Assoc. Prof. Peter Uhlík, PhD. - Katedra mineralógie, petrológie a ložiskovej geológie

Position:	associated professor
Room:	G-422
Phone:	+421 2 9014 9270
e-mail:	peter.uhlik@uniba.sk
Publications	list of publications

Section of Economic Geology

Scientific interests

Characterisation of industrial minerals – properties and use (bentonite, clays, diatomite, kaolin, magnesite, perlite, talc, zeolite and others)
Clay minerals as indicator of geological processes (e.g. clay minerals as product of hydrothermal alterations – one of tools at the ore prospecting; clay minerals in sediments and soils as paleoenvironment indicator; clay minerals as paleotermometer)
Bedrock and soil – a part of wine terroir
Analytical methods of research: X-ray quantitative diffraction analysis; particle size distribution by XRD and HRTEM; iIllite crystallinity and expandability of mixed-layer illite-smectite as a paleothermometer)

Pedagogical activities

My teaching activities are mainly focused on the field industrial minerals and clay minerals, partly on economy of raw materials and mineral policy.

Bachelor’s degree:

Raw Materials
Deposits of industrial minerals
Mineralogy and crystalochemistry of natural nanomaterials
Applied mineralogy and Petrology

Master’s degree

Industrial Minerals and Fossil Fuels of Slovakia and Neighbouring Areas
World Deposits
Field Course in Mineralogy, Economic and Environmental Geology
Economy of raw materials
Geomaterials
Special Research Methods of Industrial Minerals
Clays as indicator of geological processes
Research Funding and Project Management

Doctoral degree

Economic geology
Mineralogical, Geochemical and Other Exploration Methods in Economic Geology
Advanced Methods of Research in Economic Geology

The most significant publications

Uhlík P., Šucha V., Eberl D. D., Puškelová Ľ. & Čaplovičová M., 2000: Evolution of pyrophyllite particle sizes during dry grinding. Clay Minerals, 35, 423-432.
Uhlík P., Šucha V., Elsass F. & Čaplovičová M., 2000: HRTEM of mixed-layer clays dispersed in PVP-10: a new technique to distinguish detrital and authigenic illitic material.Clay Minerals, 35, 781-789.
Honty M., Uhlík P., Šucha V., Čaplovičová M., Franců J., Clauer N. and Biroň A., 2004: Smectite-to-illite alteration in salt-bearing bentonites (The East Slovak basin).Clays and Clay Minerals, 52, 5, 533-551.
Hooshiar, A ., Uhlík, P., Ivey, DG., Liu, Q ., Etsell, TH.,2012: Clay minerals in nonaqueous extraction of bitumen from Alberta oil sands Part 2. Characterization of clay minerals. FUEL PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY Volume: 96 Pages: 183-194.
Bolanz, RM, Wierzbicka-Wieczorek, M., Čaplovičová, M., Uhlik, P., Gottlicher, J., Steininger, R; Majzlan, J., 2013: Structural Incorporation of As5+ into Hematite. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY, Volume: 47, Issue: 16, 9140-9147.

The newest publications

Lexa, J., Varga, P., Uhlík, P., Koděra, P., Biroň, A., Rajnoha, M.. 2021: Perlite deposits of the Central Slovakia Volcanic Field (Western Carpathians): Geology and properties. Geologica Carpathica, 2021, 72(3), pp. 253–281
Pospíšilová, L., Uhlik, P., Menšík, L., Hlisnikovský, L., Eichmer, A., Horáková, E.(…); Vlček, V., 2020: Clay mineralogical composition and chemical properties of Haplic Luvisol developed on loess in the protected landscape area Litovelske Pomoravi. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE 72 (3), pp.1128-1142
Pálková Helena, Kureková Valéria, Madejová Jana, Netriová Zuzana, Uhlík, Peter, Varga Peter, Hronský Viktor, Lexa Jaroslav, 2020: Determination of water content in raw perlites combination of NIR spectroscopy and thermoanalytical methods. Spectrochimica Acta Part A: Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy, 240, 15 October 2020, 118517
Varga, P., Uhlík, P., Lexa, J., Šurka, J., Bizovská, V., Hudec P., Pálková, H., 2019: The influence of porosity on the release of water from perliteglass by thermal treatment. Monatshefte für Chemie, 150, 6, 1025-1040
Osacký, M., Binčík, T., Paľo, T., Uhlík, P., Madejová, J., Czímerová, A., 2019: Mineralogical and physico-chemical properties of bentonites from the Jastraba Formation (Kremnicke vrchy Mts., Western Carpathians). Geologica Carpathica, 70, 5, 433-445.
Andrezza de Almeida Azzia,, Peter Uhlík, Marek Osacký, Antenor Zanardo, Helena Palková, 2018: Changes in technological properties and microstructure of clayey raw materials from the Corumbataí Formation upon drying: Relevance to dry route tilemaking process. Applied Clay Science, 157, 92-101.
Martin Pentrák, Viktor Hronský, Helena Pálková, Peter Uhlík, Peter Komadel, Jana Madejová, 2018: Alteration of fine fraction of bentonite from Kopernica (Slovakia) under acid treatment: A combined XRD, FTIR, MAS NMR and AES study. Applied Clay Science, 163, 204-213.
Koděra, P., Kozák, J. Brčeková, J., Chovan, M., Lexa, J. Jánošík, M., Biroň, A., Uhlík, P., Bakoš, F.: 2018: Distribution and composition of gold in porphyry gold systems: example from the Biely Vrch deposit, Slovakia. Mineralium Deposita, 53, 8, 1193-1212.
Vlček, V., Pospíšilová, L., Uhlík, P., 2018: Mineralogy and chemical composition of cryosols and andosols in Antarctica. Air, Soil and Water Research, 13, 2, 61-73

