High-Calcium, High-Reflectance Limestone Resources of Illinois
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High-calcium, high-reflectance limestone resources of Illinois JONATHAN H. GOODWIN 1 Illinois State Geological Survey, Natural Resources Building, 615 East Peabody Drive, JAMES W. BAXTER J Champaign, Illinois 61820 ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION northern third of Illinois, where most rocks younger than the Silurian have been eroded High-calcium (>95 wt % CaCO.,) lime- Limestone having high chemical purity away, or were never deposited, carbonate stone units commonly occur in pre-Penn- (>95 wt % CaCO.,) and high reflectance rocks in the Ordovician and Silurian Sys- sylvanian rocks that crop out along the (>70%, unfiltered, relative to MgO stan- tems are predominantly dolomitic. Mississippi and Ohio Rivers in the western dard) is increasing in importance as a par- In the following sections of this report, and southern parts of Illinois. The Missis- ticular mineral commodity. Scrubbing of the high-purity, high-reflectance limestone sippian Glen Dean, Haney, Ste. Genevieve, sulfur-dioxide from flue gases of coal-fired resources of the state will be outlined in St. Louis, Salem, Ullin, and Burlington power plants and other specialized chemical order of decreasing geologic age. Figure 2 Limestones; the Devonian Wapsipinicon, applications commonly require high-purity shows a summary of the age, origin, and Grand Tower, and Backbone Limestones; limestone. High-reflectance limestone is in- thickness of pre-Pennsylvanian rocks in Il- the Silurian St. Clair Limestone; and the creasingly used as filler in paint, plastics, linois. Ordovician Dunleith Limestone all contain linoleum, and paper. Increasing costs of high-calcium limestone intervals more than petroleum-based raw materials and energy Samples and Tests 10 ft (3.3 m) thick. suggest that demand for high-calcium and Aggregate is now produced from most of high-reflectance limestones may increase Many chemical analyses tabulated in this these units, but significant new exploration substantially in the next decade. Increasing report have been published previously by targets for quarriable stone exist in Cal- land-use conflicts in urbanized areas and in the Geological Survey in compilations of houn and possibly Jersey Counties for the areas of prime agricultural land, high costs analyses prepared by J. E. Lamar (1957, Dunleith Limestone, in Union County for of surface reclamation of mined lands, the 1959, 1966). Additional analyses were the Backbone Limestone, and in Alexander high value of high-purity and high-reflec- compiled from other Survey publications County for the Dunleith. Possibilities for tance limestone products, and the second- and from previously unpublished analyses. underground mining exist in Adams ary use of underground space all suggest Reflectance measurements reported here County for the Burlington Limestone and in that use of underground mining methods were made on composite samples ground Pulaski County for the Ullin. Limited high- may soon be more common for limestone and briquetted from suites of field samples volume markets for products from these deposits in Illinois (Baxter, 1980). on file in the Samples Library of the Geolog- undeveloped sources and, in some cases, In the past three years, the Illinois State ical Survey or from butts of the original transportation problems may constrain Geological Survey has received many re- powders submitted for chemical analysis to rapid commercial development of these de- quests for information about high-purity, the Chemical Group of the Survey. All posits. high-reflectance limestone resources in the samples for reflectance measurement were Reflectance measurements by the Illinois State of Illinois. Much of the information ground sufficiently to pass a U.S. Standard State Geological Survey on high-calcium gathered to answer these requests is com- No. 200 sieve. limestone samples from most of these de- piled in this report. Reflectance measurements were made posits range from 57.6% for the Wapsipini- Figure 1 is a generalized map of the bed- using a Photovolt Corporation reflectance con Limestone from Rock Island County to rock geology of Illinois. Important high- spectrophotometer complying with ASTM 88.9% for the Burlington Limestone in purity limestone resources in Illinois are Standard E-97 and TAPPI tentative stan- Adams County. Values for some of the de- confined almost totally to rocks older than dard T646M-54. Each sample for posits exceed 80% and therefore compare the Pennsylvanian System and are exposed reflectance measurement was pressed into a favorably with reflectance specifications for around the margins of the state, especially briquet, using a brass sleeve and wooden filler and coating clays. near the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. In the plunger with pressure applied against a This article is based on a paper presented at a symposium entitled "Industrial Minerals of the Upper Midwest," held in April 1980. Geological Society of America Bulletin, Part I, v. 92, p. 621—628, 5 figs., 1 table, September 1981. 