REPORT ON INVESTIGATION AND UPGRADING OF LIMESTONE SUITABLE FOR CEMENT INDUSTRY IN AL-REHAIMA AREA AL-NAJAF

Abstract

This work was carried out in southwest of the Najaf sea Al- rehaima area, which is located about 60 Km southwest of the Al-Najaf city. The target of this study is to find out the suitability of the carbonate rocks in the investigated area for cement industry, and to upgrade the reserve to invstmentment class. In behalf of Iraq mass company for cement industry. The field work included drilling of 16 boreholes, a net comprise with boreholes drilled in the previous stage 250 m X 250 m, the total drilling depth was 320 m. SiO2 Fe2O3 Al2O3 CaO MgO SO3 L.O.I Na2O K2O Cl- 3.73 0.32 0.63 51.97 0.72 0.24 41.67 0.07 0.06 0.07 Three hundred samples were collected and subjected to chemical analysis, the average percentages of the main chemical components in the industrial bed are:

Fifteen samples were tested for bulk density and compressive strength. The average of bulk density is 2.53 gm/cm3 ranges between (1.909 - 2.656) gm/cm3, uniaxial compressive strength ranges from (7.052 – 54.658) MN/m2 with an average of about 32.74 MN/m2

The industrial bed, within the investigated area belongs to the lower part of the Euphrates Formation and the middle part of the Dammam Formation. The average thickness of the industrial bed is 18.76 m, occurs below overburden bed., which is consist from recent sediments in addition to dolomite, ranges in thickness from (0.2 – 1.6) m, the volume of the overburden is 870000 m3. The reserve of limestone, which is suitable for cement industry, is about 48431230 tons on category B.