Exploration of ilmenite potential in and around Kalu and Benthara river mouths with special reference to the variation of TiO2 content along a selected strech of Kalu Ganga

Abstract

Although Ilmanite, Rutil, Zircon and Monazite occurs in beach sand of Sri Lanka, the sufficiently concentrated deposits for economic exploitation have been only identified yet in and around Pulmoddai, Baruwala and Kudremalai beaches. Of these, Pulmoddai is the largest beach sand deposit ever found in Sri Lanka, which is estimated to contain nearly, 4,000,000 tons of raw sand. However it has been noticed that beach mineral sand occurrence in many other parts of the country and detail investigation has not been carried out yet in those areas. Exploitation has been carried out only in Pulmoddai which is located near the rebels control areas. Since 1998 with production coming to a stand still, the Pulmoddai plant which a government own company is confined to selling its existing stockpile with Zircon and Rutile being bagged and transported to Colombo and exported. Therefore finding an alternative source to supply the demand of the export market to earn foreign exchange is a prior necessity of the country. Therefore this study was carried out to identify ilmenite potential in and around Kalu and Benthara river mouths and investigation has been carried out to identify the variation of Ti02 content in ilmenite along the Kalu Ganga track by sand sediment analysis. Gravity and the magnetic separation processes were employed for the processing of the sand samples. Results show that the particle size of Ilmenite in both river mouths deposits were reported in the range of+ l25J.lIl1to +250~tm sizeand this may mainly depend on grain size, flow velocity of the river, distance travel as well as energy of the sea waves. Variation of the titanium content in ilmenite along the Kalu Ganga can be concluded may due to the replacement of Fe in Ilmenite with another foreign element available in the river.