cement
cement
A manufactured gray powder which when mixed with water makes a plastic mass that will set or harden. It is combined with aggregate to make concrete. Nearly all of today's production is portland cement.
To place cement in a borehole to seal off caves or fissures or to fill cavities or caverns encountered in drilling.
Mineral material, usually chemically precipitated, that occurs in the spaces among the individual grains of a consolidated sedimentary rock, thereby binding the grains together as a rigid, coherent mass; it may be derived from the sediment or its entrapped waters, or it may be brought in by solution from outside sources. The most common cements are silica (quartz, opal, chalcedony), carbonates (calcite, dolomite, siderite), and various iron oxides. Others include clay minerals, barite, gypsum, anhydrite, and pyrite. Detrital clay minerals and other fine clastic particles may also serve as cements.
A term used in gold-mining regions to describe various consolidated, fragmental aggregates, such as breccia, conglomerate, and the like, that are auriferous.
A finely divided metal obtained by precipitation. The word in this sense is generally used in combination, such as, cement copper, cement gold, or cement silver.