Geologic And Economic Evaluation Of Raw Materials For The Cement And Lime Manufacturers

My presentation is from the viewpoint of the industrial mineral geologist, which is a relatively rare breed. Very few geologists become involved with industrial minerals for two reasons, I think: (1) Much of the industry utilizing non-metallic minerals has developed without the use of geologists in the begin¬ning and many of the management people, who generally derive from the processing plant supervision, tend to take raw materials for granted; and (2) non-metallic minerals are a very insignificant part of the curriculum of virtually all colleges granting a geology degree. One learns about the geology of industrial minerals by working with it. This "on-the-job-training" is probably best because it brings the geologist into close quarters with the production people and the production process. And the industrial minerals field has a distinctiveness when compared with the petroleum or metal mining field in that each deposit can yield a material differing in some aspect from that in any other or within the same deposit. The petroleum from a well in a given field will be similar to that from any other well, but a limestone on one side of a hill can differ signifi¬cantly in elemental composition, calcinability, soundness, specific gravity, or some other factor from the same ledge on the other side of the hill. This characteristic of almost certain variability creates problems sooner or later and provides for much of the employment of industrial mineral geologists. My job seen from the viewpoint of management is "Find us some rock we can extract and process at a profit." The industrial non-metallic geologist has much the same problems and approach as a detective. I do not mean the TV variety with the big mouths and the unfailing knack of spotting the wanted criminal immediately in a city of ten million people. Any real detective will tell you it takes leg-work, knowhow, and persistence to make a case. The same is true for the geologist who finds rock which can be quarried at a profit. I am responsible for finding raw materials for a company which manufactures portland cement and