Preliminary Investigation of the Contained Economic Minerals of Sand Deposits in the Northern Border Region, Saudi Arabia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29227/IM-2026-01-01-028Keywords:
economic minerals, heavy liquid separation, magnetic separation, microscopic examinationAbstract
Generally, the surficial sand deposit samples of the selected areas exhibit friable characters and heterogamous grain size distribution consist mostly of pebble, granule and sand as well as fine sizes less than the very coarse silt. The mineralogical studies revealed that the studied sand deposits exactly display a relatively narrow range of the total heavy contents varies from 1.3% to 5.3% with an average of about 2.8%. EDX microanalyses exactly revealed the existence of intimate coherence of some heavy economic minerals series such as magnetite, ilmenite, leucoxene and rutile beside, hematite. Moreover, some accessory minerals as zircon, garnet and monazite have been visually distinguished. Essentially, magnetite and ilmenite minerals are mostly predominance Accordingly, the variation in the heavy mineral contents in the surficial sand deposit samples along the northern periphery of Saudi Arabia Kingdom strongly suggestive of diverse in the locality; surely, the major paleowadis in the Arabian Peninsula of the northern Najd and Hijaz areas. Consequently, it may reflects the economic importance of northern borders region along Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Hence, it may plays a crucial role in construction and development of mineral processing projects.
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