Some studies on olivine fines and clay mixtures

Abstract

Olivine is a mineral composed of forsterite (2 MgO.SiO2) as major and fayalite (2 FeO.SiO,) as minor phases. During pro¬cessing of olivine minerals for foundry and other uses, lot of fines (around -100 mesh) are generated. The present study has been carried out on the olivine fines collected from the Salem district of Tamil Nadu to explore the possibilities of converting these fines into value added ceramic products by reaction sintering with clan Different combinations of olivine fines and clay have been formulated and the mixtures are heated at various tempera¬tures in the form of pellets. The sintering kinetics and physical properties have been studied and discussed in this paper. XRD & SEM and studies are also carried out to confirm the phases formed.