Black Monazite sand deposits found on beaches (India)

Black Monazite sand deposits found on beaches (India)

Rare Earth Element REE:

Medallion's thesis is that most junior rare earth element explorers are ignoring two critical needs for success in the sector:

· Fast track to production by 2015 as Chinese exports decrease and worldwide demand rises.

· Low cost production of REEs thru large tonnage economies of scale and simple extractive metallurgy.

To achieve these goals the company is pursuing two types of deposits:

· REE-bearing heavy mineral sands produced nearly all of the world's supply from the first commercial applications in the early 1900s until Molycorp put Mountain Pass in production in the early 1950s. Placer mines were operated in North Carolina, India, Brazil, Malaysia, Madagascar, and Mozambique and recovered monazite as the world's sole source of REEs:
1906 Postcard of British Monazite Mine (Photo Courtesy of University of North Carolina)

Modern-day heavy mineral sands are exploited mainly for titanium and zirconium minerals. In the recent past, monazite recovery and REE extraction was a by-product of these large dredge, dragline, or truck and shovel operations. There has been little world production of monazite from these mines since India ceased exports seven years ago.

Heavy Mineral Sands Mine in Southern India

That said, on February 18 Japan and India signed an agreement gradually eliminating tariffs over the next decade. The treaty included a strategic alliance for Toyota to secure 6000 tonnes per annum of rare earth element chlorides from state-owned India Rare Earths Limited. The intent is to recover monazite from the waste tails of heavy mineral sands operations currently mined for ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene, zircon, and/or garnet.

Monazite is REE-rich, generally containing about 60% rare earth oxides. But since monazite is a thorium-bearing mineral, there are environmental concerns about disposal of radioactive thorium. Currently monazite is not recovered from heavy mineral sands operations. Therefore, it is concentrated in the waste tails after economically recoverable metals are removed. Recovering monazite would remove the radioactive component from the tails and render them more environmentally benign.

Monazite has been a commercial source of rare earth elements for over a hundred years and there are standard methods for concentrating and extracting REEs from it. Monazite and bastnaesite (the ore mineral at Mountain Pass, California and Bayan Obo, China) are the two major rare earth minerals that have been commercially processed with economic success.

At this time, the key steps in processing monazite are separating the rare earths from the thorium, which is a simple chemical procedure, and then safely disposing of the thorium. Monazite was initially mined for thorium but there is no current market. The governments of India and Brazil are interested in re-establishing thorium as a source of nuclear power and India is presently researching and developing thorium nuclear-power potential. In the past it has stockpiled thorium in anticipation of further developments in the field and may continue to do so.

Medallion Resources recognizes the potential of monazite for REEs and has targeted heavy mineral sands operations as a source for production. The company is investigating mines and hopes to enter into an off-take agreement for waste tailings from which monazite can be economically recovered.

http://resourcestockdigest.com/company_specific_commentary/index.php?&content_id=1848

India’s Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) would permit private miners to process beach sand and supply monazite tailings to the government-owned Indian Rare Earths Limited (IREL) to increase the latter’s capacity to extract thorium and uranium. Source: http://djysrv.blogspot.in/

The DAE hoped to secure supplies of at least one-million tons of thorium from beach sand processed by private miners, and increase the supply of monazite to IREL.

Sand containing Monazite in Kerala Sea Beach, India. Thorium found abundantly in beach sands of Kerala and Orissa Deposits of 225,000 tonne of thorium approx. BARC websitehttp://www.barc.ernet.in/reactor/tfc_thri.html
The coastal belt of Karunagappally, Kerala, India, is known for high background radiation from thorium-containing monazite sand. See article by Raghu Ram K. Nair et al. on page 55 for more information. Source: Health Physics Society Journal January 2009, Volume 96, Number 1http://hps.org/hpspublications/journalarchive/118-2009.html

MONAZITE
The Future Energy
Monazite Sand is a reddish-brown phosphate mineral sand containing rare-earth metals. Thorium and the lanthanides are typically the rare-earth metals found in the Monazite sands we offer. The Thorium content is at 5-10% while the Lanthanides present are cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, praseodymium, and minor quantities of samarium, gadolinium, and yttrium.

monazite-Ce (Ce, La, Pr, Nd, Th, Y)PO4
monazite-La (La, Ce, Nd, Pr)PO4
monazite-Nd (Nd, La, Ce, Pr)PO4
monazite-Pr (Pr, Nd, Ce, La)PO4
The elements in parentheses are listed in the order in which they are in relative proportion within the mineral, so that lanthanum is the most common rare earth in monazite-La, and so forth. Silica, SiO2, will be present in trace amounts, as will small amounts of uranium and thorium. Due to the alpha decay of thorium and uranium, monazite contains a significant amount of helium, which can be extracted by heating.

