CEBU INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY N.

BACALSO AVENUE, CEBU CITY

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE MINING ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

GEOL511 MINERAL RESOURCES OF RP

Research Report DOLOMITE

Submitted by: RIVO, DONALD B. d_rivo@yahoo.com BSEM 5

Submitted to: ENGR. PEPITO T. ECHAVEZ Instructor

Date Submitted: 06 January 2012

Dolomite It is a carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate CaMg(CO3)2. The term is also used to describe the sedimentary carbonate rock dolostone.

Different types of dolomite. Dolomite appears to form in many different types of environment and can have varying structural, textural and chemical characteristics.

Dolostone (dolomite rock) is composed predominantly of the mineral dolomite with a stoichiometric ratio of 50% or greater content of magnesium replacing calcium, often as a result of diagenesis. Limestone that is partially replaced by dolomite is referred to as dolomitic limestone, or in old U.S. geologic literature as magnesian limestone.

Diagenesis is the process that turns sediment into rock. Compaction occurs as the weight of the overlying material increases. Compaction forces the grains closer together, reducing pore space and eliminating some of the contained water. Some of

this water may carry mineral components in solution, and these constituents may later precipitate as new minerals in the pore spaces. This causes cementation, which will then start to bind the individual particles together. Further compaction and burial may cause recrystallization of the minerals to make the rock even harder. Dolomite was first described in 1791 as a rock by the French naturalist and geologist, Dodat Gratet de Dolomieu (1750 1801) from exposures in what are now known as the Dolomite Alps of northern Italy.

Dolomite Alps of Italy

Dolomite rock is one of the few sedimentary rocks that undergoes a significant mineralogical change after it is deposited. They are originally deposited as calcite/aragonite rich limestones, but during a process call diagenesis the calcite and/or aragonite is altered to dolomite. The process is not metamorphism, but something just short of that. Magnesium rich ground waters that have a significant amount of salinity

are probably crucial and warm, tropical near ocean environments are probably the best source of dolomite formation.

Physical Characteristics: Color is often pink or pinkish and can be colorless, white, yellow, gray or even brown or black when iron is present in the crystal. Luster is pearly to vitreous to dull. Transparency crystals are transparent to translucent. Crystal System is trigonal; bar 3 Crystal Habits include saddle shaped rhombohedral twins and simple rhombs some with slightly curved faces, also prismatic, massive, granular and rock forming. Never found in scalenohedrons. Tenacity is brittle. Cleavage is perfect in three directions forming rhombohedrons. Fracture is conchoidal. Hardness is 3.5-4 Specific Gravity is 2.86 (average) Streak is white. Other Characteristics: Unlike calcite, effervesces weakly with warm acid or when first powdered with cold HCl. Associated Minerals: include calcite, sulfide ore minerals, fluorite, barite, quartz and occasionally with gold. Notable Occurrences include many localities throughout the world, but well known from sites in Midwestern quarries of the USA; Ontario, Canada; Switzerland; Pamplona, Spain and in Mexico. Best Field Indicators are typical pink color, crystal habit, hardness, slow reaction to acid, density and luster.

Formation

Vast deposits are present in the geological record, but the mineral is relatively rare in modern environments. Laboratory synthesis of stoichiometric dolomite has been carried out only at temperatures of greater than 100 C (conditions typical of burial in sedimentary basins).

Dolomite was found to be forming in highly saline lakes. Dolomite crystals also occur in deep-sea sediments, where organic matter content is high. This dolomite is termed "organogenic" dolomite.

Modern dolomite formation under anaerobic conditions in supersaturated saline lagoons along the Rio de Janeiro coast of Brazil, namely, Lagoa Vermelha and Brejo do Espino.

Formation as Coral atolls Dolomitization of calcite also occurs at certain depths of coral atolls where water is undersaturated in calcium carbonate but saturated in dolomite. Convection created by tides and sea currents enhances this change. Hydrothermal currents created by volcanoes under the atoll may also play an important role.

It starts with a volcanic island which becomes extinct.

As the island and ocean floor subside, coral growth builds a fringing reef, often including a shallow lagoon between the land and the main reef

As the subsidence continues the fringing reef becomes a larger barrier reef farther from the shore with a bigger and deeper lagoon inside

Ultimately the island sinks below the sea, and the barrier reef becomes an atoll enclosing an open lagoon

Coral Atoll

Philippine Dolomite Deposit

Pugalo is a barangay in Alcoy, Cebu, Philippines. It is known for its large deposit of dolomite mineral. With a size of 571 hectares of mining claims and an estimated balance of deposits at 220 million metric tons, since the extraction began in 1981, it is currently the world's biggest dolomite mining found in Asia. It is for this mining activity that the town of Alcoy has earned for itself a moniker, the dolomite town of the Philippines. Philippine Mining Service Corporation (PMSC) situated in this area.

Uses Dolomite is used as:  an ornamental stone  a concrete aggregate  a source of magnesium oxide and in the Pidgeon process for the production of magnesium.  It is an important petroleum reservoir rock, and serves as the host rock for large stratabound Mississippi Valley-Type (MVT) ore deposits of base metals such as lead, zinc, and copper.  as a flux for the smelting of iron and steel.  production of float glass.  In horticulture, dolomite and dolomitic limestone are added to soils and soilless potting mixes to lower their acidity and as a magnesium source.  the substrate in marine (saltwater) aquariums to help buffer changes in pH of the water.

Reference:

o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomite o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atoll o http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barangay_Pugalo,_Alcoy,_Cebu o http://www.galleries.com/Dolomite o http://webmineral.com/data/Dolomite.shtml o http://www.mindat.org/min-1304.html o http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/geol111/sedrx.htm