massive type interlayer with gabbroic rocks in the Eastern Desert; Main occurrences of Ti-Fe oxide deposits in Egypt; Abu Ghalaga Ore Deposit; Abu Ghalaga ilmenite ore deposit categories ; Abu Ghalaga Mineral composition; Mining Techniques; Origins; Korabkanci titano-magnetite ore; black sand placer deposits type; Rosetta (or Rashid East); Northern Sinai Coast

1. Lecture 4:
Hassan Z. Harraz
hharraz2006@yahoo.com
2016- 2017
@ Hassan Harraz 2017

2. Outline of Lecture 4:
1) a massive type interlayer with gabbroic rocks in the Eastern Desert.
Ti-Fe oxide deposits in Egypt
Ore Description
Abu Ghalaga ilmenite ore deposit categories
Mineral composition
Mining Techniques
Origins
ii) Korabkanci titano-magnetite ore
2) a black sand placer deposits type
i) Rosetta (or Rashid East)
ii) Northern Sinai Coast
2

3. In Egypt, titanium occurs in two main mode of occurrences;
namely :
1) a Massive type interlayer with gabbroic rocks in the
Eastern Desert, and
2) a black sand placer deposits type included in the
black sand deposits at the Mediterranean beach
especially at Rosetta and Damietta.
Titanium ores information are presented in Table 1
Area
Reserves
(M tonnes)
Production
(1000 t/y)
Average Assay
(TiO2 %)
Associated
constituents
Eastern Desert
40 120 30 - 38
Fe2O3, SiO2,
Clays, Silicates
Mediterranean
Coast
606 2 - 3 -
SiO2,
Magnetite,
Rutile, Zircon,
Monazite
Table 1. Titanium and titaniferous iron ores (Naim, et al., 1993).
3

4.  Ilmenite and titaniferous iron ores exist in Egypt in at least 10 localities with
several dimensions.
 A number of Ti-Fe oxide deposits are known in Egypt, in association with mafic-
ultramafic masses ranging in composition from melagabbro, melanorite to
anorthosite.
 They are always associated with gabbroic rocks and formed by segregation.
 Among these occurrences are
 Abu Ghalaga,
 Korabkanci
 Hamra Dome,
 Kolmnab
 Abu Dahr,
 Um Effein,
 Wadi Rahaba,
 Um Ginud, and
 Wadi El Miyah (G. El Rokham).
 The two most economically promising deposits are those located at Abu Ghalaqa
and Korabkanci.
 In all these deposits (except Abu Ghalaga), the tonnage is very limited (a few
hundred thousand tonnes), and the TiO2 content is relatively low (16 to 22%).
 Production of titanium concentrates in 1975 was 3.4 million tons (including
90% of ilmenite and 10% of rutile concentrates).
1) Ti-Fe oxide deposits in Egypt
4

5. Localities of Titaniferous Iron Ores of Egypt (Basta, 1977)
5

6. Mineralogy:
In all these occurrences, the ore is present
as massive lenses or disseminations of
magnetite, hematite, ilmenite, rutile, and
apatite. Chromite and V are principal minor
constituents, sometimes with traces of Cu.
Origin:
The Ti- and Fe- oxide phases were
separated by crystal setting or filter pressing
during crystallization of the gabbroic magma
to form syngenetic bands and segregations
of massive ore.
The discordant dyke-like, especially at Abu
Dahr, were formed through the separation of
late stage, Fe-Ti-P rich immiscible liquid and
its intrusion into the lithified parts of the
gabbroic mass.
6

7. It occurs in a hill overlooking Wadi Abu• Ghalaga,
This area lies• 17 km South West of Abu Ghosoun port on
the Red Sea coast and 100 km South of Mersa Alam city.
The Abu• Ghalaga area is delineated by latitudes 24˚ 15́-
24˚ 27́ N and longitude 35˚ 00́ – 35˚ 10́ E .
The host rocks include metagabbro,• norite-gabbro and
anorthosite that show primary banding of layering. The
gabbroic mass is emplaced within older volcanic and
pyroclastic rocks.
The• Abu Ghalaqa Ilmenite deposit is the largest among
the ilmenite localities in Egypt.
7

