Rasksulava ja tulekindla savi kaevandamine ning tootmine Eestis 1923–1941

Abstract

In the aftermath of the War of Independence (1918–1920), Estonia, a small country exhausted by war, had to achieve economic independence in addition to political independence. Industries focused on the more extensive useof local natural and mineral resources and restrictions on imported goods, and the production of building materials became increasingly based on local natural and mineral resources. The industries based on local raw materials, such as the cement, brick, gypsum, and lime industries, were considered prospective. The production of building bricks increased significantly, while there was a lack of the refractory clay and chamotte stones needed to build fireplaces, materials that had to be imported. 

As early as the end of the 1920s, a study was undertaken in Estonia of the refractory clays, which resulted in the discovery of the refractory clay of the Devonian Period in Petseri (Petchory) County in southern Estonia and in neighbouring Võru County (Joosu). In the latter, the quarrying of the refractory clay had already been started in 1923 by Peeter Matz, who also briefly owned a clay quarry in Tallinn. Between 1927 and 1936, concessions for the extraction of refractory clay in Petseri County were granted to several entrepreneurs. In the village of Lädinä, Karl Heinrich Veinberg started to quarry clay and process it in Irboska (Izborsk); Kurt Fersen quarried clay in the village of Väiko-Puravitsa and Dane Johan Clausen in the village of Küllätüvä-Kasakova. The latter also had a factory there called Estošamott. Aleksander Simon and Johannes Sester had a joint clay pit in the village of Kolovina, and Artur Tahv had a pit and also owned clay concerns in Tallinn.

Although in the terminology and in the press of the time the clay quarried in Petseri County was treated as fireproof, it was predominantly still refrac tory clay that needed enrichment, from which fireproof clay and chamotte stones could be produced after processing. The production of refractory clay in Võru and Petseri counties reached a total of nearly 8,130 tons between 1925 and 1941 (see Appx. 1). In the summer of 1940, the Republic of Estonia lost its independence, and soon after all mines and industrial plants were nationalised.  Although refractory clay was still quarried in the previously established pits in the first year of Soviet rule (1940–1941), production decreased significantly. In January 1945, Petseri County was abolished: a small part remained in the territory of the Estonian SSR, whereas the major ity was incorporated into the Petseri District of Pskov Oblast, Russia.

During the Soviet period clay from Kolovina and Väiko-Puravitsa started to be used in a ceramic plant near Petseri, Russia. In the Estonian SSR, clay from Joosu was used in Võru for the production of bricks and in Tallinn for the production of ceramic construction tiles, while stocks of refractory clay in the village of Küllätüvä were left in disuse. Today, refractory clay is considered a building mineral resource in Estonia, although it is no longer quarried.

Keywords: mineral resources, mining, refractory clay, building materials, industry, Petseri County, Võru County