Geochemical investigations of a Portion Obu Hill Marble Deposit Okpella, Edo-State, Nigeria

The Obhu marble deposit is located at latitude 7o 21´ 31.2´´ to 7o 21´ 34.9´´ and longitude 6o 25´ 11.6´´ to 6o 25´ 18.0´´. The geochemical investigations of a portion of the Obhu hill marble deposit was aimed at investigating the reserve estimate in tonnage, rock mass/overburden volume and the geochemical composition of the deposit. This study was conducted by using vertical electrical sounding (VES) geophysical method to obtain the geo-electric parameters of the deposit, and to determine the reserve estimate of the Marble deposit of study area. The result shows that the reserve tonnage is 4.6 x 106 Tons and rock mass reserve/overburden volume ratio is 9:1.The chemical analysis were compared with the RMRDC of Nigeria for each element suitable for production of cement, fertilizer, iron, steel and other industrial uses. The MgO values of the samples 1 and 2 does not falls within the acceptable value of 6 % of RMRDC, with the exception of sample 3 which falls within the acceptable limit. CaO, Al2O3 and P2O5 values of the samples falls within the acceptable limits of RMRDC and so suggest that the marble can be put to industrial use, while the Fe2O3 content of sample 2 and 3 makes them probably not best suited for industrial use, except for sample 1 having a lower value of 1.85 %. The silica SiO2 content values for the three samples exceeded the recommended standard of RMRDC of 5 %. This result reveals that the marble deposit is suitable for most industrial use.