Titanium deposits (Ti)

Important minerals

• Ilmenite : FeTiO₂ (Hexagonal)
• Rutile : TiO₂ (Tetragonal)
• Anatase : TiO₂ (Tetragonal)
• Brookite : TiO₂ (Orthorhombic)

Types of Deposits :-

• Igneous and metamorphic rocks
  • The titanium minerals, Ilmenite and Rutile generally occurs as accessory minerals in rocks or as magmatic segregation in veins. Ilmenite is also found in metamorphic rocks.
• Placer deposits
  • The above rocks upon weathering give rise to beach and stream placers as Ilmenite as rutile. Monazite and zircon are the common associates in the placer deposits. “The exploitable deposits are mostly these detrital characters”

Indian occurances :-

1. Orissa Sand Complex , Orissa
2. Chavra, in the Quilon district of Kerala
3. Kanyakumari district , Tamilnadu
4. Beach sands of the Ratnagiri coast , Maharashtra

Process of extraction :-

The mining is both manual as well as by hydraulic dredging. The beach sand after sun-drying is fed to electromagnetic and electrostatic separators in a processing plant for physical separation of various mineral constituents.

Alteration :-

Leucoxene is a fine grained alteration product of titanium minerals. It is not a valid mineral species and consists mainly of rutile and anatase. In some igneous rocks and iron ore deposits it is found as a result of alteration of ilmenite, provskite or titanite.