Geochemical and Mineralogical Assessment of Clays collected from Okada Quarry Site Okada Town, Edo State, Nigeria for Medical Purposes

Abstract

The objective of this paper was to assess the geochemical and mineralogical composition of clay collected from Okada quarry site at Okada town, Ovia North East Local Government Area, Edo State, Nigeria using X-Ray Diffractometry (XRD) and X-Ray Florescence (XRF) techniques. The geochemical analysis revealed a significant presence of SiO₂ (45.87wt.%), Fe₂O₃ (17.41wt.%), Al₂O₃ (12.68wt.%) and CaO (16.38wt.%). The predominant clay minerals identified are Montmorillonite (25.48%) and Kaolinite (17.00%), while Quartz (21.80%) is the dominant non-clay mineral. The Al₂O₃/TiO₂ ratios show that the clays are from a mafic igneous origin with values ranging from 5.07 to 6.75 and the SiO₂/Al₂O₃ ratios show most of the clays are montmorillonitic with values ranging from 2.97 to 4.67, except for OK5 which is Kaolinitic with a value of 2.97. The results from this study show that the clays have high medicinal value that are beneficial to humans and suggests potential suitability for various medical applications due to the presence of Montmorillonite in high amount, which has adsorbent and detoxifying properties and could consequently adsorb positively charged toxins .