Processing of Beach Sand Minerals of Maharastra Coast

Abstract

In the present paper, an attempt has been to bene-ficiate beach sand minerals of Maharastra coast. For this purpose, beach sand mineral samples were collected from two different coastal places namely; Pirawadi and Kother-wadi area. The samples obtained were subjected for chara-cterization & beneficiation studies. The characterization studies were mainly carried out by mineralogical analyses. The mineralogical analyses indicated 12-15% Ilmenite, 5-7% Magnetite and 65-70% Quartz in Pirawadi sample. Similarly Kotherwadi sample showed the presence of 10-12% Ilmanite along with 40-45% quartz. The studies also indicated the increased heavy mineral concentration in finer size (-75 11) fractions. Further, the beneficiation studies were carried out using Perm roll magnetic separator using different variables such as particle size, magnetic inte-nsity, roll speed, splitter position etc. From the studies it was possible to recover 80-85% magnetic minerals under different conditions.