8. Abu Ghalaga ilmenite mine
8

9. Fig. : Accessibility map of Wadi Abu Ghalaga area
9

10. Ore Description
 The mineralization occurs as bands or lenses of massive ore
intercalated with the gabbro layers, or it forms disseminations
gradational between the massive ore bands and enclosing gabbro.
 The main ilmenite band is confined to gabbroic mass and occurs as a
sheet-like body taking NW-SE and SE trend, and dips 30˚NE
direction and extends 350 m in NW-SE direction and is 50 m wide. It
dips at 45°NE. New discovered ore body with average 150 m in
thickness and that it extends beyond the limits of the exposed bands
were evaluated.
Abu Ghalaga ilmenite ore deposit classified into three categories
(Basta and Takla, 968):
1) Massive Black ore (or the main body): contains a small amount
of gangue silicates ranging from 20 to 25% and its ilmenite range
from 26.2 to 71.1%,
2) Disseminated ore: contains from 40 to 45% silicate gangue and
its ilmenite range from 55 to 61.8%,
3) Red Oxidized ore: represents the oxidized zone on the
surface, the reddish-brown colour of which is due to the partial
alteration of its-minerals (ilmenite and magnetite) to hematite,
goethite and limonite.
10

11. The overall chemical analysis of the ore is
Oxide Oxidized zone Fresh ore
TiO2 37.09 - 41.04% 33.9 - 37.65%
Fe2O3 17.47 - 23.0% 6.34 - 23.85%
FeO 27.93 - 35.63% 25.94 - 31.33%
V2O5 0.31 - 0.38% 0.29 - 0.39%
Chemical composition of produced ore
TiO2 36.36-49.90% V2O5 0.52%
FeO 24.50 - 28.59% MgO 2.18-2.93%
Fe2O3 17.82-28.30% S 0.03 - 0.99%
AI2O3 0.61 - 3.40% CaO 0.10%
SiO2 2.20 - 7.70%
11

12. Mineral composition
The massive ore composed of ilmenite (67.37
- 68.62%), Mn-bearing ilmenite,
titanomagnetite (4-17 vol.%), magnetite,
hematite (13 - 18%), rutile, and subordinate
sulfides (0.13 - 2.1%): (chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite
and pyrite), goethite, and anatase (Hussein,
1976; Hawa, 2014).
The ore contains a relatively small amount of
gangue-silicates ranging from 4 to 11% of the
whole rock and its ilmenite ranging from 89.4
to 90.1%.
12

13. • The ore reserves of ilmenite at Abu Ghalaga were estimated to be
about 50 million tonnes, with an average grade ~35% TiO2 (Basta
and Takla, 1968; Basta 1973).
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206357160546863&set=a.21096091788
06.2132561.1202893661&type=1&theater
lenses (L) from ilmenite in metagabbros
13

14. Mining Techniques
The ilmenite load, at Abu Ghalaqa, is about 100 meter above the wadi level
and extends to more than 200 m below the wadi level. The wadi level itself
is at about 240 m above Sea Level. The major lens covers an area of 150
m x 300 m. The present status of mining technology is an open cast
above the wadi level .
The Abu Ghalaqa ore is being mined by surface mining. The benches are
drilled, charged, and blasted. To facilitate loading, transporting, and
crushing, secondary blasting is applied on the oversize boulders. The ore is
transported to the upgrading plant near by (about 500 m).
In future it is thought to use underground mining for the lowed part of the
load (below the Wadi level) to reduce the cost of overburden removal.
The grade of the ilmenite ore at Abou Ghalaqa is slightly upgraded by
manual hand picking of some of the gangue minerals depending on
difference in colors. The ore is then crushed and screened to produce
different size fractions according to the end use. The only use for this ore at
the time being is for coating the oil-transport pipes running under the sea
water, i.e., is used as heavy gravel in the concrete used for coating the oil-
pipes under sea water. Laboratory experiments, up to the pilot scale, show
that gravity separation, magnetic separation, and flotation produce
concentrates assaying up to 43 % TiO2. There are several researches for
extracting titanium slag or titanium metal from the upgraded ore, but the
results are not encouraging due to the low content of TiO2 in the
concentrate
14

