| The economic potential and mineral occurrences of the Southern Desert is reviewed. The Iraqi Southern Desert is unlike to the Western Desert, which is rich in mineral resources and industrial rocks; it possesses no mineral resources, but few varieties of industrial rocks. Many occurrences of limestone, dolomitic limestone, dolomite, sandstone, clay and other materials like gypcrete, gravel and salt, as well as some showings of carnotite were recorded in the Southern Desert, during the Regional Geological Survey that carried out by GEOSURV. Those deposits and occurrences belong to Umm Er Radhuma, Dammam, Euphrates, Ghar, Nfayil, Zahra, Dibdibba formations and Quaternary sediments. The limestone deposits are suitable for chemical, White cement and Portland cement industries and marble alternatives. The dolomite is suitable for chemical, steel, metallurgy and glass industries; the dolomitic limestone is suitable for filler, road construction and as building materials. The clays are suitable for cement industry and the sandstone and gravel are suitable for building purposes. Sodium chloride salt, in Samawa Saltpan is thought to be most probably originated from leaching of deep seated salt horizons by groundwater and ascends upwards through faults to be redeposited in depression and extracted by dissolution and evaporation. Sulphur was found only in the sinkholes of Al-Kibritiya, located southwest of Al-Shbicha. |