• 2019-11-10
• Jayeola A.O
• Volume 1, Issue 1

Abstract

Physico-chemical and mineralogical analysis of ceramic clay deposits was carried out in Erusu Akoko with the aim of determining the dominant type of clay mineral in the study area as well as assessing the quality of this abundant geologic earth material and its suitability as raw material for the ceramic industry. Clay is a mineral with wide technological applications in industry as it is used in the production of fibre glass, paper, rubber, tiles, ceramics, cements, latex, paint, printing inks, catalyst for petroleum refining, medicines, water treatment, cosmetics and others. Field and laboratory study methods were adopted in this study as clay materials were pre-treated and subjected to analysis involving Multi - Collector High Resolution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (MC-ICPMS) for the major, trace and rare earth elements. From the result, Erusu clay exhibited decompositional water loss of 13.23% and 13.14% in air and Argon respectively at 100°C. The X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), California Bearing Ratio (CBR) and Infrared Spectroscopy (IR) analyses confirmed the presence of Quartz. Samples were collected to obtain baseline geochemical information about the area. From the analysed clay deposits in Erusu Akoko, it is observed that the major clay deposit is the quartz rich which accounts for 19.6% of their bulk compositions. Other clay minerals in the study area include Rutile (14.75%), Haematite (11.47%), Kaolinite (13.1%), Illite (13.1%), Albite (8.19%), Bentonite (9.84%), Tiemanite (9.84%) and Montmorillonite (0.2%). Hence, the result suggests that the clay deposits in the study area are good raw materials for the ceramic industries.

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