15. Origins
 Bands and lenses of ilmenite ore in the upper part of a small body of titaniferous
gabbro in the Abu Ghalaga area of the Eastern Desert of Egypt were formed by
gravitative accumulation of ilmenite-rich residual fluids during late stages in the
consolidation of the gabbroic magma (Amin, 1954).
 The ore deposit itself as having been formed in the magmatic phase and that the
metamorphic phase only resulted the mobilization and recrystallization of the ore
minerals and the transformation of the ilmenite magnetite intergrowths into hemo-
ilmenite (Basta and Takla, 1968).
 The Neoproterozoic gabbroic rocks of Abu Ghalaga encompasses assemblages
of opaque minerals are emplaced during oceanic island arc stage which
represent the Nubian Shield of Egypt (Hawa, 2014). Although some textural
features of these opaques suggest a relict igneous. The high Mn (up to 5.8 MnO
%, 1282 % MnTiO3) and very low Mg contents (0.21 MgO %, 0.82 MgTiO3) are
dissimilar to those of any igneous ilmenite of tholeiitic rocks. Most of these
ilmenites are associated mostly with metamorphic hornblende. Hornblende
thermometry estimate crystallization of ~560oC. All these suggests that the
ilmenite under consideration has been greatly metamorphically modified,
having lost Mg and gained Mn by diffusion (Hawa, 2014).
 El-Shazly (1959), suggested that the ilmenite was deposited in two stages as:
a) Ilmenite grains were first during solidification of the gabbro magma., and
b) The ilmenite grains were later segregated formed by later metamorphism
and metamorphic differentiation to from a deeply inclined ore body.
15

16. ii) Korabkanci titano-magnetite ore
This area lies in the South East corner of Egypt.
The ore occurs as seven layers concordant with layered mafic-
ultramafic assemblage. These layers are of steep exposure that
dips mostly 80º-90º to the East (Makhlouf et al., 2008).
The ore bands occur in parallel layers taking NNE-SSW and extend
to about 2500 m with width 50-80 m.
The deposit exhibits medium to coarse grained texture.
Mineralogically, it is composed of titano-magnetite, ilmenite,
hematite, goethite, sulphides with some olivine gangue.
The ore could be classified into massive and disseminated ore
according to the percentage of opaque minerals in the rock.
The massive part of the ore contains about 80% or more of
opaque minerals.
16

17. Introduction
 The Mediterranean coast of Egypt extends from Salum on the western boundary to Rafah on the
eastern boundary, it extends between longitude 25º 12' E and 34º 10' E and in most parts above
the latitude 31º N (Fig.1).
 The coast reaches about 900 kilometers in length, and cut by two branches of the Nile River, one
at Rosetta and the other at Dameitta, enclosing a wide alluvial Delta in between. The
Mediterranean coast of Egypt can be divided arbitrary into three parts: a-western part which
extends from Dekhila to Alamin, b- middle part, Nile Delta coast, which extends from west of Abu
Qir to the east of Port Said and c- the eastern part (northern Sinai coast).
 Beach sands are mineral deposits formed through erosion of geological formations which
may have been brought to their present location after transport by wind, rivers and
glaciers to the coast, and are deposited on the beaches by actions of waves and
currents.
 The Egyptian black sands are the end products of the disintegrated materials from the igneous
and metamorphic rocks.
 Black sands in Egypt are beach placers deposited from the Nile stream during flood
seasons reaching the Mediterranean Sea at river mouth.
 Nile River is the main source of the Nile Delta beach sands.
 In the past, Nile River transported black sand from mountain ranges of Sudan and
Abyssinia to its delta in the Mediterranean coast of Egypt.
 It spreads on the beach East of Rashid branch of the Nile and extends east to Rafah
passing through El Arish coastal plains (Hassan, 2003).
 Figure 1 shows the geographic distribution of the black sands in Egypt. They spread
along the Mediterranean Sea shore from Alexandria West to Rafah East.
 This black sand contains anomalies of relatively higher natural radioactive nuclides than
the other coastal sands (Hussein, 2011).
2) Black Sand Beach Placer deposits
17

18. Fig. 1: Locations of the Egyptian Black Sand deposits
between Rashid and Rafah on the Mediterranean Sea Coast
(Naim et al., 1993).
18