Monazite is an important ore for thorium, lanthanum, and cerium. It is often found in placer deposits. The deposits in India are particularly rich in monazite. It has a hardness of 5.0 to 5.5 and is relatively dense, about 4.6 to 5.7 g/cm3.

Because of the presence of thorium within monazite, it can be radioactive. If samples are kept, they should be placed away from minerals that can be damaged by radiation. Because of its radioactive nature, the monazite within rocks is a useful tool for dating geological events, such as heating or deformation of the rock.

The name monazite comes from the Greek μοναζειν (to be solitary), in allusion to its isolated crystals. India, Madagascar, and South Africa have large deposits of monazite sands.

Further reading

R.J. Callow, The Industrial Chemistry of the Lanthanons, Yttrium, Thorium and Uranium, Pergamon Press 1967. LCCN 67-14541
C.K. Gupta, N. Krishnamurthy, Extactive Metallurgy of Rare Earths, CRC Press, 2005, ISBN 0-415-33340-7
Price List, Lindsay Chemical Division, American Potash and Chemical Corporation, 1960
R.C. Vickery, Chemistry of the Lanthanons, Butterworths and Academic Press, 1953
J.C. Bailar et al., Comprehensive Inorganic Chemistry, Pergamon Press, 1973

http://omegagroup.com.ng/monazite.html

Purity: 99.5%
Monazite sand. 

This is the main phosphate ore from which all the lanthanides are obtained, although increasingly production is moving over the to main alternative - bastnasite - which is free of the radioactive element thorium. Sands like this can be found on a number of beaches around the world, notably in India and Brazil. The monazite itself are the darker grains with a reddish tinge. These are relatively heavy (which is why they are concentrated in sands) and they can be separated by gravity methods. Because of the thorium contained in the monazite, such beaches are not very healthy places to be. Background radiation levels are well above the safety thresholds in nuclear reactor buildings!
Source: eBay
Size: Coarse sand
Purity: La up to 20%

http://theodoregray.com/PeriodicTableDisplay/Elements/057/index.s9.html

Black deposits found on beach

Santosh Patnaik
Experts identify them as heavy beach minerals
They are found on the beach due to severe heat and precipitation of wind velocity from the hills

They are useful for defence applications, painting, and chemical industries

— Photo: K.R. Deepak 

Rich and useful: A thick layer of black sand on the beach in Visakhapatnam.
VISAKHAPATNAM: Sunday revellers were greeted with a thick layer of black sand deposits on the beaches of Visakhapatnam.

Though the deposits triggered speculation that it could be due to coal dust getting into the channel at the Visakhapatnam or due to heavy discharge of drainage water into the sea, experts identified them as heavy beach minerals found all along the coast from Cuttack to Central Tamil Nadu.

The sand deposits found on Sunday at RK and Lawson's Bay beaches were iron black or steel-grey to look at. “Going by the composition and look, it could be magnetic titanium-iron oxide mineral,” a mining official said.

“This is not a rare phenomenon and all the beaches in the North Andhra are known for getting rich deposits of beach minerals. If put into use properly, this will help the economy grow further and generate employment opportunities to many,” C. Kasipathi, Head of the Department of Geology, Andhra University, told The Hindu.

Resistant and heavy minerals with specific gravity constitute beach placers. Beach placers are found all along the coast by wave and wind action.

They contain heavy minerals like ilmenite, zircon, rutile, monazite, garnet and sillimanite.

The placers are also referred to as black sands and heavy mineral beach sands by the experts.

Though several social activists and environmentalists express doubts over the threat of beach erosion due to plans for extraction of beach minerals, Prof. Kasipathi said that due to advanced technology, the catching and separation of minerals would be done in such a way that the white sand on the beaches would not be tampered with causing no damage at all to the beach safety. The minerals are found on the beach due to severe heat, rains and precipitation of wind velocity from the hills. Heavy beach minerals are useful for defence applications, manufacturing material for aircraft and painting/chemical industries.

