COAL OPERATING CONTRACT (COC) AREA 188

MEGA PHILIPPINES, INC.

LIMESTONE DESCRIPTION GUIDELINES

Use the following order of description:

1. COLOR: Break open cuttings to get color without mud staining

2. TEXTURE: Mudstone - carbonate mud with less than 10% particles

Wackestone - >10% particles, particles in carbonate mud support
Packstone - grain supported, less than 5% mud
Grainstone - grain supported with sparry cement
Boundstone - components bound together during compaction

With: i) Particle description

ii) Matrix description
iii) If crystalline, give crystal size:
Cryptocrystalline - <1/256 mm Medium - ¼ to ½ mm
Microcrystalline - 1/256 - 1/16mm Coarse - ½ to 1 mm
Very fine - 1/16 to 1/8 mm Very coarse - 1 to 2 mm
Fine - 1/8 to ¼ mm

3. HARDNESS: Soft - no resistance to pressure

Firm - some resistance but easily broken
Hard - pressure from probe needed to break
Very hard - jumps out of tray if pressed with probe

4. BREAK: e.g. amorphous (no structure), plastic, crumbly, blocky, angular, splintery

(Note: break is a function of hardness. A hard limestone is not going to be plastic!)

5. CEMENTATION: Calcite - effervescence in cold HCL

Dolomite - effervescence in warm HCL
Anhydrite - white precipitate in BaCL2
Quartzite or Cherty

6. POROSITY: Intercrystallite - porosity between grains

Oolitic - limestone with oolites
Vuggy - channels in the cuttings
Fracture - indicated by straight sides on cuttings
Fossiliferous - leaching of fossil remains

7. ACCESSORIES: e.g. glauconite, pyrite (disseminated or nodules), mica

(muscovite or biotite), chlorite, anhydrite, carbonaceous
specks, coal fragments, etc.
(Note: Use qualifiers – abundant, common, good trace, trace, rare).