MAIN ACTIVITIES OF THE INDUSTRY DURING THE PERIOD OF ITS EXISTENCE
AND CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS
The State Enterprise Research Institute of Galurgy (Galurgy Research Institute) was established in 1959. After Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, the Kalush branch of the former Research Institute of Galurgy was reorganized into the State Research Institute of Galurgy, which later changed its name to the State Enterprise Research Institute of Galurgy.
The main activities of the institute are research and development projects and technical assistance to enterprises in the areas of prospecting, exploration and exploitation of salt and brine deposits and efficient processing of extracted raw materials to produce various types of industrial products.
Mining and processing of potash ores, waste utilization and storage
Primary ore processing products (natural cainite, composite potassium-magnesium fertilizer with a high potassium content);
Products from the galvanizing processing of chloride-sulfate polymineral ores (potassium magnesia, potassium sulfate, other types of compound fertilizers);
By-products of potash ore processing (technical evaporation salt, bath salt, bischofite, mirabilite, potassium magnesium fertilizer, magnesium chloride solution as a raw material for producing magnesium metal and magnesium oxide for refractories and rubber industry).
The decision to establish a specialized research institution in Kalush was not accidental, but was primarily due to the existence of the oldest enterprise in the country that extracted polymineral raw materials for potash fertilizer production. The research institution was located directly on the territory of a long-standing potash enterprise, so there were unique prerequisites for accumulating and summarizing valuable production experience.
Almost all the problems that arose during the search for salt deposits were solved:
– prospecting for salt deposits, studying the internal structure of these deposits and their material composition;
– selection of rational methods of salt extraction, development and improvement of mining equipment and systems for organizing exploitation of mineral deposits
– development of technologies for efficient processing of extracted salt raw materials; – modeling of technological processes and development of special equipment for processing raw materials;
– monitoring of changes in the environment in the area of mining and technological facilities in order to detect threatening trends in a timely manner.
The following activities are currently being carried out at a high scientific and technical level:
– Studying and summarizing materials on geology, hydrogeology, exploration and prospecting of polymineral potassium salts and rock salt deposits;
– Mining and geological substantiation of master plans for the development of settlements and construction of individual buildings and facilities in the territory where the mine workings are located;
– Development and implementation of technological schemes for the preparation and extraction of ores with the backfilling of mined cavities, mechanization of mining operations in the underground and open-pit exploitation of potash and other salt deposits;
– Study and forecasting of rock and ground surface displacements during the development of potash deposits, the need to abandon mines to protect buildings and structures located above the mine cavities;
– Development and implementation of technological processes for the integrated processing of polymineral potash ores (crushing, dissolution, crystallization, filtering, evaporation, drying);
– Physicochemical studies of processes and products of polymineral potash ore processing and their analytical support;
– Development of new types of chlorine-free potassium-magnesium environmentally friendly fertilizers with a high nutrient content;
– Development of new and improvement of existing technological processes for regeneration of salts from solutions of polymineral ore processing to produce sodium chloride, cainite, carnallite, bischofite;
– Development of technological processes for the production of
-magnesium oxide from potash chloromagnesium solutions
-compound mineral fertilizers;
Study of boron distribution in the process of processing polymineral ores by the galvanic method and its separation to produce boron-magnesium fertilizers;
– Development of a technology for purification of magnesium chloride solutions from boron for electrolytic magnesium production;
– Development of a technology for potassium chloride from spent magnesium electrolyte;
– Technology for processing sylvite-carnallite raw materials;
– Technology for the production of magnesium hydroxide and oxide from magnesium chloride solutions;
– Technology for removing sulfate ions from solutions after evaporation of table salt;
– Study of the degree of land and water pollution in the areas of industrial and agricultural production and enterprises that extract minerals by open-pit and underground methods.