AP Mineral Development Corporation has big plans for utilisation of beach minerals. Two factories are in operation in Srikakulam.

Another proposal is awaiting environmental clearance to allow a Swiss multinational to set up titanium sponge and titanium metal industry with an investment of Rs.4,000 crore.

http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/20/stories/2011062060070300.htm


India set for new nuclear age
3 Comments
Author(s): Ankur Paliwal
Date: Dec 15, 2011
Hunt on for the site of the world’s first thorium-based plant. But is it safe?


INDIA is ready to build its first large-scale, thorium-fuelled nuclear power reactor. A radioactive element, thorium is considered safer than conventional nuclear fuel uranium.

The Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR), to be built by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), will be the world’s first. While the design of the experimental reactor is confirmed, BARC is finalising its site. “Construction will begin as soon as site inspection is over and statutory approvals are granted,” says Ratan Kumar Sinha, BARC director. The project will be completed in six years, he adds. The reactor will have 300 MW capacity. It is expected to consume about 12 tonnes of thorium annually. India has one of the largest thorium reserves; about 0.63 million tonnes, according to the Department of Atomic Energy (DEA). “So it makes sense to have such reactors,” says Sinha.

Thorium is extracted from monazite ore, found in beach and river sand (see map). It has significant advantages over uranium.

In nature, thorium occurs as thorium-232, which is not fissile (capable of sustaining a chain reaction of nuclear fission). It has to be irradiated with fissile uranium, uranium-235, or plutonium-239, to turn it into fissile uranium-233. “The conversion of thorium-232 to uranium-233 is three times faster than that of uranium-238 to plutonium-239,” says Sinha. In conventional reactors, fissile uranium-235 or uranium-238 gets converted into plutonium-239 to produce power.

Thorium is also chemically more stable. The radioactivity of the waste generated from thorium is lower than that produced by uranium. Thorium is also three to four times more abundant than uranium, adds Sinha. “Uranium resources are meagre and most of it is imported.”

It is widely reported that thorium plants are safer as their end product is not plutonium, as in the case of conventional plants. Plutonium is widely used in nuclear weapons. This minimises the chances of weapon proliferation. But Arjun Makhijani, president of Institute of Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) in USA, is not convinced. “The naturally occurring uranium ore contains 0.7 per cent uranium-235, which needs to be enriched to irradiate thorium. This enriched form can be used to make nuclear weapons,” he says. Besides, byproducts of the use of uranium-233 include highly radioactive isotope, uranium-232. “These challenges are being addressed by DEA,” says Sinha.

There are other concerns too. No technology has been tested so far to prove the commercial feasibility of thorium-fuelled reactors.

China, Japan, USA and the UK have announced plans to build thorium-based power plants but are yet to move ahead. But BARC claims to have generated enough data during the past five decades to prove that thorium can be used in a commercial and sustainable way. Since safety is the most pressing issue in nuclear plants, BARC says it has taken the best safety measures. These include use of natural circulation of coolant that transports heat to deal with shutdown conditions and station blackouts.

Asked if thorium extraction could cause any environmental degradation, Sinha says, “Mining of beach sand for monazite does not spoil the beach as after ore is removed, the balance sand is returned.”

Slow march

The thorium reactor will take India close to the third phase of its Nuclear Power Programme, which started 40 years ago. The ongoing first stage uses uranium in Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors. The second stage will be demonstrated by the plutonium-fuelled Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor in Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu. It is expected to start in 2012.

M R Srinivasan, former chairperson of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd, says generation was forecast to touch 20,000 MW by 2020, but the expected installation is 15,000 MW.

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/india-set-new-nuclear-age


mining for strategic mineral, monazite
This issue is linked with Rama Setu. Significant quantities of placer deposits of the strategic mineral are in the Setu region along the short coastline close to Kanyakumari, Aluva, Chavara, Manavalankurichi. See GSI map of Tamilnadu minerals. It is disturbing to see politicking as usual on this strategic issue.
This issue is also linked with the ongoing Indo-US nuclear deal with the supercop expecting increased dependence of India’s nuke program on uranium purchases from the nuclear fuel suppliers’ group (instead of using the indigenous, thorium alternative).

