Research paper Characteristics and ceramic properties of clayey materials from Amezmiz region (Western High Atlas, Morocco) Daoudi Lahcen a , Elboudour Elidrissi Hicham a , Saadi Latifa b , Albizane Abderrahmane c , Bennazha Jamal c , Waqif Mohamed b , Elouahabi Meriam d , Fagel Nathalie d a Laboratoire de Géosciences et Environnement (LGSE), Département de Géologie, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université Cadi Ayyad, BP 549, Marrakech, Morocco b Laboratoire de Matière Condensée et Nanostructures, Département de Chimie, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université Cadi Ayyad, BP 549, Marrakech, Morocco c Laboratoire Matériaux Membranes et Environnement, Département de Chimie, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Université Hassan II Mohammedia, BP 146, Quartier Yasmina, 20650 Mohammedia, Morocco d UR Argile, Géochimie et Environnement sédimentaires (AGEs), Département de Géologie B.18, Sart-Tilman, Université de Liège, B-4000, Belgium abstract article info Article history: Received 7 May 2014 Received in revised form 11 September 2014 Accepted 19 September 2014 Available online 23 October 2014 Keywords: Clayey material Characterization Ceramic behavior Amezmiz Morocco Five clayey materials from two quarries located in the Amezmiz region (Morocco) were sampled and investigated for their physical, chemical, mineralogical and thermal characteristics to evaluate their potential suitability as raw materials in various ceramic applications. Physical properties were identified by particle size distribution, consisten- cy limits and total organic content. Chemical, mineralogical, and thermal properties were investigated by XRF, XRD, and TG/DTA techniques, respectively. A common raw material in pottery manufacturing of Morocco was used as reference sample (REF). Results show that the main oxides in the samples were SiO 2 , Al 2 O 3 , and Fe 2 O 3 , whereas the other oxides were present only in small quantities. Quartz, illite and vermiculite were present as dominant mineral phases and the minor phases of kaolinite, calcite and smectite also appeared in the samples. The results showed that two of the studied clayey materials have adequate characteristics for the production of structural ceramics. However, for the two other clays it is necessary to add more plastic clays to enhance the workability. © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The physicochemical properties of clay minerals and their abun- dance associated with their relatively low cost justify the numerous traditional uses of clays (Ciullo, 1996). Worldwide, clayey materials are the main raw materials exploited in the fabrication of diversified ceramic products for building construction. Due to inherently complex physical, chemical and mineralogical characteristics, clayey materials usually have unique properties related to their own genesis and diagen- esis (Verduch, 1995; Bauluz et al., 2003; Velde and Meunier, 2008). For economic reasons, the building related ceramic industry has to use clayey materials from nearby deposits. As a consequence, the character- ization and quality control of each clay are important for the technical performance of local products (Fabbri, 1994; Sanchez et al., 1998). Moreover, a specific deposit may have distinct beds associated with different clayey materials. This enables the regional ceramic plants to mix different clayey materials in order to adjust the properties of both the unfired ceramic body and the corresponding final product. In Morocco, traditional methods of ceramic production, which do not take into account chemical and mineralogical characteristics, are still being practiced. Very limited studies on the quality and potential use of Moroccan clays have been done, although clayey material is a primary material for local ceramic manufacturers. In the Marrakech region (central region of Morocco), the clayey materials are essentially used in traditional pottery and partially for construction of buildings and monuments. There are hundreds of small traditional pottery factories all over the region using local clayey materials. Unfortunately, except for some recent work on some sites (Hajjaji et al., 2002; Khalfaoui and Hajjaji, 2009; Hajjaji and Mezouari, 2011), clays used in ceramic have not been clearly characterized or detailed according to their mineralogical, chemical, thermal and technological properties. In the Amezmiz region (45 km south of Marrakech city), the economy of the region is mainly based on the industry of clays. Nevertheless, the quality of pottery produced by local manufacturers is generally low; they show low mechanical resistance and durability. This is essentially due to the lack of rigorous investigation on the raw clayey material, the processing (mixing, shaping, and drying) procedure, and also the lack of knowledge of the firing cycle. Indeed, no study was devoted to the pottery made of local clayey materials. In this study, the characteristics of raw ma- terials used in pottery from Amezmiz were investigated for their physical, chemical, mineralogical, and thermal properties and also for their ceramic Applied Clay Science 102 (2014) 139–147 E-mail address: l.daoudi@uca.ma (D. Lahcen). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.clay.2014.09.029 0169-1317/© 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Clay Science journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/clay