation). In Belarus dawsonite was first discovered within the Ostashkovichi area (borehole 11K) in 1971. Shortly thereafter, the Zaozerie deposits of dawsonite-bauxitic ore which was the first one in Belarus and in the former USSR territory, as well as several dawsonite and bauxite mineral occurrences were struck and extensively studied. The dawsonite and bauxitic ore resources are 181.7 mln. tons with a bauxite content of 21 % (Chuiko, 2002). The Zaozerie deposits and some dawsonite and bauxite occurrences are confined to the weathering crust of the Bobrik horizon of the Carboniferous. In the opinion of several investigators, a dawsonite occurrence (in association with analcime) could probably be discovered in rocks of the Vendian volcanogenic formation of Belarus. Bauxitic rocks are known in the territory of Belarus from Carboniferous crusts of weathering of the Pripyat Trough, on the northern slope of the Ukrainian Shield, in the Belarussian Anteclise (Lida, Shchuchin, Slonim, Stolbtsi and other regions), at the Mikashevichi-Zhitkovichi uplift. The most favourable conditions for their accumulation were created in Carboniferous and Meso-Cenozoic time. The use of geotechnological methods when mining deposits and mineral occurrences (mineral salts, dawsonite-bauxitic ore, fuel shales, copper from Vendian volcanogenic rocks and some other minerals) is a problem which should be elaborated in Belarus.