621 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/92/9/621/3419168/i0016-7606-92-9-621.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 622 GOODWIN AND BAXTER Reflectance values for 5.0 mm clay used as paper coatings range from 86.5% to 88.5%. LIMESTONE RESOURCES Ordovician System In southwestern Illinois, near the top of the Champlainian Series of the Ordovician System within the Galena Group, the Moredock Member of the Dunleith Forma- tion in the Kimmswick Subgroup contains abundant high-calcium limestone. Figure 3 illustrates the regional lithologic relation- ships of the Galena Group. At Thebes (locality 1, Fig. 4), a 35-ft sec- tion of the Moredock Member of the Dun- leith Formation is exposed in the cut of an abandoned rail line (Lamar, 1959). Over- burden here includes overlying rocks of the Galena and Maquoketa Groups; under- ground mining methods probably will be required to produce stone at this locality. The site is within 200 ft (65 m) of the banks of the Mississippi River, and rail and truck transport facilities are nearby. The type locality of the Moredock Member of the Dunleith Formation (Tem- pleton and Willman, 1963) is in the Missis- sippi River bluffs near Valmeyer in Monroe County (cen. N line, SW, Sec. 3, T. 3 S., R. 11 W.; locality 3, Fig. 4). At Valmeyer, Co- lumbia Quarry Company produces finely- ground specialty products from high- liiiliiii^ Post-Pennsylvanian calcium limestone mined from the More- Pennsyvanian dock Member. At Batchtown, in Calhoun County (lo- Mississippian cality 2, Fig. 4), the Moredock Member of Devonian the Dunleith is exposed in outcrop in the bluffs of the Mississippi River in Sections Silurian 32 and 31, T. 11 S., R. 2 W. (Rubey, 1952). Ordovician The lower 25 ft (7.6 m) of the outcrop con- tain minor chert in thin bands, but the over- lying 55 ft (16.8 m) is generally quite pure. The middle 30 ft (9.1 m) of the outcrop is especially pure and thick-bedded. Road and rail transportation facilities in Calhoun County are extremely limited, but the out- crops are adjacent to the Mississippi River 50 km and barge-loading facilities could easily be developed. Baxter (1970) reported three small out- Figure 1. Generalized bed-rock geologic map of Illinois (after Willman and Frye, 1970). crops of the Dunleith Formation in Jersey County. At the one locality described by Baxter (1970), only 19 ft (5.8 m) of the glass plate. Four briquets were prepared Photovolt Corporation were used for the Dunleith is exposed, but as much as 45 feet from each sample. The powder from each comparative reflectance measurements. The (13.7 m) more section may be present in the briquet was returned to the sample and standards were not compared with an MgO grassy slope above the outcrops. To the east remixed before preparing the next briquet. primary standard for reflectance brightness of the outcrop area along the shores of the Secondary standards supplied by the measurements. Illinois Waterway, the Maquoketa Shale Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/92/9/621/3419168/i0016-7606-92-9-621.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 LIMESTONE RESOURCES OF ILLINOIS 623 GREATEST ERA, PERIOD, EPOCH, THICKNESS ERATHEM SYSTEM SERIES ORIGIN AND CHARACTER (ft)' CHESTERIAN Marine, deltaic — cyclical de- 1400 posits of limestone, sand- stone, shale MISSISSIPPIAN VALMEYERAN Marine, deltaic — limestone, 2000 siltstone, shale, chert, sand- stone KINDERHOOKIAN Marine — shale, limestone, silt- 150 stone Marine — shale, limestone UPPER 300 wwwwv/wwww Unconformity Marine — largely limestone, DEVONIAN MIDDLE some shale 450 PALEOZOIC V\AA/\A/VA/WVNAA/W< Major unconformity LOWER Marine — cherty limestone, 1300 chert CAYUGAN Marine — shale, siltstone, lime- 100 stone NIAGARAN Marine — dolomite, limestone, 1000 SILURIAN shale, local reefs ALEXANDRIAN Marine — dolomite, limestone, 150 shale wwwwwwww Unconformity Marine — shale, limestone, silt- CINCINNATIAN stone, dolomite 300 wwwwwwwww Unconformity • ORDOVICIAN Marine —- limestone, dolomite, CHAMPLAINIAN sandstone 1400 wwWwwwv/wwi Major unconformity • CANADIAN Marine — dolomite, sandstone 1000 Marine — sandstone, dolomite, CAMBRIAN CROIXAN shale 4000 wwvwwwwww Major unconformity PRECAMBRIAN Intrusive igneous rocks — mostly granite ISGS 1980 Figure 2. Summary of the age, thickness, and origin of pre-Pennsylvanian Paleozoic rocks in Illinois (from Willman and others, 1975). Group overlying the Dunleith is exposed in but the nearest railheads are at Jerseyville MgCO:i. Reflectance values for all samples the bluffs. Underground mining methods or Alton, about 15 mi (24 km) distant. are below normally accepted values for would be required to fully exploit the lime- Chemical analyses and reflectance values paper fillers, but some beneficiation might stone resources of the Dunleith. To the west of samples from the Dunleith Formation are result from selective mining. and north of the outcrop zone, the Dunleith shown in Table 1. All of the analyzed sam- is probably buried beneath the alluvium of ples, except those from Columbia Quarry Silurian System the Illinois River floodplain and the bluff is Company's Valmeyer mine (locality 3), ex- 1 to 2 mi (1.6 to 3.2 km) from the river ceed 98.5 wt % CaCO.].