Institute of Geology of Karelian Research Centre of RAS (Petrozavodsk, Russia):

Bubnova T. P., Researcher, e-mail: bubnova@krc.karelia.ru

Skamnitskaya L. S., Senior Researcher

Traditionally, garnet is considered as an ornamental stone and abrasive. Opencast mines of garnet amhpibolites are exploited for facing stone production. Amphibolites` content in garnets is good to be rated as an industrial type of rock. But it is necessary to make a preliminary enrichment. There is completed a enrichment research of garnet amhpibolites of Levin Bor, Nigrozero, Engozero and Visota-181 (Louhi district of the Karelian Republic). This will expand the field of the garnet amphibolites` utilization.

Researches have confirmed the possibility of application of garnet for creation of effective two-layer charges for water-purifying filters. Size of the bottom layer grains is 0,5-1,5 mm, height is 0,7-0,8 m. In connection with this, there can be used the top layer haydite, keramzit and antracite with the size of 0,8-2,0 mm and thickness of 0,5 m. Productivity of such filter will be not less than 2 times higher than productivity of sandy filter. There is a certain demand in mineral filtering materials for replacement of loading of existing treatment facilities and facilities, which are being under construction. So, application of these mineral filtering materials with various physical and chemical properties has good market prospects.