Mineralogical Characterization of Potassic Clays in Overburden Material for Agricultural Use

• Grant number: 24/21466-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 31, 2025
• End date: March 03, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Soil Science
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Carlos de Azevedo
• Grantee: Leonardo Fontoura Crevelim
• Supervisor: Laurent Michel Caner
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Université de Poitiers, France
• Associated to the scholarship: 24/05622-4 - Use of Limestone Mining Pickling to Improve Soil Conditions and Resilience of Sandy Soils to Climate Change, BP.IC

Abstract

Depleted soils represent a long-standing problem in Brazil, with a highlight on degraded pastures, which demands the development of technologies capable of restoring them in a sustainable way. In parallel, the accumulation of mining overburden is a challenge for environmental management and mining sustainability, which is not used because it is not the economic target of the extraction, accumulating in piles in the mining yards. Part of this material may have potential for agricultural use, depending on its mineralogical components and its soil conditioning effects. In view of this, the present project analyzes four mining overburden materials rich in potassic clays (2:1 phyllosilicates), of great relevance for agronomic use. Its potential applies to several points: release of nutrients and minerals, increase in soil surface area, increase in CEC, stabilization of organic matter, contribution to the formation of aggregates and micropores, increase in water retention, contribution to the development of macro and micro biotic, as well as vegetation. Thus, the study requires a deep analysis of the materials, using XRD and FTIR techniques, with a focus on both learning the methods used in the laboratory to be visited, and for the interpretation of the results obtained. With the development of more in-depth mineralogical analysis techniques, it will be possible to determine the potential of the materials in question, seeking to understand their composition, reactions and potential as soil improvers in a climate crisis scenario.