The mineralogy and microtextures of samples of the Mercia Mudstone Group from Northgates, Leicester

This report presents the results of mineralogical, petrographical and surface area analyses carried out on a suite of five samples taken from the Mercia Mudstone Group. The samples were removed from boreholes drilled for the Northgates, Leicester CSO Improvements Scheme and were submitted for analysis by Mr. D. Ouston of Haswell Consulting Engineers Ltd. The client expressed a particular interest in characterizing the clay mineralogy of the samples and the identification and quantification of any 'swelling' clay minerals. The samples, four of which were provided in plastic cartons (two per sample) while the fifth was delivered in a plastic sack, all comprise dark red-brown slurries containing fragments of mudstone, siltstone and sandstone up to 5 cm in length. Sample details are shown in Table 1.