Analysis Of Properties Of Kaolin Deposits In Nigeria
[CASE OF STUDIES OF KPANKOROGI AND IJERO-EKITI]

3.3     Laboratory Analyses
 3.3.1 Water Content Determination
The most common way of expressing the amount of water in soil is the water content. The water content, also called the moisture content, is given the symbol w and is ration of the amount of water to the amount of dry solids.

Where Ww =weight of water
                     Ws  = weight of solids    
  Procedures
      Four aluminum cups were marked and then weighed. Representative samples of the wet soil sample A and Sample B were placed in the cups and weighed to determine the weight of wet clay plus cup. They were then placed in the oven for a period of 24 hours (2 aluminum cup for each kaolin sample) at a temperature of 100+5c to a constant weight. After weight were removed from the oven, leave for 10min then weight the content to obtain the weight of cups plus dry sample.
        Different between the weight of moist of the clay samples and weight of dry samples from the oven are the weight of water. The water content percentage is the weight of water to weight of dry sample multiply by 100.
Apparatus
Moisture content container, oven and weighting balance.
 
3.3.2 Bulk Density Determination
Density can be defined as the mass of the soil divided by its volume. Bulk density is the ratio of the weight of representative wet sample to the volume of the mould containing it, so it is dependent on the amount of minerals and water present. It is expressed mathematically as follow as; v=W/v
Where V = bulk density
W=weight of representative wet sample
V= volume of mould
 Procedures
A cylinder of known volume and open at both ends is hammer into the kaolin horizon completely. This is done to get the in situ sample of sample A and Sample B. Then, remove the cylinder from the pit and take it to the laboratory where it is weighted.
The weight of samples is then deducted from the weight of Cylinder, and the clay and then divide the resultant value with the volume of the cylinder.
Apparatus
Cylinder weighting balance, Dry Pan and Hammer.
3.3.3 Specific Gravity Determination
Specific gravity of kaolin is taken to be the mass of a given volume of material to the mass of an equal volume of water. It indicates the average value of clay grains.
Alternatively, specific gravity of clay may define as the ratio of the unit mass of solid (mass of solid divided by volume of solids) in the clay to unit mass of water at 4oc.
Gs= Ms/V
Pw
Where Ms =mass of solid (g)
Vs=volume of solid (cm3)
Pw= unit mass of water (1g/cm3)
To compute the void ratio of the kaolin sample the specific gravity is very important. It is also used in conjunctions with bulk density to known the weight of the soil and also in hydrometer analysis.
In the laboratory, specific gravity can be obtains   as follows.
Procedures
The density bottle (including its stopper) was first properly dry to remove any water from it then weighted clay sample was added, this give (W2).