This note is about effective retrieval of strategic mineral, monazite. Its importance for the nation’s nuclear programme should be clear. (I hope so; in any case, see

http://www.barc.ernet.in/webpages/about/anu1.htm 

).

The following reports show a disturbing trend after privatisation of mining operations in 2000. Even the CM of Tamilnadu uses the Hindi word (!) dada in relation to the politicking on such a strategic issue. A serious situation, indeed.

Some thoughts to ponder, in national interest. The summary of the news item in Tamil is this: Tata’s titanium project in Sattankulam will be reviewed further. A dada operates ‘garnet’ sands business. Partner parties of DMK seem to be opposed to the Tata project proposal.

What is at stake is not merely titanium or garnet, but building up thorium reserves. The attempts at building a thorium reactor will become redundant if the reserves are allowed to be depleted or desiccated for temporary gains.

k

Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD) carries out survey, prospecting and exploration of atomic minerals required for the Nuclear Power Programme of the country. The main R&D oriented activities of the Directorate include assessment, evaluation, character-isation, and categorisation of atomic minerals, design and fabrication of radiometric instruments and development of ore extraction flow sheets…

Beach Sand and Off-Shore Investigations

Assessment and evaluation of heavy mineral deposits along coastal tracts in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala was continued.

A potential heavy mineral rich zone was identified near Inayam, Kanya-kumari district, Tamil Nadu, where total heavy minerals (THM) associated with teri sands were of the order of 35%. Preliminary estimation indicated a reserve of 2.2 million tonnes THM with 79% titanium minerals.

Reports/executive summaries on different heavy mineral deposits were prepared and supplied to IREL and private agencies.

Export consignment of over 1,84,000 MT garnet sands and 5000 MT ilmenite pertaining to private entrepreneurs and over 1,39,800 MT ilmenite and 1400 MT sillimanite pertaining to IREL were sampled for issuance of monazite test certificate.
http://www.dae.gov.in/ar2001/p27.jpg Heavy mineral rich Inayam Teri Sand Deposit, Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu

…

Mining Plan approval:

Scrutiny of mining plans in respect of atomic minerals was continued as per the provisions of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulations) Act, 1957. Seven mining plans in respect of mining of ilmenite, rutile and garnet pertaining to M/s. V.V. Minerals, Tamil Nadu were approved after scrutiny. No Objection Certificates in respect of 4 mining plans pertaining to mining of garnet in Rajasthan were issued to IBM.

http://www.dae.gov.in/ar2001/amd.htm

Plea against mining firm dismissed

Staff Reporter (July 5, 2007, The Hindu)

MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a writ appeal filed by the Kanyakumari Collector against the lease granted to V.V. Minerals, a Tirunelveli-based company, to mine beach garnet (used as gemstones and abrasives) in the district.

Managing partner of the company, S. Vaikuntarajan, is a major shareholder in Jaya TV. A Division Bench, comprising Justices K. Ravirajapandian and P.R. Shivakumar, dismissed the appeal on the ground that the Collector, statutorily a lower authority, could not question the lease granted by the Director of Geology and Mining. Even if its grant had to be questioned on the ground of illegality, it could be done so only by means of a revision petition before the Centre, the Bench said. The appeal was filed against an order passed by the single judge on May 9, directing the Collector to execute the lease deed in favour of the company in accordance with the lease granted by the Director of Mining on January 31, 2006. The Collector claimed that the single judge had failed to take note of the fact that permitting mining work along the shore might lead to intrusion of sea water and erosion in nearby villages. He said the beach sand would contain monazite, a mineral capable of causing radioactivity. Dumping the monazite, after separating it from raw sand, could endanger public health.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/07/05/stories/2007070557600300.htm

Need to regularise garnet sand export

P. Sudhakar (Oct. 19, 2005 The Hindu)

http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/19/images/2005101914270701.jpg

VALUE-ADDED PRODUCT: The mineral deposit on the beach at Vattakkottai near Kanyakumari. — Photo: A. Shaikmohideen

TIRUNELVELI: The recent ransacking of a garnet sand export unit in the district has once again highlighted the need for stringent measures to regularise the business, which has proved very “lucrative” for some of those involved in it.

When beach sand is separated through a series of physical and chemical processes, it yields a range of costly minerals including garnet sand, ilmenite, rutile, casseterite, monazite etc. As the value-added products of garnet and ilmenite enjoy heavy demand in the international market, several units have come up in Tuticorin and Tirunelveli districts in the past two decades.

