Current Science International Volume : 09 | Issue : 03| July- Sept.

| 2020
EISSN:2706-7920 ISSN: 2077-4435 Pages: 535-546
DOI: 10.36632/csi/2020.9.3.47
Economic and Environmental Study for Added Value of Separation, Treatment and
Process of Egyptian Black Sand Monazite Practical Study (Nuclear Material
Authority)
Abear F. Ali1, Hamed I. Mira2 and Gehad S. Brakat3
1
Faculty of Commerce, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
2
Nuclear Materials Authority, Egypt.
3
MSc Student, Faculty of Commerce, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
Received: 05 August 2020 / Accepted 10 Sept. 2020 / Publication date: 30 Sept. 2020

ABSTRACT
The River Nile is the second longest river in the world, and carries huge amounts of sediments
derived from the denudation of the rock suites all along its course and path. Most of these sediments
are including black sands, which derived from mainly the Ethiopian source, which is dominated by
igneous and metamorphic rocks. These sediments rich of heavy economic minerals have been
deposited along the northern beaches of its branches on the delta coast. The heavy economic minerals
include Magnetite, Ilmenite, Rutile, Garnet, Zircon, and Monazite. Monazite is the principal sources
of the rare earths, and has been the principal source of thorium. The rare earths in monazite became
progressively more important. Rare earth metals are essential ingredients for modern industry and the
in development of high technology products in our daily lives. During the last three decades, there has
been an explosion in the applications of REE and their alloys in several technology devices such as
computer memory, DVDs, rechargeable batteries, autocatalytic converters, super magnets, mobile
phones, LED lighting, superconductors, glass additives, fluorescent materials, phosphate binding
agents, solar panels and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agents.

Keywords: Black Sand, Monazite, Rare earth elements (REEs), Dredger, Spiral.

Introduction

1. Synopsis on the Black Sands in Egypt

The River Nile is the second longest river in the world, its length reaches about 6500 km from
its sources in Central Africa to its outlets in the Mediterranean. The Nile Basin includes 10 countries
they are from the source to the outlets; (Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda,
Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt). Its waters originate from two main sources: the
Abbysinean Plateau and the northern Lake Region of the Central African Plateau, this long river
carries huge amounts of sediments derived from the denudation of the rock suites all along its course
and path. Most of these sediments are including black sands, which derived from mainly the Ethiopian
source, which is dominated by igneous and metamorphic rocks. From these sediments, exceptionally
the fertile soil have been deposited on the lower reaches of its valley in Sudan and Egypt. Also, rich
placer deposits of heavy economic minerals have been deposited along the northern beaches of its
branches on the delta coast.
The geology of the beach sands along the Mediterranean coast is directly related to the
development of the Nile Delta and its past branches.
The origin of the black sand deposits along the Delta and Sinai coasts has discussed; by Shukri
(1950), he concluded that, the River Nile sediments outpoured into the Mediterranean Sea are the
main source of these deposits. When the water of the river and its load enter the Mediterranean Sea,
its velocity decreases abruptly to the laws of deposition. Though, the heavy and coarse grains have
been deposited very near to the outpouring, while the fine and light mineral grains were transported
long distance to be deposited far from the shore.
The British Black Sands Company started the exploration of heavy minerals from the Egyptian
black sands for the purpose of marketing some heavy minerals (zircon, ilmenite, and rutile). This
company was nationalized in 1961 under the name: the Egyptian Company for the Black Sand
Products (ECBSP). It finished this work in 1971.
Corresponding Author: Hamed I. Mira, Nuclear Materials Authority, Egypt.
E-mail: hamedmira@[Link]
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According to Kuenan (1962), the Nile River carries about million m3 of sediments to the
Mediterranean Sea every year. The solid matter constitutes about 15-45% of the sand fractions; the
rest are silt and clay. This enormous quantity of sediments have been outpoured through the present
Rashid and Domiat mouths, as well as through the outpourings of the seven old extent Nile branches (
Fig. 1) during the last century (Ball, 1942).