19. The Egyptian Nile and Nile Delta
19

20. Introduction
 Most sands were transported by the main Nile and then across the Nile delta to the
northern coast through the present day Rosetta and Dameitta tributaries and the former
Nile branches that were active during the Late Holocene (Neev et al, 1987). The sudden
cut off of the sand derived by the River Nile as a result of the High Dam construction, a
substantial volumes of sediments eroded from the Nile delta have continued to be
supplied eastward to the Egyptian northern Sinai coast.
 This sedimentation was cut off after building of Aswan High Dam High in 1964.
 In the Mediterranean Sea Coast , Egypt, the distribution of black sands contain some
economic minerals such as ilmenite, hematite, rutile, magnetite, zircon, garnet, monazite,
allanite and sillimanite that has been recognized as two mineral groups :
i) The first group includes heavy minerals of lower density and coarser size (augite,
hornblende and epidote). Heavy minerals in this group increase from west to east
along the delta as they are easily to entrain and transport the coastal sediments
toward the east by wave currents.
ii) In contrast, the second group includes heavy minerals of higher-density (opaques,
garnet, zircon, rutile, tourmaline and monazite) and these minerals are difficult to
entrain and transport by wave-current actions. Hence, minerals in this group form a
lag deposit within the delta and beach sand.
 The Egyptian beach ilmenite is mineralogically composed of fresh ilmenite (46.1%), hemo-
ilmenite (3.9%) and altered ilmenite (39.1%) (El Hinnawi, 1964).
 The Egyptian black sand deposits comprise huge reserves of the six common economic
minerals that include ilmenite, magnetite, garnet, zircon, rutile and monazite
 In 1965, El Shazly has estimated the reserves of the Egyptian beach minerals to be up to
606 million tonnes of which 40% at least were ilmenite.
 Some areas were studied in details and are briefly summarized here.
2) Black Sand Beach Placer deposits
20

21. i) Rosetta (or Rashid East)
 This area is located 6 km North East of Rashid, where the area is generally flat.
 Heavy concentrated black sands are deposited in a thin mantle near and parallel to the
shoreline.
 The thickness of the deposited layer ranges from 0.5 m to more than 40 m.
 Rosetta ilmenite is composed of four main phases: ilmenite (FeTiO3), substituted ilmenite
{(Mg,Fe)(Ti,Fe)O3}, hematite (Fe2O3), magnetite (Fe3O4), titano-magnetite, and rutile
(TiO2) (Fouad et al, 2010) .
 The concentration and extension of the black sands to the West of Rashid are of
negligible economic value.
 The ore shows lateral variations where the high concentrate occurs in the West and
decreases gradually to the East.
 According to the reserves of economic minerals at Rashid area are as(Naim et al., 1993),
follows:
Mineral (in 1000 tons)
Ilmenite 2087
Magnetite 1437
Hematite 214
Zircon 81
Rutile 29
Garnet 72
Monazite 31
Sulphides 86
Heavy silicates 1315
 However According to (Hussein, 1976), the
Rosetta ilmenite concentrate is more complicated
due to the presence of titano-magnetite.
21

22. Black sands are dredged or scraped, piled, and transported to
a jungle of Humphrey spirals to scavenge out most of the green
sands. The concentrate is sent to the processing plant for
separating the heavy constituents.
For the black sands, there was a plant in Alexandria for
concentrating the black sands and separating its various
constituents. This continued until 1970, after which the plant
was shut down due to technical problems, environmental
considerations as well as market saturation for the products.
Nowadays, there is a pilot plant at Rosetta for developing a
proper flow sheet to produce market grade products.
The main flow sheet for black sand consists of a gravity
separation step to get rid of most of the green sands, followed
by a low intensity wet magnetic separator to separate
magnetite. The non-magnetic fraction is oven dried to be
prepared for the electrostatic separation step that separates
ilmenite. In a second electrostatic step, rutile is separated. After
separation of rutile, the rest is taken to shaking tables to
separate garnet and monazite and reject the rest of the green
sands.
22

