Mineral Sands

What mineral sands does Matilda Minerals mine?

The minerals that Matilda will mine are zircon, rutile, leucoxene and ilmenite.

Zircon

Zircon is zirconium silicate - ZrSiO4 and named from the Arabic word "zargun" meaning gold colour.

Zircon is a high temperature resistor and has great resistance to chemical attack. As a result it is used mainly in the ceramics and refractories industries.

The main uses are:

Ceramics industry where its opacity and hardness gives whiteness and durability to kitchen and bathroom tiles, dinnerware, sanitary-ware and decorative ceramics.
Refractories or industrial ceramics - which are materials that do not melt or catch fire when exposed to high temperatures, thus making them ideal for linings in furnaces and kilns
Foundry sands
Zirconium metal

Zirconium metal has many specialty uses:

Impure zirconium oxide, Zirconia, is used to make laboratory crucibles that can withstand heat shock, for linings of metallurgical furnaces, and by the ceramic and glass industries as a refractory material.
Human tissues can easily tolerate this metal which makes it suitable for biocompatible implants, e.g. some artificial joints and limbs.
Extensively used by the chemical industry for piping in corrosive environments.
Also used in heat exchangers, as a "getter" in vacuum tubes, in lamp filaments and various specialty alloys.
When alloyed with niobium, zirconium becomes superconductive at low temperatures and is used to make superconductive magnets with possible large-scale electrical power uses.
Zirconium Diamide-Diamine complexes can be used to catalyse the polymerisation of alkenes, especially ethene, when activated with Trityl-BArF.
Zirconium nitride has been used more recently as an alternative to titanium nitride for coating drill bits. Both coatings are supposed to keep the bit sharper and cooler during cutting.
Its carbonate is used in poison-ivy lotions.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zirconium)

Rutile

Rutile is titanium dioxide - TiO2

Rutile is used in the manufacture of high quality white pigment used in plastics, paper, paint, cosmetics, sunscreens and toothpaste. It is also used in the manufacture of titanium metal.

Titanium metal is a very strong but light metal and is used in aircraft components, medical applications (artificial joints and limbs), sporting equipment, and watches.

Another use of rutile is on welding rods to stabilise the electric arc and reduce the viscosity of the slag formed during the welding process.

Leucoxene

Leucoxene is an alteration product of ilmenite (iron-titanium oxide). A loss of much of the iron results in a range of compositions close to that of rutile. Leucoxene used for production of titanium oxide pigment.

Ilmenite

Ilmenite is the major mineral produced at conventional minerals sands mines, however the heavy mineral concentrate produced by Matilda Minerals will contain only small amounts of ilmenite, approximately 5%.

Ilmenite is iron titanium oxide and is used in making furnace linings and in sandblasting. Much ilmenite is upgraded to produce synthetic rutile by removal of the iron. Synthetic rutile is used to make titanium dioxide pigment and titanium metal. The pigment is a brilliant white material used in the manufacture of paint, paper, and plastics. Titanium metal is lighter than steel but still very strong and is used in aircraft manufacture (engines, structural components), satellites and spacecraft. It is very resistant to corrosion and is used in ship propellers and other parts exposed to seawater. In the medical field titanium is often used to make replacement parts such as hip joints.