Fig. 1: Shows the old Nile branches

The deposited sand grains, are characterized by a narrow range of hydraulic equivalence and
immediately subjected to the dynamic action of waves, and currents which play an important role in
the sorting of heavy minerals grains. These sediments are pushed towards the beaches and the
submerged offshore sandbars by displacement in suspension and saltation.
Through this phase of transportation under the seawater in the shelf area, the grains undergo an
effective action of sorting (Hammoud, 1973). The subsequent wind action transports, some of these
sediments accumulated as sand dunes along the beach (Sadek et al., 1988). Heavy minerals occurred
mainly in the aeolian sand dune belts, that extended from El Burullus at the west to Gamsa at the east,
as well as sand dunes of Idku, and those along the northern coast of Sinai.
The Rashid placer deposits were formed under the following favorable conditions: a) the beach
is large and flat, and the slope of the continental shelf has low relief in order to permit the
concentration of sands by the action of waves, b) the coast is exposed toward the prevailing direction
of strong winds, and c) the bottom sediments are mainly consist of loose sands as it is usually the case
in the deltaic facies. All the above conditions are fulfilled at Rashid, as well as some other localities
along the shores of the Nile Delta (Rittman and Nakhla, 1958). The beach sands of Rashid are will
sorted due to the combined action of waves and winds. These black sands are characterized by
extreme stratigraphic variability, and great irregularity of their distribution and extension along the
northern coasts (Ritmann an Nakhla 1958). The deposition of the major part of the transported black
sands at Rashid is due mainly to the fact that the volume of the detrital materials transported by
Rashid branch which outpoured at Rashid beach are nearly twice the amount transported by Domiat
branch (Ball, 1939).
Shukri (1950), and Hilmy (1951), denoted that the constituents of these placer deposits were
transported by the Nile and were deposited along the shores of its delta due to the drop in the velocity

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of its water when in entering the Mediterranean. Wave action and long-shore currents caused the
sorting and concentration of the heavy economic minerals in several places as placer deposits. Some
of these beach placer deposits are the black sands, which constitute important mineral resources of
Egypt. They occur along the shores from Abu Qir at the west to Rafah at the east. In addition,
concentrations of the economic heavy minerals are also occurring in several of the coastal sand dune
belts deposited along the Mediterranean coast. The beach placers are the ultimate source of these
heavy economic minerals, which were transported and deposited in the dunes by complex wind-water
action.
Toussoun (1925) pointed out that the Nile first poured its sediment in a bay at its divergent
point north of Cairo, where, the sand and coarser particles were deposited on the bottom of the bay
while, the fine ones remained in suspension for a distance inversely proportional to its size. The
successive deposition of these sediments resulted in filling the bay in and shores with the sediments.
The coastline advanced to the north gradually by the successive addition of the Nile materials.
The beach deposits are detrital sediments composed of particles of varying grain density. The
sand particles are composed of quartz, feldspars and mafic minerals with specific gravities between
2.65, and more than 5 gm/cm3. The heavy minerals of the black sands are ilmenite, magnetite, zircon,
garnite, rutile, and monazite. The black sands are also containing traces of gold, cassiterite, beryl,
chromite, corundum, apatite, collophane, uranothorite and gangue minerals. The latter include
hornblend, actinolite, augite, hedenbergite, hyperthene, enstatite and minor amounts of biotite,
epidote, sturolite, sphene, tourmaline, sillimanite and olivine (Hammoud, 1966).
Monazite and zircon contain uranium and thorium among their constituents. This causes the
radioactivity of the black sands to be above the natural background of coastal deposits. Other
economic minerals derived from black sands are magnetite and ilmenite, which usually form the main
bulk of the mineral products. Minor by-products may be cassiterite, gold, sillimanite and others. The
economic importance of the Egyptian black sands was mentioned by Higazy and Naguib (1958).
However, this economic importance was realized quite earlier and the exploitation of these black
sands started on a small scale in a small plan in Alexandria in 1932. The Nuclear Materials Authority
(NMA) is installing for the exploitation of the black sands at Abu Khashaba. For the future continuity
of this plant, the extension of proved reserves is necessary.

2. Regional exploration and geology

Nuclear Material Authority (NMA) undertook regional exploration of the coastal area from
Abu Qir in the west to Rafah in the east (Fig. 2) during the period 2000 to 2001. This included
airborne geophysical surveys (gamma-ray spectrometric and magnetic methods) and a follow-up
ground survey within areas of potential mineralization. More than ten major prospects of mineral sand
deposits were identified by NMA along the coast, from which El Burullus was selected for detailed
evaluation.
The mineral sands deposits have been deposited as discontinuous occurrences concentrated
around the mouths of the present and old Nile distributaries (Fig.1). The heavy mineral occurrences
along the Mediterranean coast have originated from the relatively fine detrital materials transported by
the River Nile to the sea.
These detrital materials are mainly weathering products (generally weathered by heavy rains) of
the hard rocks located at the upper reaches of the River Nile in central Africa, especially the Ethiopian
plateau. The sediments were transported by the Nile stream, especially in the flood season in summer,
and were discharged into the sea from the Nile distributaries and deposited in the coastal area. Wave
action then transported the sediments to the shore and continued wave action concentrated the heavy
minerals in the beach sands which formed the coastal area next to the shore known as the coastal flat.
These geomorphologic units were generally formed during cycles of deposition in the sedimentation
history of the Nile Delta.
Subsequent wind action has re-worked some of these areas and mineralization is concentrated
in coastal dune belts.
The black sand deposits is located on the Mediterranean Sea coast and extends from Abu qir to
Rafah (El Azab, 2006), and Wadi duaat on the red sea (Ibrahim et. al, 2009).
This study concerned the monazite in black sand deposits on the Mediterranean Sea coast, with
especially on the El Burullus area. The heavy economic minerals consists of Magnetite, Ilmenite,

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Rutile, Garnet, Zircon, and Monazite. The character of these minerals discus in the following
paragraph.

Fig. 2: Shows the distribution of black sand deposits along the Mediterranean Sea coast (after Ebyam
et al. 2017)

3. Minerals in the Black Sands

3.1. Magnetite (Fe2O4)

Magnetite was picked by hand magnet from the studied samples. It is characterized by an
opaque and black colour, rounded to sub-rounded grains and strongly magnetic (Fig.3a).

3.2. Ilmenite ([FeTiO3])

It is commonly angular to sub-rounded grains with metallic lustre, black to brownish black
colours (Fig. 3b). Ilmenite is the most abundant Fe-Ti oxide mineral that occurs in a wide variety of
igneous rocks.

3.3. Rutile (TiO2)

Rutile grains are subhedral to anhedral prismatic, tabular and elongated grains, varies in colour
from foxy red to reddish brown to opaque (Fig. 3c). Rutile was recorded mostly in the non-magnetic
fraction at 1.5 amp. and the magnetic fraction at 1.5 amp. Rutile is the preferred mineral for the
production of titanium dioxide.

3.4. Garnet [Fe3Al2 (SiO4)]

Garnet which crystallizes in the isometric system is mainly formed of angular to sub-rounded
particles. Its grain size is relatively coarser than the other economic minerals of the study samples.
Garnet is the pale pink colour (Fig.3d), and has moderate magnetic susceptibility which varies
slightly according to variation in chemical composition (Milner, 1962).

3.5. Zircon [ZrSiO4]

Zircon occurs as sub-hedral to anhedral grains exhibiting colourless to brownish yellow colours
of adamantine lustre. Prismatic crystals are the prominent forms of zircon (Fig.3e), while few zircon
grains are well preserved as euhedral crystals with bipyramidal termination.

