QUANTIFYING PYRITE AND MICA CONTENTS WITHIN CONCRETE AGGREGATES USING PETROGRAPHY AND WHOLE-ROCK GEOCHEMISTRY

Abstract

River aggregates are commonly used in concrete materials, which may contain harmful minerals, causing severe deterioration by oxidation and reduction of strength with incorporation in excess amounts. Quantification of some harmful minerals, e.g. pyrite and mica, may involve highly laborious and time-consuming processes. Here we suggest an approach for quantification of minerals using thin-section petrography and whole-rock geochemistry. Systematic measurements giving quantitative percentage of minerals obtained from petrography were correlated with CIPW norm mineralogy derived from whole-rock geochemistry. Our results showed that combination of petrography and geochemistry can be considered as a useful approach for determination of harmful minerals in an efficient way