ABSTRACTÂ
The study was carried out in the Ikpeshi area which is situated at Akoko Edo LGA, Edo North, South Western Nigeria. Four (4) marble samples were collected from Ikpeshi and its environs which were analyzed both geochemically and statistically to determine their industrial applicability. The samples were subjected to XRF analysis. Findings revealed a high value of CaO (73.765-77.001wt %) and low values of MgO (1.89-3.19wt %). Another major oxides such as SiO2, Fe2O3, Na2O, K2O, Al2O3, and MnO2 had values below 2wt%. The multivariate analysis employed revealed a very strong correlation between Fe2O3/SiO2, MnO/SiO2, NiO/SiO2, P2O5/Al2O3, SO3/K2O, SO3/Al2O3, P2O5/SO3, Cl/TiO2, and CaO/PbO which is an indication of their fairly similar valences and ionic values and strong positive correlation between Fe2O3 and MnO (0.864), NiO and SiO2 (0.897), CaO and NiO (0.544), K2O and SiO2 (0.632), K2O and MnO (0.687), Al2O3 and K2O (0.762), MgO and CaO (0.556), Cl and Al2O3 (0.84), P2O5 and K2O (0.741), P2O5 and Cl (0.85), SO3 and K2O (0.769), SO3 and Cl (0.797), TiO and K2O (0.574), TiO2 and P2O5 (0.851) and TiO2 and SO3 (0.796). A series of plots of selected major oxides were carried out for the marble deposit which is between MnO and SiO2 (+0.9161), Fe2O3 and SiO2 (+0.9539), P2O5 and Al2O3 (+0.9958), SO3 and Al2O3 (+0.9531), SO3 and K2O (+0.9896) and TiO2 and Cl (+0.8405), NiO and SiO2 (+0.9253), NiO and Fe2O3 (+0.9856) with positive slope (coefficient of X) which signifies an increase in one variable during deposition leads to increase in the other variable which could be attributed to their similar electronic structure and chemical reaction expect CaO and PbO (+0.3065) which have negative slope (coefficient of X), which indicate that as one of oxide variable increases other variable decreases. The weak correlation between CaO and PbO is due to the different structures of Ca2+ and Pb2+ in the carbonate. It was revealed that IK1 and IK3 are of the same source of origin and environment of a deposition while IK2 and IK4 are of the same source of origin and environment of deposition from the Cluster of Hierarchy using dendrogram. The high lime content is connected to the shallow marine environment during deposition before metamorphism. The marbles are classified as the high calcite group and their industrial use range from the production of Portland cement to their use for ceramics.