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a) Magnetite b) Ilmenite

d)
c) Rutile Garnet

f)
e) Zircon Monazite
Fig. 3: Shows the black sand minerals under stereo-binocular microscope a) Magnetite grains b)
Ilmenite Grains c) Rutile Grains d) Garnet grains e) Zircon grains f) Monazite grains

3.6. Monazite ((Ce, La, Y, Th) PO4)

Monazite is one of the most important nuclear minerals, being a major host for REEs and
actinides, Th and U (Hinton and Paterson 1994, Bea et al. 1994, Bea 1996). Monazite [(REE) PO4] is
ubiquitous in granitic and many metamorphic rocks, sand beach, and is a primary and hydrothermal
mineral in carbonatite. Monazite is found throughout the world in placer deposits, beach sands, and
important components of carbonatite related REE deposits. It forms monoclinic small crystals,
rounded to well-rounded tabular, wedge-shaped; faces often rough or uneven; also massive, granular;
and detrital. Colour is brown, reddish brown, yellowish brown, pink, yellow, greenish, greyish white,
and white (Fig.3f ). Vitreous to sub-adamantine lustre; resinous; waxy, hardness 5-5.5, and specific
Gravity 4.6-5.4.

4. Separation and possessing

The stages of concentration and separation of heavy minerals can summarized in figure 4. The
first stage of separation starting by dredger (Fig.5) which take the roe sand into the spiral unite (Fig.6)
and separate the heavy minerals from the sand fraction this method called concentration, the second
stage separation the individual minerals by using wet magnet (Fig.7) and checking table (Fig. 8), and

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the electrostatic apparatus (Devise) (Fig.9). All individual mineral storage and go to marketing except
monazite minerals stored in storage.
After the modern industrial technology of monazite can treatment the monazite to get the rare
earth elements which high expensive and inter the different application.
The rare earth elements reserve in the world can summaries as in table (1). The Egypt can inter
between these country by produced the REE from monazite where the monazite can reach
concentrations up to 0.6 wt.% of economic heavy minerals in the black sand deposits and the REE
consider added value for the black sand minerals.

Fig. 4: Shows the minning and prosses of minerals separation

Fig. 5: Shows the dredger and the concentrator plant (Spiral unit)

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Fig. 6: Shows the floating spiral unit and the dredger

Fig. 7: Shows the spiral unit and wet magnet

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Fig. 8: Shows the checking table

Fig. 9: Shows electrostatics apparatus

Table 1: World reserves of REE by principal countries (U. S. Geological Survey, 2018).
Country Reserves in tonnes (in terms of REO) % Share
Australia 3.400.000 2.56
Brazil 22.000.000 16.67
Canada 830.000 0.63
China 44.000.000 33.33
Greenland 1.500.000 1.14
India 6.900.000 5.23
Malaysia 30.000 0.02
Malawi 140.000 0.11
Russia 18.000.000 13.64
South Africa 860.000 0.65
Vietnam 22.000.000 16.67
USA 1.400.000 1.06
World Reserves 132.000.000 -

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5. Rare-Earth Elements and Uses

