Title: Recovery of sillimanite from beach sand of Chhatrapur, Orissa, India and its thermal treatment for refractory application

Authors: Sasmita Prusty, Birendra Kumar Mohapatra, Saroj Kumar Singh, Raghupatruni Bhima Rao

Addresses: Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Bhubaneswar 751 013, India. ' Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Bhubaneswar 751 013, India. ' Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Bhubaneswar 751 013, India. ' Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Bhubaneswar 751 013, India

Abstract: Beach sands of Chhatrapur, Orissa, India comprise about 18% of heavy minerals, mixed with light minerals like quartz and feldspar. Sillimanite, which has refractory applications, accounts for 8% of these heavy minerals. Sillimanite was separated from garnet, monazite, zircon, rutile, ilmenite, magnetite, hematite and pseudo-rutile by combination of spiral, Wet High-Intensity Magnetic Separation (WHIMS) and flotation techniques. The cleaned sillimanite concentrate was then mixed with pure alumina powder in different proportions and treated in an indigenously developed plasma reactor for preparation of mullite refractory material. Out of the three products obtained, sillimanite alumina powder in the ratio of 75 : 25 was found to have the necessary physical and compositional properties suitable for refractory applications.

Keywords: beach placer; sillimanite recovery; mullite; refractory applications; India; beach sand; thermal treatment; refractory materials; sillimanite alumina powder.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMME.2009.029322

International Journal of Mining and Mineral Engineering, 2009 Vol.1 No.4, pp.397 - 408

Published online: 19 Nov 2009 *

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