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32
 
Heavy mineral placers
A. R. Gujar 
National Institute of Oceanography, Dona-Paula, Goa-403004agujar@nio.org
Heavy mineral placers
Heavy mineral placer deposit is defined as“Alluvial, [Material (minerals or rocks) transported byrivers and deposited usually at points along the floodplane of river], Elluvial, [Material which is still at or near the points of its formation] and Colluvial [Material whichis transported by gravity], which contains economicquantities of valuable minerals such as gold, tin andplatinum etc. Placer deposit can also be defined as a“mineral deposit formed by the process of mechanicalconcentration of mineral particles from weathereddebris”. These heavy minerals (Table 1) have higher specific gravity (>2.8) and are resistant to chemical andmechanical attack than ordinary rock forming minerals.
Table 1.
Economically important heavy minerals [Ordered in increasingspecific gravity (g/cm
3
)].
Formation
The formation of heavy mineral placers requires aprimary source and it involves processes of 
weathering,erosion, transportation
and
concentration
.
(Cronon,1980)
 
Primary source
Heavy mineral concentrations are generallyderived from the weathering of normal igneous,sedimentary or metamorphic rocks. Typical heavymineral assemblage of these rocks is shown in Table 2.
Table 2.
Selected detrital heavy minerals and their source rocks.
Rocks Heavy minerals present
Granites,granodiorites, rhyolites(acid rocks)Basalts, dolerites,gabbros(basic rocks)Metamorphic rocksPegmatitesHydrothermal veinsMagnetite, monazite,tourmaline, zirconCassiteriteChromite, ilmenite, leucoxene,titanomagnetitemagnetite, rutile, zirconGarnet, leucoxene, magnetite,tourmaline, rutileMonazite, tourmaline, zirconCassiterite, pyrite, wolframite,gold, platinum
Weathering and erosion
Weathering and erosion of the placer mineralsource has to take place in order to release the mineralsconcerned for transportation to their site of deposition. Inthe process of weathering, chemically stable mineralsare not decomposed as the surrounding rocks aredissolved and disintegrated these stable minerals remainunaffected and later subjected to transportation.The process of weathering can be defined as anatural process of disintegration and decomposition of rocks and it is a static process. Generally the companionprocess of weathering is erosion, which is naturalremoval and transportation of weathered material, and isa dynamic process. (Miller) 1964The rate of weathering depends on nature of rocksand conditions of weathering agents, which operate uponthem. In general, the minerals formed at higher temperature are more prone to weathering. This isprobably due to the atomic structure of the minerals. Theweatherability series of rock forming minerals proposedby Goldich (1938) is as below:
Mafic Minerals Felsik MineralsOlivine MostWeatherableCa-plagiocloseCa-Na-plagioclosePyroxene Na. PlagiocloseK. Felspar 
Mineral Sp.GravityHardness
 
Composition
 Tourmaline 3.1 7 NaMg
3
 Al
6
B
3
Si
6
O
27
(OH, F)
4
;Diamond 3.5 10 C;Topaz 3.6 8 Al2SiO4(P, OH)2;Garnet 3.8 - 4.27-7
1/2
 (Fe,Mn,Mg)
3
 Al
2
(SiO
4
)
3
,Corundum 4.0 9 Al
2
O
3
;Rutile 4.2 - 4.36
1/2
 TiO
2
 Chromite 4.3 - 4.65
1/2
 FeCr 
2
O
4
;Ilmenite 4.3 - 5.55
1/2
 FeTiO
3
;Xenotime 4.4 - 5.14
1/2
 YPO
4
;Zircon 4.4 - 4.87
1/2
 ZrSiO
4
;Pyrrhotite 4.5 - 4.6 4 Fe
1
-XS;Magnetite 4.9 - 5.2 6 Fe
3
O
4
;Monazite 4.9 - 5.35
1/2
 (REE, Th)PO
4
;Pyrite 5.06-6
1/2
 FeS
2
;Columbite 5.4 - 6.4 6 (Fe,Mn) (Nb,Ta)
2
O
6
;Scheelite 5.9 - 6.2 5 CaWO
4
;Thorite 6.74
1/2
 ThSiO
4
;Cassiterite 6.8 - 7.06
1/2
 SnO
2
;Wolframite 7.1 - 7.54
1/2
 (Fe,Mn)WO
4
;Uraninite 7.5 - 10 5-6 UO
2
;Cinnabar 8.0 - 8.22
1/2
 HgS;Platinum 14 - 19 4 PtGold 15.6 -19.32
1/2
  Au
 
