Mineralogical, geochemical and physico-chemical characterisation of compact clays

This report summarises the results of mineralogical, geochemical and physico-chemical characterisation of a suite of clay-rich materials that were undergoing pore-squeezing tests as part of the Development of Capability subproject ‘Characterisation of Compact Clays – pilot Study’. A sample list is shown in Table 1. X-ray diffraction (XRD, whole-rock and <2 μm fraction) analyses were performed to determine the mineralogy of the samples while 2-ethoxyethanol (ethylene glycol monoethyl ether, EGME) surface area analyses and cation exchange capacity (CEC) determinations were carried out to assess the physico-chemical properties of the materials. The major and selected trace-element geochemistry of the samples was also investigated using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy.