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Abstract
Enugu State carries a documented and largely unremediated water pollution burden, driven principally by acid mine drainage from the abandoned Onyeama and Okpara collieries, industrial effluent along the Ekulu corridor, and unregulated waste disposal across the Nyaba catchment. Remediation has been constrained by the cost of imported adsorbent media. This study assessed whether minerals occurring within Enugu State are chemically and mineralogically suitable as feedstock for the low-cost synthesis of zeolites for water treatment. A desk-based evaluative resource assessment was adopted, in which published geochemical and mineralogical data on the state's lithostratigraphic units were compiled and appraised against a six-criterion suitability rubric covering aluminosilicate reactivity, silica-to-alumina molar ratio, impurity burden, beneficiation intensity, reserve accessibility, and activation cost. Six candidate feedstocks were evaluated: kaolinitic clay of the Mamu Formation, clay of the Nsukka Formation, Ajali glass sand, Enugu Shale, colliery coal ash, and rice husk ash from the Adani rice belt. Results indicate that the kaolinitic clays of the Mamu and Nsukka Formations obtained the highest weighted suitability indices (4.15 and 3.85 of 5.00 respectively), with computed silica-to-alumina molar ratios spanning approximately 1.8 to 5.0, a range that brackets the synthesis windows for zeolites LTA, FAU-X, FAU-Y, and Na-P1. Ajali glass sand and Adani rice husk ash were found unsuitable as standalone precursors but valuable as silica modifiers for ratio adjustment. Elevated Fe2O3, reaching 29.42% in some southeastern clay samples, emerged as the principal constraint, requiring magnetic or chemical beneficiation. The study concludes that Enugu State possesses a genuine and internally complete precursor base for zeolite manufacture, and recommends a staged laboratory verification programme followed by pilot-scale deployment at identified pollution hotspots.