Differential Alteration of Ilmenite in a Tropical Beach Placer, Southern India: Microscopic and Electron Probe Evidences

Prediction of contaminated neutral drainage using laboratory kinetic tests designed for acid mine drainage prediction is challenging because of the low metal concentrations generated by low sulfide oxidation rates. Fresh and weathered samples from the Tio mine waste rock piles were submitted to humidity cell tests. The waste rocks were demonstrated to be non-acid generating in the long term, as interpreted by conservative oxidation-neutralization curves. The results demonstrate that even though the main neutralizing minerals react differently after 25 years of natural weathering (with regard to Ca, Mg, Al, and Si release), the response of the fresh waste rocks during humidity cell leaching was very similar to those of the weathered waste rocks, when considering all the elements related to silicate dissolution, including those implicated in secondary phase precipitation. However, Ni generation was greater in the weathered waste rocks even though sulfide oxidation rates were similar, as Ni sorption properties reach saturation. Although the Ni concentrations from the leachates of humidity cell tests remain below regulated values, they are bound to increase with continued weathering if no preventive or control measures are undertaken at the site.

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Mineralogical Characterisation of Beach Placers at Kantiaghar in Ganjam District, Odisha

Nayak¹,

Mohapatra²,

Mangaraj

et al. 2019

Journal of the Geological Society of India

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This paper details with the beach placer deposit of Kantiaghar area of Ganjam district, Odisha. In Odisha, Atomic Mineral Division (AMD) has explored a stretch of about 150 km from south of river Mahanadi to Orissa-Andhra Pradesh border. Here the potential deposits posses a grade range from 5 to 30%. The heavy minerals are present in the beach and dunes around Kantiaghar, which is in the NE of Rusikulya river mouth. The prospect extends in NE-SW direction having a width of about 1000m. Heavy minerals occur up to a depth of 10 m. A total of 12 samples were collected at an interval of half km along the shore of Bay of Bengal. The heavy minerals are mostly of 170 micron size. The average heavy mineral content of Kantiaghar beach is 67%. The heavy minerals constitute sillimanite, ilmenite, garnet, rutile, monazite and zircon. Along with these minerals trace amounts of magnetite and hornblende is also present. Leucoxene and anatase are reported from this beach. The average percentage of sillimanite is 50.15%, ilmenite is 19.47%, garnet is 13.5%, and rutile is 3.7%, monazite is 1.21% and zircon is 0.93%, the number percentage of the heavy minerals clearly shows that the concentration of sillimanite is high. Based on field relationships and mineralogy it can be interpreted that the river systems draining the Eastern Ghat, their metamorphic associates and basic intrusives account for these deposits.

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Differential Alteration of Ilmenite in a Tropical Beach Placer, Southern India: Microscopic and Electron Probe Evidences

Cited by 4 publications

References 5 publications

Geochemical Studies of Ilmenite from Bhimunipatnam to Konada Coastal Sands, East Coast of India, North Andhra Pradesh, India

Geochemical Studies of Ilmenite from Bhimunipatnam to Konada Coastal Sands, East Coast of India, North Andhra Pradesh, India

Predicting Geochemical Behaviour of Waste Rock with Low Acid Generating Potential Using Laboratory Kinetic Tests

Mineralogical Characterisation of Beach Placers at Kantiaghar in Ganjam District, Odisha

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