Mâadid Clay In The M’sila Region, Algeria: Evaluation And Characterization

Abstract

This work aims to valorize local materials, such as the clay of southern Algeria, widely used to prepare bricks as
rural construction materials. We characterized and identified three types of natural clays from the region of
Mâadid province of M’sila. The results show that the yellow clay is a mixture of quartz illite in a very important
proportion since the percentage of illite was 47%. While in the green clay, we noted that the predominant
constituents are: calcite, quartz, illite, and kaolinite, and the highest percentage is illite was 27.93%. The
analytical results show that the red clay is a calcite, quartz, and illite mixture. Several techniques were used: XRD,
XRF, FTIR.