23. The beach sediments at El-Arish and surrounding on both eastern and western sides along the
northern Sinai coast are characterized by the presence of extensive black sand placer deposits.
The area between Port Said to east of Bir El-Kharoba on the northern Sinai coast is characterized
by beach sediments containing a huge amount of black sands. The distribution patterns of non-
opaque heavy mineral assemblages and heavy mineral indices in the study area were studied in
details. The non-opaque heavy minerals in the investigated coastal sands include, amphiboles,
pyroxenes, epidotes, zircon, rutile, tourmaline and garnet (not necessarily in this order of
abundance), they constitute together more than 85% of the total assemblages. Other minerals such
as staurolite, biotite and monazite occur as minor components.
The maximum, minimum and averages of the relative frequency percentage of the identified non-
opaque heavy minerals lead to establish three well defined non-opaque heavy mineral provinces:
The area between Port Said and east of El-Tinah bay, Rommana. The beach sands of this area
are characterized by the predominance of pyroxenes, amphiboles, epidotes, zircon and reduced
amounts of rutile, tourmaline and garnet. The great similarity between the distribution of
pyroxenes, amphiboles and epidotes in this mineralogical assemblage and those of the main
Nile sediments indicates their derivation from the Nile sediments contributed at El-Tinah bay by
the old extinct Pelusaic Nile branch which poured its sediments at Tel El-Farma, to be drifted
eastward by the Mediterranean long shore currents.
The area between Port Said to east of Bir El-Kharoba on the northern Sinai coast is
characterized by beach sediments containing a huge amount of black sands.
The area from Rommana to El-Arish. The beach sands in this area were characterized by the
high frequency of the ultra stable minerals (zircon, rutile and tourmaline) with considerable
amounts of amphiboles, garnet and epidotes and obvious lower values of pyroxenes. The sands
in this province are most probably derived from the neighboring sand dune by the northwesterly
winds prevailing in the area.
ii) Northern Sinai Coast
23

24.  The area between El-Arish and east of Bir El-Kharoba. The beach sands present in this area
are characterized by the enrichment of amphiboles, epidotes, garnet, staurolite with
considerable amounts of zircon, rutile and tourmaline. The reduced amounts of pyroxenes
are also a distinctive feature of this assemblage. The main source of these sands is Wadi El-
Arish which drains big quantities of fluvial sediments from both northern and central Sinai.
 At El-Arish and the area around it from both eastern and western sides the beach sediments
are characterized by containing a huge amount of black sand deposits, which in turn contains
a number of heavy economic minerals (Osman et al, 2008).
 These areas extend from 2 km West of Al Arish to the East of Sabkhat El Bardaweel over an
area of 18 km2.
 The total reserves in this area, to a depth of 1 m, are about 88 million tonnes with 1.1 million
tonnes as proved ore.
 The proved reserves to a depth of 10m are estimated by 3 million tonnes of ore. The
concentration and extension of the black sands to the East of Al Arish are negligible.
24