Current Projects

VEGA 1/0313/20 – investigator of the project (2020-2023) principal investigator P. Koděra „Genesis of precious metal epithermal and porphyry mineralisations in the stratovolcanoes Štiavnica and Javorie“ Click for project annotation

The project deals with the conditions of origin and genesis of two most important types of precious metal mineralisation in Slovakia that have a real economic importance. Completion of their current level of knowledge in terms of genesis can significantly help in exploration and mining of these ores. The epithermal vein Au-Ag deposit Banská Hodruša at the Rozália mine is the only mined ore deposit in Slovakia. The completion of genesis of precious metal epithermal mineralisation in the broad vicinity of this mine is necessary for its future effective exploration. Porphyry gold mineralisation, including the Biely Vrch deposit, is an unusual type of deposit, where gold was introduced by salt melts. Completion of its genetic model has a potential to significantly improve the knowledge of these rare magmatic-hydrothermal systems even in a global aspect, because due to their rare appearance the knowledge is still just on a low level.

APVV-20-0175 – principal investigator of the project (2021-2025) „Bentonite: Slovak strategic raw material – Innovative assessment of bentonite quality and origin for its efficient use ” Click for project annotation

Bentonite is an important industrial raw material. Due to the high amount of clay minerals from the smectite group, bentonite has unique properties, e.g. high swelling capacity, plasticity, high specific surface area, cation exchange capacity and low hydraulic conductivity. Due to these properties bentonites have broad range of possible applications. As a consequence, worldwide bentonite production is constantly increasing. Slovak republic (SR) is one of the world’s leading bentonite producers and bentonites belong to the strategic raw materials in SR. In the last 10-15 years, several new bentonite deposits have been opened in SR, most of which have never been studied in detail. This may mean that the potential of Slovak bentonites is not fully utilized. One of the objectives of the project is therefore the comprehensive characterization of bentonites from new deposits. The mineral and chemical composition of bentonites, their physico-chemical, mechanical and rheological properties will be determined. The obtained results will help to better understand the geology and genesis of bentonite deposits which may lead to the discovery of other economic accumulations of bentonites. The main contribution of the project lies in the rational and efficient use of domestic raw materials which will lead to the long-term sustainability of bentonite exploitation in SR. The idea itself is not new, but the way on how we want to implement the proposed changes is highly innovative. The main application outputs of the project such as: passports for the optimal utilization of different qualitative types of bentonites, 3D model of bentonite quality and geological model of selected bentonite deposit, will contribute to achieve this ambitious goal. The multidisciplinary team of experts on domestic and world bentonites in cooperation with major bentonite producer in SR, REGOS, s.r.o. is guarantee of successful solution of the proposed project. The partners of the project are the Earth Science Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS), the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry SAS and the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava.

VEGA 1/0196/19 – investigator of the project (2019-2022, principal investigator M. Osacký) „Effect of mineralogy, chemistry and surface properties of technological types of perlites on quality of expanded perlites and reduction in accumulation of fine perlite by-product by its conversion into zeolites and their environmental application”. Click for project annotation

The project is focused on study of different technological types of perlites and fine perlite material, a by-product produced during perlite processing. The main goal is to better understand the effect of mineralogy, chemistry and surface properties of technological types of perlites on the quality of commercial products – expanded perlites and to minimize the accumulation of perlite by-product material and assess its possible environmental application. The outputs of the project may have a practical industrial application. The obtain results can be used to enhance the pre-treatment of perlite technological types and upgrade the current perlite expansion process. Implementation of these changes, may result in production of expanded perlites of higher quality at lower production costs, compared to the current commercial expansion technology. The conversion of perlite by-product into zeolites will minimize accumulation of by-product material and utilization of zeolites will have positive environmental effect.

APVV-20-0358 – investigator of the project (2021-2025,principal investigator of the project P. Bitušík, Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica Faculty of Natural Sciences) „ Reading in natural archives: thousands of years of environmental history and climate change recorded in alpine lakes of the Ukrainian Carpathians” Click for project annotation

Alpine lakes situated in harsh climate conditions above the tree line react very sensitively to natural and humaninduced stressors. Water chemistry and biota change significantly in response to even minor impacts and provide us an immediate information on the changing environment. Moreover, sediments of alpine lakes archive the records of environmental changes since the end of the Pleistocene making these ecosystems particularly suitable for palaeolimnological studies. We intend to use physical, chemical, and biological information preserved in sediments of the alpine lakes in the Ukrainian Carpathians and combine it with recent biological data on vegetation and aquatic biota. The proposed project aims to provide a detailed reconstruction of climate and environmental changes during the Holocene in this mountain region. Specifically, the research will be focusing on the following topics:

1. Reconstruction of the mean July air temperature trends over the Holocene

2. Identification of the timing and range of long-term human-induced effects on the lakes and alpine landscape

3. Defining the timing and intensity of stressors affecting the lakes during last century (acidification, eutrophication).

The project partner, besides Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica Faculty of Natural Sciences and Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Natural Sciences, are also Technical University in Zvolen – Faculty of Ecology and Environmental Sciences and Slovak Academy of Sciences, Earth Science Institute. Project team and topic builds on the previous project “Deglaciation and postglacial climatic evolution recorded in the lake deposits of the High Tatra Mountains” (APVV-15-0292) na projekt v zátvorka daj prosím Ťa odkaz na http://www.geo.sav.sk/en/depovyt-apvv-15-0292/