The occurrence of aragonite in carbonate lenses in coals from the Witbank area

XRD analyses of carbonate lenses from some coal mines in the Witbank area indicate that particular carbonate mineral assemblages are characteristic of carbonate lenses from particular mines. While argonite is a major mineral in some of these assemblages, it is shown that its presence in small quantities can easily be masked in X-ray diffraction traces by diffraction peak overlap by other commonly occurring minerals (pyrite, kaolinite, quartz)