Characterization and pretreatment for silica sand in removing the associated mineral
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Date
2017-07
Authors
Muhammad Nadzmi Bin Ruslan
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Abstract
In present study, the characterisation and pretreatment for silica sand in removing
associated mineral was done using spiral concentrator and magnetic separator. The main
aim of this investigation is to upgrade the silica content of the beach sand for glassmaking
process. Firstly, the particle size distribution analysis, XRD analysis and XRF analysis
were carried out on the raw sample at the initial stage of the investigation. The unknown
mineral or impurities mineral which different in colour properties than silica sand is
separated to undergoes XRD analysis. Based on XRD analysis results, it can be noted that
some of the unknown mineral is magnetite, biotite and muscovite. The raw sample was
sieved to prepare the feed sample in the size range -600+75µm, which was suitable
particle size range for glassmaking process. From XRF analysis results, it was observed
that, maximum silica content of 99.1098% flow in tailing channel as concentrate in this
study. Although the maximum silica content achieved is suitable for glassmaking, the
ferric oxide content crossed the limit permitted by the British Standard Specification for
glassmaking. Hence, the raw sample used is not suitable for glassmaking. However,
based on XRD analysis results, the magnetic separation process are taken due to present
of magnetite mineral. From the XRF results, the silica content from concentrate channel
are increase to 99.3906%. In addition, it can be seen under the microscope after the
magnetic separation process, there are ferric oxide or black mica that still interlocking at
silica grains. The raw sample must further purifying process in order to increase the silica
content and to remove the impurities from the sample