25. ReferencesAbd El-Rahman M. K.; Youssef, M.A.; and Abdel-Khalek, N.A. (2006). Up-grading of Egyptian Ilmenite Ore of Abu Ghouson Localities The Journal of ORE
DRESSING
Abdel-Aal Mohamed Abdel-Karim, 2009 Petrographic and chemical characterization of Fe-Ti oxides and sulfides hosted in mafic intrusions, south Sinai,
Egypt: Implication for genesis. Journal of Geology and Mining Research Vol. 1(3) pp. 076-093
Amin, M. S. (1954). The Ilmenite Deposit of Abu Ghalqa, Egypt. Economic Geology and the Bulletin of Society of Economic Geologists, Vol. 49, No. 1,
January 1954, pp. 77-87. doi:10.2113/gsecongeo.49.1.77
Atef Helal, 2007. Proposed beneficiation and upgrading For Abu Ghalaga Ilmenite ore Mineral Processing & Extractive Metallurgy Rev.,28: 1-58, 2007
Basta, E. Z. (1959). New Data on the System Fe2O3- FeTiO3-TiO2 (Ferri-Ilmenite and Titanomagetite) ,” Proceeding Egyptian Academic Science, Cairo, Vol.
14, pp. 1-15.
Basta, E. Z. and Takla, M. A. (1968). Mineralogy and Origin of Abu Ghalaga Ilmenite Occurrence, Eastern Desert,” Journal of Geology, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 87-
124.
Basta, E. Z. and Takla, M. A.(1968). Petrological Studies on Abu Ghalaga Ilmenite Occurrence, Eastern Desert,” Journal of Geology, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 43-
72.
El-Shazly, E. M. (1959). “Report on the Ilmenite Ore at Abu Ghalaga Eastern Desert,” Unpublished Report, Geological Survey and Mineral Research
Department, Cairo.
Fasfous, B.R.B. and Salem, I. A. (1989): Magnetite-ilmenite-apatite mineralization in the area of Wadi Abu Ghalaga, South Eastern Desert, Egypt. Mansoura.
Sci. Bull. 16 (1). 137-154.
Hassan, M. A. (2003).Black Sands Project. A Briefing to the Egyptian Association for Mining and Petroleum, Nuclear Material Authority, Cairo. June 12 2003,
p. 21.
Hussein, A.E.M. (2011). Successive uranium and thorium adsorption from Egyptian monazite by solvent impregnated foam. J. Radioanal. Nucl. Chem.
289:321-329.
Hussein, M.K.; Kolta, G. A.,and El-Tawil, S. Z. (1976): Removal of iron from Egyptian ilmenite. Egypt. J. Chem. 19 (1), 143– 152.
Hawa, Y. (2014), 'Mineral chemistry of extraordinary ilmenite from the gabbroic rocks of Abu Ghalaga Area, eastern Desert, Egypt: evidence to metamorphic
modification', World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Science Index, Geological and Environmental Engineering, 2(8),
62
Ikonnicova, (1975). UIMS Institute, “Mineralogy and Chemical Composition of the Abu Ghalga Ilmenite Deposits: Geological Survey of Egypt (Unpublished
report).
Khalil, K.I. (2001): Mineralogical and geochemical studies on the origin of the Abu Ghalaga ilmenite ore, Southeastern Desert, Egypt. M. E. R. C., Ain Sham
Univ.,15, 94 -118
Makhlouf, A.; Beniamin, N. Y.; Mansour, M. M.; Mansour, S. A.; and El Sherbini, H. (2008). Mafic-Ultra Mafic Intrusion of South Korabkanci Area with
Emphasis on Titanomagnetite Ores, South Eastern Desert, Egypt. Annal of Geological Survey of Egypt, Vol. 30, pp. 1-20.
Nasr, B.B.; Sadek, M.F.; and Masoud, M.S. (2000). Some new occurrences of layered titanomagnetite, Eastern Desert, Egypt. Annals Geol. Surv. Egypt 23,
679-690.
Naim, G.; El Melegy, E. T.; and El Azab, A. (1993). Black Sand Assessment. The Egyptian Geological Survey, p. 67.
Osman, A.M., A.F. El-Hadary, R.S. Mouharb and M.M. Aly, 2008. Geochemical characteristics and distribution of some economic minerals in El-Massaied –
bir El- Kharoba area, El-Arish, North Sinai, Egypt, Sedimentology of Egypt, 16: 131-145.
Takla MA, Basta EZ, Fawzi, E (1981). Characterization of the older and younger gabbros of Egypt. Delta. J. Sci. 5, 279-314. 25

26. Follow me on Social Media
http://facebook.com/hzharraz
http://www.slideshare.net/hzharraz
https://www.linkedin.com/in/hassan-harraz-3172b235
26

27. Abu Dahr Ilmenite occurrence
Location: Egypt, Africa
Lat / long: 23.53291, 35.11661
dep_id: 10096534
mrds_id: W029140
Commodity type: Metallic
Major mineral: Titanium, Iron
Operation type: Unknown
Production size: No
Development status: Occurrence
Ore Minerals: Ilmenite, Magnetite
Gangue Minerals: Chalcopyrite, Pyrrhotite, Rutile
Orebody formation: lenses, bands, dike - irregular
Ore control: Gabbro-Dykes
Host rock_type: Gabbro
Rock unit: Serpentine, Gabbro, Metamorphics
Rock type: Gabbro, Serpentinite
Structure: NE-SW
27

28. 28