Limestone is a carbonate sedimentary rock classified as the non-metallic deposits. Generally it is composed of skeleton fragments of marine organisms like corals, mollusca, etc. and also formed by the chemical precipitation of calcium carbonate in the water.
Composition:
It is composed entirely of calcite and also of aragonite (another form of calcium carbonate (CaCO3).
About 10% of sedimentary rocks are
limestone. And it is distributed all over the globe.
Due to its distribution it has
enormous diversity of uses.
One of the most important uses of
limestone is as construction materials as it is the aggregate in concrete.
Occurrence in Nepal:
Limestone is one of the most abundant
mineral deposits of Nepal.
The total estimated deposit is about
1.07 billion tonnes according to the report of Department of Mines and Geology.
About 540 million tonnes of limestone
deposit is proved till now.
Out of which some deposits are
economic and some are only occurrence.
According to the report of DMG,
annual production of limestone in 2018 was more than 6.62 million tonnes.
Currently there are altogether 53
cement factories working in Nepal out of which they are able to produce more
than 160 million packets/sacks of cement annually which is nearly equivalent to
8.5 million tonnes.
Investment from the private sector
has been significantly increased in these productions but the availability of
infrastructure has always been a main problem to exploit the resources.
Limestone is mostly distributed in
districts like Udayapur, Dhankuta, Sindhuli, Makwanpur, Lalitpur, Dhading,
Surkhet, Dang, Salyan, Baitadi, Palpa, etc.
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