The name "rare earths" was given during the 18th century to some highly refractory and basic
oxides, at the time considered to be elements, that were found during chemical studies of unusual
pegmatite minerals.
More than 200 minerals are known that contain the rare earths and thorium. Monazite and
bastnaesite, however, are the principal sources of the rare earths, and monazite has been the principal
source of thorium.
Monazite was in demand in earlier years mainly for its content of thorium, which was used in
the manufacture of Wels beach gas mantles, but beginning in the early part of this century, the rare
earths in monazite became progressively more important. A potentially much larger increase in the
demand for thorium is found in its use as a fuel in the high-temperature gas reactor power stations
now being built in the United States.
Rare earth metals are essential ingredients for modern industry and the in development of high
technology products in our daily lives. Although not as rare in nature as their name implies, economic
deposits are not common.
Although REE are relatively abundant in the Earth's crust (Table 2), unlike most other metals,
they are rarely concentrated into mineable ore deposits. Potential deposits of the REE can be divided
into primary and secondary deposits. Primary deposits are those formed by magmatic, hydrothermal
and/or metamorphic processes. These deposits are most commonly associated with alkaline igneous
rocks and carbonatites, emplaced into extensional settings. Secondary deposits are those formed by
erosion and weathering and may include placers, laterites and bauxites. Within these two groups REE
deposits can be further subdivided depending on their genetic associations, mineralogy and form of
occurrences. As REE deposits appear in a wide variety of geological environments, it is not very easy
to classify them into different categories. Sowerbutts (2017) classified the economically important
REE deposits into the following five categories, i.e., (i) Alkaline igneous rocks: pegmatites and
carbonatites, (ii) residual deposits, (iii) heavy mineral placers, (iv) REE in coal and (v) REE in the
sediments of continental shelf and Ocean bottom. Palaparthi et al. (2017) have carried out a
comprehensive study to determine the radioelement and REE concentrations in beach placer deposits
at selected locations along the eastern coast of Andhra Pradesh in India to understand their economic
potential.

Table 2: Average abundance (in μg/g) of REE in the Earth's crust in comparison with chondritic
abundances. (Zepf, 2013).
Taylor and Wedepohl Lide (1997) Chondritic abundances
Elements MeLennan (1995) Wakita et al. Pourmand et al.
(1985) (1971) (2012)
La 16.0 30 39 0.34 0.2469
Ce 33.0 60 66.5 0.91 0.6321
Pr 3.9 6.7 9.2 0.121 0.0959
Nd 16.0 27 41.5 0.64 0.4854
Sm 3.5 5.3 7.05 0.195 0.1556
Eu 1.1 1.3 2 0.073 0.0599
Gd 3.3 4 6.2 0.26 0.2093
Tb 0.6 0.65 1.2 0.047 0.0378
Dy 3.7 3.8 5.2 0.30 0.2577
Ho 0.8 0.8 1.3 0.078 0.0554
Er 2.2 2.1 3.5 0.20 0.1667
Tm 0.3 0.3 0.52 0.032 0.0261
Yb 2.2 2 3.2 0.22 0.1694
Lu 0.3 0.35 0.8 0.034 0.0256
Y 20.0 24 33 - 1.395
Sc 30.0 16 22 - 5.493
Total 136.9 184.3 242.17 - 9.5118

The three most important REE minerals in carbonatite related deposits are bastnasite, monazite,
and xenotime, and are also the only REE bearing minerals that have been extracted on a commercial

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scale. Monazite is similar to bastnasite as a LREE ore mineral, but with slightly more HREE.
Monazite, together with niobate, fluorocarbonate and apatite, serve as the most useful carbonatite
indicator minerals for specialty metal exploration.
It displays a variety of chemical compositions, with enrichments in most incompatible elements
such as thorium and uranium, which makes monazite a good isotopic and geochronological indicator
for the genesis of these rocks.
The accommodation of Th and U into the monazite crystal without sustaining damage serves it
as a potential host matrix for sequestering long-lived radionuclides. Monazite is a ubiquitous
accessory phase in carbonatite and form economic REE deposits; however, no systematic
investigation of this mineral has been provided in carbonatite-related REE deposits.
Furthermore, it will contribute information for the future study of monazite, which can be used
as a geochemical indicator to track the formation history and also supply additional information for
the beneficiation of monazite within these REE deposits.
Geological research and mineralogical survey of monazite ores, focused in final processes
performance (solubilization and extraction of rare earths contained in the ore). Determination of the
parameters and preliminar conditions of both the minerallurgical and metallurgical concentration
process.
Preliminary separation tests to extract oxide/carbonate products from the monazite ores in
order to define the process flow sheet (definition of operating parameters) and the industrial
engineering design.
Pilot Plant Construction and Process Flow sheet:
Usual metallurgical treatment of an alluvial material comprises two main plants, a
concentration plant at the mine site producing heavy mineral concentrate of REO (rare-earth oxides) -
bearing minerals together with ilmenite (Fe2TiO3) and zircon concentrates, and a refinery (located
adjacent to the concentration plant) which treats the REO mineral concentrate to produce a mixed RE
carbonate.
Both plants are quite conventional with the mine site plants incorporating standard mineral
sands mineral dressing techniques while the refinery utilizes conventional sulphate roasting, water
leach purification steps and product recovery using precipitation with carbonate. Also it is planned
testing more innovative systems and improvements in the circuit.
The mine site concentration plant entails treating the mined material through a wet separation
plant followed by a dry separation plant to produce a REO. The initial stages comprise a simple
material preparation plant to remove relatively barren coarse material as well as troublesome fines or
â ˜slimesâ ™. Gravity recovery processes such as spirals are then utilized to upgrade the wet
concentrates. The Dry Plant utilizes magnetic and electrostatic characteristics of the minerals to
produce a â ˜cleanâ ™ REO-bearing mineral concentrate at about 40% REO grade.
Various precipitation steps then follow that allow removal of unwanted iron, thorium and
phosphorous, recovery of uranium concentrates and recovery of the RE elements as amixed RE
carbonate.

