Mineralogy of clay raw material from Burkina Faso and Niger used for ceramic wares

Some clay deposits in West Africa provide raw materials for the local and traditional manufacture of ceramic products. We selected three clays in Burkina Faso, with the references ROG, GRI and POT and a fourth one, AKN1 in Niger. These clays have been mined for many years. There is growing demand for such materials and the reserves are sufficient to meet this demand. The ROG and GRI clays are used as construction materials in both fired and unfired bricks. The POT and AKN1 clays are used for producing the porous ware of fired pottery. A study was carried out to look at some of the physico–chemical characteristics of these raw materials in order to enhance their use. This is a preliminary study which will be followed by further investigations into the production of different ceramic wares. An analysis of the chemical and mineralogical composition of the materials and some investigations of their fired properties during a firing cycle up to 1000°C has demonstrated that, taken as a whole, they possess satisfactory characteristics for the described applications.