Pilot Plant studies on the concentration of economic minerals from Manavalakurichi Beach Sand

A bulk sample of beach washings from Manavalakurichi, Madras State, was received in December, 1963 from the Travancore Minerals Ltd., through the Department of Atomic Energy. The sample weighed about 10 tons, National Metallurgical Laboratory was required to take up Pilot Plant tests for separation of the economic minerals with particular stress on recovering monazite and ilmenite along with other minerals viz., rutile, zircon etc. The Travancore Minerals Ltd. has commitments to supply the entire amount of monazite required by the Indian Rare Earths, whose requirements are now about 3000 tons per year. The present plant at Manavalakurichi is not capable of producing this quantity of monazite and also meets the export commitments for ilmenite. Therefore, the Board of Directors decided to modernise the 2 existing plants at Manavalakurichi so that from the conventional source of raw sands, sufficient monazite could be produced to meet the demands of Indian Rare Earths Ltd., and all the other economic minerals including ilmenite were also recovered .The present sample was received at N.M.L. for systematic investigation and development of a suitable flowsheet for treatment of the beach washings.