6. Uses of Rare-Earth Elements

During the last three decades, there has been an explosion in the applications of REE and their
alloys in several technology devices such as computer memory, DVDs, rechargeable batteries,
autocatalytic converters, super magnets, mobile phones, LED lighting, superconductors, glass
additives, fluorescent materials, phosphate binding agents, solar panels and magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) agents. These metals are being consumed this way for a variety of applications at an
unprecedented rate (Table 3). Since they are extremely important ingredients in all high-technology
gadgets, these elements are called “The Vitamins of Modern Industry”.

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Table 3: Some examples of how REE are being utilized in the world today in different areas.
Area Applications
Television screens, computers, cell phones, silicon chips, monitor displays, long-life
Electronics rechargeable batteries, camera lenses, light emitting diodes (LEDs), compact fluorescent
lamps (CFLs), baggage scanners, marine propulsion systems
High strength magnets, metal alloys, stress gauges, ceramic pigments, colorants in
Manufacturing glassware, chemical oxidizing agent, polishing powders, plastics creation, as additives for
strengthening other metals, automotive catalytic converters
Portable X-ray machines, X-ray tubes, magnetic resonance imagery (MRI) contrast agents,
Medical Science nuclear medicine imaging, cancer treatment applications, and for genetic screening tests,
medical and dental lasers
Lasers, optical glass, fiber optics, masers, radar detection devices, nuclear fuel rods,
Technology mercury-vapor lamps, highly reflective glass, computer memory, nuclear batteries, high
temperature superconductors
Renewable Hybrid automobiles, wind turbines, next generation rechargeable batteries, biofuel catalysts
Energy
The europium is being used as a way to identify legitimate bills for the Euro bill supply and
to dissuade counterfeiting. An estimated 1 kg of REE can be found inside a typical hybrid
Others automobile
Holmium has the highest magnetic strength of any element and is used to create extremely
powerful magnets. This application can reduce the weight of many motors

Conclusion
The black sand present in the north part of Egypt at delta faces to the Mediterranean sea. The
black sand contain high present of heavy minerals as Magnetite, Ilmenite, Rutile, Garnet, Zircon, and
Monazite. Monazite is the principal sources of the rare earths, and has been the principal source of
thorium. The rare earths in monazite became progressively more important. Rare earth metals are
essential ingredients for modern industry and the in development of high technology products in our
daily lives.
In the last three decades, there has been an explosion in the applications of REE and their alloys
in several technology devices such as computer memory, DVDs, rechargeable batteries, autocatalytic
converters, super magnets, mobile phones, LED lighting, superconductors, glass additives, fluorescent
materials, phosphate binding agents, solar panels and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) agents.

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