Tamil Nadu: minerals

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Tamil Nadu: minerals

Mineral-rich coastline

Brazen plunder of mineral-rich TN coastline

Jayaraj Sivan | TNN

The Times of India 2013/08/11

Chennai: The southern coast line of Tamil Nadu, covering Ramanathapuram, Tutticorin Tirunelveli and Kanyakumari districts, is rich in many rare earth minerals like garnet, il menite, zircon and magnetite.

Many private fi rms have set up units along the coastal belt to mine minerals exempt ed from the purview of the Mineral Act. Depending on the region, the concentration of garnet in beach sand ranges from 2.5% to 42% and that of il menite from 3% to 46%, zircon 0.5% to 9% and magnetite 3%.

It’s not economically vi able to mine other rare earth minerals in the coastal sand as their concentration is mi nuscule. Also, extraction of ra dioactive minerals by private players is banned.

Six private firms and PSU Indian Rare Earths Ltd mine these minerals for export to Europe, West Asia, East Asia Australia and the US.

Garnet is mined from the beaches of the Gulf of Man nar. Garnet is used for sand blasting to clean highrise tow ers, remove coral accumula tion from ships’ hulls, water jet cutting and water fi ltration The micronised form of gar net is used to polish glass and in manufacture of televisions computer monitors etc.

Ilmenite is a titanium ore. Its use varies from mak ing paint pigments to steel industry. More than 96% of the world’s use of ilmenite is in the form of titanium diox ide, for making paint. It is the largest constituent of Indian beach sand deposits. Zircon is a hard glassy mineral used for ceramics and refractory tiles It is used in armour plating military aircraft and as heat shields in space shuttles.