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 Amphibole MuscoviteQuartzBiotite LeastWeatherable
 Atmospheric gases and temperature changes arethe outstanding weathering agents. Additional help isprovided by water and its dissolved chemicals.Depending upon the agencies involved the weatheringprocess is broadly divided into two types:1) Mechanical weathering/physical weathering, and2) Chemical weathering.
Mechanical weathering
Breaking up of the rock with little or no changes inits composition. It is more confined to the regions of coldclimates. Agencies that are carrying out mechanicalweathering are freezing of water, temperature change,mechanical action caused by organisms and trees etc.Less important agencies are lightning and impact of raindrops etc.
Freezing of water 
In cold climates and on mountain tops, (in the sub-zero temperature zone). Alternate freezing and thawingof water results in breaking up of rocks. Hard rockcontains many joints and fractures. Surface water may fillsuch openings and on freezing this water expand by9.2% of its volume and exerts high pressure, which maywiden the opening or joints. Repeated freezing andthawing finally breaks the rock into fragments.(Macdonald, 1983)
Temperature change
Temperature variations at the earths surface rangefrom about -20 
0 
c to +50 
0 
c 
when rock is subjecttotemperature changes, all parts of the rock do notexpand and contract at equal rates and thereforerepetitive stresses of various intensities are set up whichcause rock to break. This process is effective in barrenand desert areas, where temperatures are more than40
0
C during day time.
Mechanical action of organisms
Both directly and indirectly plants and animalsaccomplish considerable work of rock disintegration.Tree trunks and roots insert themselves in rock cracksand as they grow they exert pressure, which finally leadsto disintegration. The impact of other processes likelightning and raindrops are relatively less significant.
Chemical weathering
Chemical weathering results in breaking up of therock with change in the composition. It is more active inwarm and humid climates where rainfall is more andcontains significant quantity of CO
2
(Carbon dioxide).This maximum rainfall nourishes plant life, which assistchemical activity. Agencies that are carrying outchemical weathering are i) Solution (rain water + CO
2
+decomposed organic acid which acts as solvent for limestones or calcareous sand stones) and ii)carbonation, oxidation and hydration.
Solution
 Gases like oxygen and carbon dioxide getdissolved with rainwater and it becomes weak solution of carbonic acid which acts as solvent. Sometimes thesolvent power is increased by the presence of other acids formed by decomposition of organic matter. Whensuch water acts on rocks, calcareous or lime material isdissolved resulting in disintegration of rock. (Holmes,1965)
Carbonation, oxidation and hydration
Carbon dioxide (carbolic acid), which occurs in air,has power of chemically uniting with some minerals.Thus, rock-containing calcium, iron with which carbolicacid combines to form carbonates of calcium and iron,are easily taken into solution and rock crumbles. (Miller 1964)Oxygen occurs in air and dissolved in water whichcombines with other chemical elements like iron inminerals like Pyrite, nornblande, mica, augite etc anddisintigrate common example is rusting of iron, whereiron combines with oxygen and water.The process of hydration consists of chemicalunion of water with certain compounds like iron inminerals where iron reacts with oxygen to form iron oxideand then unites with water to become brown hydratediron oxide, which is removed. (Miller 1964)
Transport 
Transport of placer minerals takes place mainly byrunning water and with hot dry winds. The unstableproducts of primary source are removed by aqueousprocesses, leaving behind chemically stable mineralscalled placers. These stable minerals either remain inresidual particle or get transported by streams. Further,agitation within the stream causes settling of heavyminerals to the bottom and continuously enrich thedeposit by removing lighter fractions. Transport processwill move the placer minerals to beach zone and mayeven transport further offshore (Cronan 1980)
Concentration
Once liberated from parent rock, placer mineralsget concentrated by hydraulic processes primarilybecause of density contrasts with lighter silicates withwhich they generally occur. Settling velocity of any grainsimmersed in water will depend upon their density if shape and surface textures are similar following the
 
