| الملخص | This study was carried out in an area located about 25 Km southeast of Al-Qaim city and about 5 Km southeast of Al-Qaim cement plant, which is located within Al-Anbar Governorate. The target of this study is to find out the suitability of the exposed carbonate rocks, within the investigated area, for cement industry.
The field work included drilling of 36 boreholes and describing of 16 geological sections in five locations which are: the Flat Area Isolated hills (H1, H2, H3 and H4). The drilling grid ranged from (1× 1) Km, (1× 0.5) Km, (500× 250) m and (250×250) m. The boreholes depth ranges from (5.0 – 8.0) m, in the Flat Area, with an average of 7.0 m and 15 m for the Isolated hills, the total drilling meters is 240 m.
Three hundred rock samples were collected and subjected to chemical analysis, the average percentages of the analyzed oxides and components are:
Cl- Na2O K2O L.O.I SO3 MgO CaO Al2O3 Fe2O SiO2 Location
0.08 0.048 0.09 42.64 0.38 0.74 54.22 0.28 0.22 1.38 Flat Area
0.12 0.05 0.32 40.20 0.20 0.86 49.51 0.1 0.52 7.08 H1
0.09 0.05 0.33 40.40 0.33 1.28 49.14 0.92 0.52 6.39 H2
0.09 0.06 0.29 40.07 0.19 0.91 49.56 0.90 0.49 6.39 H3
0.12 0.05 0.23 40.45 0.18 0.79 50.24 0.59 0.33 6.76 H4
Forty samples were physically tested for Bulk Density and Compressive Strength. The average of bulk density was 2.243 g/cm3, the values of the uniaxial compressive strength range from (4.50 – 107.0) MN/m2, with an average of ( 31.54 ) MN/ m2.
The industrial bed within the investigated area belongs partly to Zahra Formation and the other parts to the upper part of Euphrates Formation. The average thickness of the industrial bed within the Flat Area is 2.74 m and within the Isolated hills (H1, H2, H3 and H4) are (12.55, 9.93, 13.73 and 12.50) m, respectively, it is composed of medium tough limestone. The industrial bed occurs below the overburden bed, which is composed of dolomite in addition to recent sediments and range in thickness from (0.0 – 3.0) m, with an average of (0.5) m.
The estimated reserve of limestones suitable for cement industry is about. 62284886 tons, as being estimated within C2, C1, and B categories. The estimated reserves of the Flat Area is 4302074 tons, on category B and of H1 and H3 are 4322209, 9928386 tons, respectively on category C1 and of H2 and H4 are 6635212 , 37097005 tons, respectively on category C2. | |
