Deposit types/Titanium minerals, Zirconium (zircon), Rare earths

Heavy mineral sands (shoreline placer)

Narrow bodies of sand rich in ilmenite, rutile and zircon along old beaches and dunes.

What it is

Narrow bodies of sand rich in ilmenite, rutile and zircon along old beaches and dunes.1

How it forms

Waves and wind sort heavy minerals out of sand from deeply weathered high-grade metamorphic terrain. Leaching of iron from ilmenite enriches the deposit.1

Host rocks

Well-sorted fine to medium sand in dune, beach and inlet deposits.1

Where it forms

Stable cratonic margins with long-lived coastlines.1

How old

Commonly Miocene to Holocene1

How geologists look for it

High titanium, zirconium, rare-earth, thorium and uranium; gamma radiometric and induced polarisation anomalies.1

Story cards

Sources

  1. Mineral Deposit Models (Bulletin 1693, Cox and Singer, eds., 1986) US Geological Survey

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Salar de Atacama, Chile, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); Pangkalpinang. Mijn 3b. Een reeks koelies bezig met het transporteeren van grond, Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).