Potentiality of some lateritic clayey material from Meiganga as raw material in fired bricks making

Abstract

The Meiganga lateritic clays and termite mounds were characterized for their use as construction materials. The six collected samples were subjected to mineralogical, geochemical, and physico-mechanical tests. Quartz, kaolinite, hematite, goethite, gibbsite, muscovite, and anatase are the main minerals in raw materials, while after firing at 1050 °C, mullite is formed. The SiO₂/Al₂O₃ ratio greater than 1 indicates a high SiO₂ content, which is consistent with the presence of quartz as an associate mineral to kaolinite. Considering linear shrinkage globally less than 5 % and flexural and compressive strengths greater than 2 and 7 MPa, respectively, four clay materials are suitable to produce bricks at all the studied temperatures, whereas two others only after firing at 1050 °C. As the studied characteristics do not depend on the nature of the material, exploring termite mound material in the Meiganga area would provide additional good-quality material to make up for any deficit that might arise.