heavy mineral sands Research Papers (original) (raw)

Mineral content of river sand from Someshwari river of Northern Mymensingh division of Bangladesh, just south of Meghalaya of India, have been discussed being inspired of their widespread use in Construction works throughout Netrokona... more

Mineral content of river sand from Someshwari river of Northern Mymensingh division of Bangladesh, just south of Meghalaya of India, have been discussed being inspired of their widespread use in Construction works throughout Netrokona town. A crude but inexpensive niche (educational) technique to separate the minerals from sand from the point of construction as well as location finding and photography has been initiated, leading to inspection of various grades of sand from the point of purchase. Finally, sand samples have been collected from various submerged and seasonal sand bar regions of the river that sources those sand, as well as their separation techniques on the point of sand dredging have been preliminarily observed. A qualitative discussion on magnetic fraction and possible mineralogy of magnetic phases have been hypothesized. There have been secondary focus on possible natural and artificial radioactive species in the sand, owing to mining of uranium in Meghalaya. A minor but significant focus can be kept on biological coloration of sand due to ferric ion precipitation at stagnant water, which could be of importance due to biochemical alteration of mineralogy of magnetic particles

SEG Special Publication Number 22

Fe-Ti oxides concentrates produced from heavy mineral sand deposits are widely used for the production of titanium dioxide pigments that are critical components of white paint, plastics and paper. According to mining industry, the Fe-Ti... more

Fe-Ti oxides concentrates produced from heavy mineral sand deposits are widely used for the production of titanium dioxide pigments that are critical components of white paint, plastics and paper. According to mining industry, the Fe-Ti concentrates mostly consists of three phases: ilmenite, leucoxene and rutile. However, a few mineralogical studies have shown that the variety of Fe-Ti oxides found in sand deposits is far more complex, mostly due to alteration processes. The aim of this contribution is to characterize in detail by means of Qemscan analyses the mineralogy of the three main concentrates (ilmenite, leucoxene and rutile) produced by the Grande Côte Operation (GCO) mineralurgical plant in Senegal. The ultimate goal is to characterize the different products and textures formed during the natural ilmenite alteration processes, to localize the phases carrying the main impurities (Cr and P), and finally to determine the physical properties of each mineral component to improve metal recoveries. Along alteration processes, Ti content increase. Ilmenite (FeTiO 3) is progressively transformed into pseudorutile (Fe 2 Ti 3 O 9) particles which could also be altered and transformed into hydroxylian pseudorutile [FeTi 6 O 12 (OH) 3 .3H 2 O] or complex blends of anatase microcrystals (TiO 2). These transformations are accompanied by significant changes in particle textures. Microporosity and fractures appear and the impurity content also increases. Anatase rich microcrystal assemblages, so far described as Leucoxene, could be identified to consist of grains with higher porosities, water contents and higher intrapore impurities. These particles are the main carriers of chromium and phosphorus. The observed mineral transition textures have a significant impact on the ore dressing processes. During these transformations, the physical properties of these phases change, the magnetic susceptibility as well as densities decreases, due to the increase in porosity. The separation of particles, especially those with high porosity will help improving the GCO mineralurgical plant performance and to reduce the impurity contents in finals products.

During Late Miocene to Early Pliocene time (c. 7.2–5 Ma) an extensive fluvial and coastal sandplain developed across the Murray Basin in response to regional marine regression due to falling sea levels combined with gentle tectonic... more

During Late Miocene to Early Pliocene time (c. 7.2–5 Ma) an extensive fluvial and coastal sandplain developed across the Murray Basin in response to regional marine regression due to falling sea levels combined with gentle tectonic uplift. Sand ridges preserved across the sandplain record coastal shorelines formed at periods of highstand and stillstand during overall retreat of the sea towards the southwest. The paleocoastal beach dunes and associated shallow offshore sands have been a focus of exploration for heavy mineral (HM) deposits since discovery, in 1983, of large resources of fine-grained heavy minerals at WIM 150, near Horsham, Victoria, followed in the mid-1990s by discovery of commercial grades of coarse-grained heavy mineral sands at Wemen, Woornack and Kulwin, southeast of Mildura. In 1989, heavy mineral discoveries were made in the South Australian portion of the basin at Mindarie and Perponda. The Mindarie deposits were subsequently developed by Australian Zircon NL (2007–2009) and Murray Zircon Pty Ltd (2012–2015). Combined resources (measured, indicated and inferred), across 11 deposits reported by Murray Zircon to January 2016, totalled 244 Mt at 3.1% (total HM), with valuable heavy mineral composition averaging 17.4% zircon, 5.0% rutile, 7.4% leucoxene and 44.4% ilmenite (Murray Zircon Pty Ltd 2016). Investigation of the provenance of zircon in heavy mineral deposits in the Mindarie area was initiated to identify the relative contribution of heavy minerals from various possible source regions. The results provide data that can be used to evaluate reconstructions of the paleocoastal environment and also to assess the influence of variation in source region as a factor affecting the grade and quality of the economic heavy minerals.