Though the business took roots on the beaches between Uvari and Kanyakumari in 1974-1975, when a Tuticorin-based company started mining beach sand and separating garnet sand from it for export, the boom came much later, after it attracted business from Tirunelveli district. With the assistance of a key person who was ousted from a Tuticorin-based garnet sand exporting company, business flourished, due to a variety of reasons.

“Even though our ancestors lived in this area, they fully relied upon the wealth of the sea for their livelihood. But these people, who mined products deposited on the seashore and the adjoining land just minted money, to the tune of several crores, within a few years,” says 55-year-old S.V. Antony, president of Uvari village panchayat and student of geology.

Residents of all coastal hamlets between Uvari and Kanyakumari allege that the companies invariably use heavy earthmoving equipment for mining, ignoring the official restriction that deposition of sand on the beach can be mined only for a few centimetres. Moreover, after separating the costly minerals, the used sand is not used to fill the spot from where it was excavated. “It causes adverse ecological imbalances. One company has dug a channel to get the ore from deep seabed and this has affected fishing, because of the chemicals used during processing. But authorities have not taken any action. This is the main reason for skirmishes between the companies and the neighbouring villagers, who are ignorant about the regulations on the companies,” he said.

But V. Venkataramani of Fisheries College and Research Institute, Tuticorin, says merely taking away the beach sand and dumping the used sand back in the sea will not affect fish breeding, provided the chemically treated sand contained chemicals within permissible limits. “But the seaside mining will affect turtle breeding,” he warns.

The villagers as well as social activists here feel that the dos and don’ts laid down by the State and Central governments for this business should be transparent and in public domain so that people can alert the officials when things go wrong. “That would be the only effective solution to prevent the recurrence of such clashes,” feels Mr. Antony.
VALUE-ADDED PRODUCT: The mineral deposit on the beach at Vattakkottai near Kanyakumari. — Photo: A. Shaikmohideen

http://www.hindu.com/2005/10/19/stories/2005101914270700.htm

http://tinyurl.com/yt9zhs

http://kalyan97.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/491/



Thorium in India

Pranjal Bordia
March 21, 2012

Submitted as coursework for PH241, Stanford University, Winter 2012


Fig. 1: Map of thorium distribution in India. [3]
In year 2010-2011, India met a deficit of 8.5% on base electricity load. For a country like India, it might look a small number. However, this is above and over the fact that 300 million people in India are already outside the electricity grid (out of 1.4 billion global). [1] Hence, along with expanding the power grid the country actively needs to go further in producing electricity.

Historically, India was kept outside the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty from 1970 because of its nuclear weapon development program. Due to these trade restrictions, its nuclear program went through a slow evolution. However, at the same time, it was able to develop its own nuclear reactor designs and aware of its Thorium reserves, it has been uniquely developing Thorium nuclear reactors.

Of the currently known world thorium reserves, India has a mammoth share - ranging from 25-30% of the total of 1,160 thousand tonnes. [3] This coupled with the growing need for energy and restrictions on Uranium trade had made India's inclination towards Thorium reactors obvious. Its main source is the Monazite deposits, which occur essentially in the entire peninsula. There are also inland resources in the Ranchi plateau. Apart from there are scattered deposits in the Gujrat region, Bihar and inner Tamil Nadu. However, the bottom line remains that the estimation of the distribution of these deposits demands considerable improvements and there is large incentive for further exploration. [See Fig. 1.]

Thorium, which is a "fertile" substance but not a "fissile" substance by itself, requires work to be usable. This is a three step process. It starts with using Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) and light water reactors to convert natural uranium to plutonium. Next the neutrons from plutonium breed U-233 from Thorium. The final stage, Advanced Heavy Water reactors burn U-233 with Thorium, and about 66% of power is generated from Thorium fission. [2]

India has recently demonstrated world's first prototype of reactor using this fuel. Although, the title of a "safer" fuel remains controversial, India believes it to be a safer fuel. "The basic physics and engineering of the thorium-fuelled Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) are in place, and the design is ready," said Ratan Sinha, director of Bhabha Atomic Research Center in Mumbai. [4]

Energy demand of the current world is only going to get higher. With more and more industrialization and people, energy demand is going to be higher than ever. With world's manufacturing sector moving into India and China, there is an immense amount of energy need in Asia's sphere. There has also been a dramatic increase in price of coal and petroleum in recent years especially in India. In such a scenario, a constant price offered by abundant Thorium fuel and Nuclear Energy can be nothing short of a boon for a country like India. India plans to expand its nuclear sector to provide about 63GW of power by 2032 and gradually increase it to 25% by 2050. [5]

Though, it looks like an ideal picture, India still has to successfully demonstrate a working Thorium based reactor, being able to deal with nuclear waste disposal with minimum environmental affect, and built successfully an energy grid to support this supply.

