Abstract

To better delineate the industrial mineral resources of Utah, geologists of the Utah Geological Survey collected 748 grab samples that included limestone, silica, and dolomite samples. Geologists primarily sampled outcrops in northwest Utah. These samples were processed into pressed powder pellets and were analyzed quantitatively on a Rigaku ZSXmini, wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescense analyzer. The resulting major oxide analyses were screened, and selected analyses and their sample locations were tabulated by commodity. Statistical summaries prepared for each commodity, included 174 limestone samples from 36 formations, 54 silica samples from 17 formations, and 89 dolomite samples from 23 formations. These data suggest that there is great economic development potential in northwest Utah for industrial mineral operations that use limestone, silica, or dolomite as raw materials. The purest limestones tend to occur in Cambrian, Devonian, and Mississippian strata as well as the Tertiary Flagstaff Limestone, although some Permian and Devonian samples are high-purity limestone. High-purity silica samples were obtained from Proterozoic to Cretaceous rocks, but the Proterozoic and Cambrian quartzites tend to be higher grade and are widely distributed in northwestern Utah. Good quality dolomites were predominantly found in Cambrian through Devonian strata.