The occurrence and economic potential of clean sand deposits of the Niger Delta

Abstract

Large deposits of good quality glass sands of the Quaternary age occur in ancient and modern river channels of the Niger Delta and constitute a major proportion of the lithologic sequence in the low-lying, swampy coastal region.

Texturally, the sands are well graded coarse to fine sand with negligible amounts (less than 5%) of gravel and fine (< 0.06 mm fractions. The granulometric, chemical and mineralogical analyses of the sands show that they are suitable for the manufacture of glass bottles and can also be used for the production of sheet glass after simple and inexpensive benefication processes. The estimated reverves are immense and can serve several large-scale glass manufacturing industries for many decades.