EXPLORATION OF NIGERIAN CLAY FOR BURNT BRICK PRODUCTION FOR SUSTAINABLE NIGERIAN CONSTRUCTION ECONOMY

Abstract

Clay occurs naturally almost everywhere in the world; it is one of the greatest natural resources abundant in many places in the world for building houses and industrial plant houses. Clay is a function of weathering of several kinds of rock in a process that takes thousands and millions of years as a result of wind, water and glacial actions. This research defines clay as an early mineral substance, composed largely of hydrous silicate of alumina, which becomes plastic when wet and hard and rock-like when fired. Therefore mud clay as described could be molded or shaped into bricks and thereafter burnt at above 1000 C temperature to produced resistance material for building construction industries in Nigeria. Economically, human race has been using clay from the primitive age of about 3000 BC when man discovered that he could turn the seemingly worthless mud into a valuable building material. Conclusively, burnt bricks are still the cheapest material for building houses and other economic products for sustainable development.