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Stroke’s law. Consequently, the size of the grains thatsettles together on the bed will be inverse function of their density. During transport down the rivers or offshore, a decrease in the energy level of environmentcan lead to their deposition.The minerals are also selectively concentrated bysifting and winnowing away the fine-grained constituentsor by gravity settling in case of large particles. In thisprocess, the minerals, which are initially widelydispersed, get concentrated into deposit of ore grade.This process is more effective on beaches and in thenearshore zone where wave action is predominant. Aswater depth increases, the energy level of depositionalenvironment decreases. As a result, the opportunity of selective concentration of mineral reduces.
Rivers
 Concentration of placer minerals occurs locally inthe rivers draining through suitable source area andwhere the energy level in the river drops sufficiently toallow placers to settle down, e.g., Stream placers of golds, Cassiterite. Emery and Noakes (1968). Rivers andstreams are the most favorable environment for heavyminerals. During the period of sea level lowering manyrivers drained out across the area, what is nowsubmerged and known as continental shelf. Some of these rivers were draining through mineralized area onland and before their submergence got placer mineralsdeposited in their valleys just as some rivers do it on landtoday and the placers in buried valleys are formed(Fig.1).
Beaches
Placer mineral formation on beaches results due toprocess of selective sorting of beach sediments in theinter tidal zone due to waves and currents. During thisprocess the lighter minerals are removed to the offshore,leaving behind the heavy minerals [Fig.1]. Beaches arefavorable sites for light heavy minerals, e.g., ilmenite,magnetite, rutile, zircon etc. whose specific gravityranges between 4.2 to 6. Moderate to high energyenvironmental conditions exist on beaches and suchconditions are required to concentrate placer minerals into a rich deposit. ( Emery and Noakes, 1968) Butseasonal and latitudinal effects can influence beachplacer mineral processes (Cronan, 1980)
Offshore areas
 As indicated before, drowned river valleyscontaining placer minerals occurs on some continentalshelves, eg. cassiterite of Cornwell [U.K. and S.E. Asia].The second occurrence of offshore placer comprisesthose formed in the past on ancient beaches but nowsubmerged. Many continental shelves containsubmerged terraces, which were once, beaches and aregenerally parallel to the present coast eg. Ratnagiricoast, Maharashtra, India (Ramana et.al; 1990, Gujar and Guptha 1993)Placer concentration of limited sizecan be occur due to submarine erosion of mineralizedbed rocks on the sea floor. In addition transport of placer minerals from land and their deposition in the offshore or by submergence of coastal tract. Offshore placer deposits can be formed eg. Offshore ilmenite deposits of Konkan Maharashtra. (Siddiquie et.a; 1982,Rajamanickam, 1983, Gujar 1996 and references citedtherein).
Classification
Heavy mineral placers are grouped according totheir sp. gravity into three groups: (Emery and Noakes,1963)Heavy.Heavy minerals (Sp.gr. 6.8 –21.): Platinum,Gold, CassiteriteLight heavy minerals (Sp.gr. 4.2 – 5.3): Ilmenite,Zircon, Rutile, MonaziteGemstone (Sp.gr. 2.9 – 4.1): Diamonds.
Heavy Heavy minerals
This group consists of minerals and metals likegold, platinum, and cassiterite. These placers occur mainly in streams, near to their source, because of their high sp. gravity. Intrusive igneous rocks andmetamorphic rocks are mostly the primary source for heavy placers (Table 3).
Table 3.
Important Placer Deposits of the world.
Country Climatic zone Mineral Deposit Present Studies
 Australia Arid/temperate Ilmenite,zircon.Monazite,rutileOnshore depositsexploited. Offshoreexploration completedin some parts.Canada Glacial, cold Gold,cassiteriteExploration completedChina HumidtemperatureZircon,ilmeniteOffshore explorationin processIndia Humid tropical Ilmenitemagnetite,zircon,monazite,rutileOnshore depositsunder exploitation,offshore explorationcompleted in someareas.Indonesia Humid tropical Cassiterite Exploitation inprogressJapan Humid tropical Ilmenite,magnetiteExplorationcompleted,exploitation at fewplaces in progress.Malaysia Humid tropical Cassiterite Exploration in processNewZealand Arid/temperate Gold,ilmenite,Zircon,Exploration in processSouth Africa Arid/HumidtropicalDiamond,ilmenite,zirconExploration in processfor gemstones, andfor ilmenite & zirconexploration completedSri Lanka Humid tropical Ilmenite,zircon,monaziteExploration complete(partly)
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