© Pranjal Bordia. The author grants permission to copy, distribute and display this work in unaltered form, with attribution to the author, for noncommercial purposes only. All other rights, including commercial rights, are reserved to the author.

References

[1] "Load Generation Balance Report 2011-12," Central Electricity Authority, Ministry of Power, Government of India, LGBR 2011-12, May 2011.

[2] "Annual Report 2009-2010," Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, 2010.

[3] K. M. V. Jayaram, "An Overview of World Thorium Resources, Incentives for Further Exloration and Forecast for Thorium Requirements in the Near Future," in "Thorium-Based Nuclear Fuel: Current Status and Perspectives," International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA-TECDOC-412, March 1987.

[4] M. Rahman, "India Plans 'Safer' Nuclear Plant Powered by Thorium," The Guardian, 1 Nov 11.

[5] "Nuclear Power: India's Sustainable Route to Low-Carbon Energy," Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited, 24th Annual Report 2010-11, September 2011, p. 83.

http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2012/ph241/bordia1/




In the nuclear power programme of the country, uranium plays the key role. The first stage of three-stage programme of the Department is based on PHWRs which are fuelled by natural uranium. The second stage envisages utilization of plutonium produced in the first stage and the third stage is based on thorium fuel. Therefore, apart from uranium, AMD has also been engaged in locating and evaluating the mineral resources of thorium and other nuclear raw materials, such as zirconium, beryllium, lithium, etc. required for implementing the above programme. These minerals, such as ilmenite, rutile (titanium minerals), zircon (zirconium mineral), monazite (thorium and REE mineral) along with garnet and sillimanite, occur abundantly along the eastern and western coastal plains of the country as well as in some inland placers of Tamil Nadu, Bihar and West Bengal. Amongst these, ilmenite, rutile, zircon and monazite are grouped as ‘prescribed substances’ under the Atomic Energy Act, 1962. AMD has the mandate to explore and evaluate the resources of these minerals. Of the nearly 6000 km. coastal length of the country nearly one third has been explored so far and a large tonnages of these minerals established. 









Uses

The beach sand and inland placer minerals find wide application in both atomic energy and other industries. The salient uses of these minerals are:

Ilmenite: It is a source mineral for titanium. It is used in garter springs of a nuclear reactor and as titanium pigment, titanium metal, and sand blasting

Rutile: titanium pigment, titanium metal, welding rod flux

Leucoxene: titanium pigment, welding rod flux

Zircon: Zircalloys as cladding material for nuclear fuel, opacifier/ pigments for ceramics, refractories, zirconium metal production, abrasives

Monazite: source for thorium, rare earth elements

Garnet: Abrasives

Sillimanite: Refractories

Resources 

There are 27 deposits of beach sand and inland placer minerals identified so far along the coastline and inland placers of India. The total resources established in these deposits are given in Table.

Policy Resolution on Beach Sand Minerals

http://www.amd.gov.in/work/bsoi_map.htm


Considering the large resource base of these minerals and growing demand for their value added products it was decided by the Government to allow Private Sector participation in this highly capital intensive field. Accordingly, DAE has issued Policy Resolution, 1998 allowing participation of entrepreneurs in

(i) Mining and Mineral separation

(ii) Value addition per se to the products of (i) above

(iii) Integrated activities (Comprising both (i) and (ii) above)

Executive Summaries

Various summary and detailed reports on beach sand mineral deposits are now made available to entrepreneurs on payment basis at a cost which will be intimated on specific request. The list of executive summaries currently available for sale are given in Table.

The reports on any other area, not listed above, can be generated by AMD on specific request.

Details of Approved Mine Plans pertaining to Private Enterprises in Tamil Nadu

http://www.amd.gov.in/work/bsoi.htm