TY - JOUR ID - TI - POTASH RESOURCE POTENTIAL IN ALBU-GHARIS SALTERN, WESTERN IRAQ AU - Khaldoun S. Al-Bassam PY - 2012 VL - 8 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 17 JO - Iraqi Bulletin of Geology and Mining مجلة الجيولوجيا والتعدين العراقية SN - 18114539 AB - An exploration survey has been carried out in Albu-Gharis Saltern, western Iraq to followuppreviously mentioned relatively high K concentrations in the salt and in the brine. Thepresent work is based on field observations, sampling, mineralogical and chemical analyses ofsalt crust, brine and sediments.The results showed that all salt samples analyzed by X-ray diffraction contained sylvite(KCl) with halite as the dominant constituent. The older (dust-contaminated) salt crustcontained 1.63% KCl and the recent (freshly precipitated) crust contained 3.52% KCl,whereas the brine contained 1.3% KCl with 330 gm/l salinity. The major salt constituent isNaCl, making about 83% of total salts in the crust and about 30% in the brine.Compared to average K content in seawater (0.39 gm/l) and in the Arabian Gulf water(0.5 gm/l), the Albu-Gharis Saltern may be considered a potential potash resource in Iraq.KCl may be produced from the bitter solution left after NaCl precipitation from the brine. TheAlbu-Gharis brine is lower (one third) in potash concentration, but comparable in salinity tothe Dead Sea, which contains 4.4% KCl and 315 gm/l salinity. However, the Dead Sea ishighly different in other chemical constituents.

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