Heavy Mineral Sand

Have you ever seen dark coloured sand on the beach and wondered why it is different from the normally light sand you see everywhere else? In some areas this is due to heavy mineral sand. Normal sand is made of up quartz grains. Quarts is chemically composed of SiO2 and is one of the hardest minerals around. It therefore breaks down very slowly and can accumulate in areas where it is deposited after transport by wind or water. The darker grains are a combination of a number of minerals including Ilmenite, Rutile, Monazite, Zircon and some others. Ilmenite and Rutile is ores of titanium and is beneficiated from it. Monazite contains thorium, a radioactive element which has traditionally been used for the manufacture of gas lamp filaments because it glows white hot when heated in a flame. New nuclear reactors are being developed that can make use of this abundant source of energy instead of traditional Uranium reactors. Zircon contains zirconium which again is currently used in nuclear reactors because of it’s transparency to thermal neutrons. Unfortunately the mining of these sands can damange a marine ecosystem beyond repair so I will keep the place where this photo was taken secret :-)