Distribution and Mineralogical Evaluation of Heavy Minerals in Three-Meter Subsurface Coastal Sediments of the Baltim–El Burullus Area, Egypt
Keywords:
Heavy minerals, Black sand deposits, Baltim El Burullus, Coastal sediments, Mineralogical investigation, Ilmenite, Magnetite, Zircon, Monazite, Heavy liquid separation, ESEM–EDX analysis, Mediterranean coast of Egypt, Borehole sediments, Sedimentology, Economic mineralsAbstract
This study focuses on the mineralogical investigation of heavy minerals distributed within the coastal sediments of the Baltim–El Burullus area along the northern Mediterranean coast of Egypt. A total of 60 sediment samples were collected from 20 boreholes drilled to a depth of 3 meters, where one representative sample was obtained from each meter interval. The collected samples were processed using heavy liquid separation techniques, including bromoform, methylene iodide, and Clerici’s solution, followed by detailed examination under a binocular stereomicroscope and ESEM–EDX analyses. The investigated sediments contain a variety of economically important heavy minerals, mainly magnetite, ilmenite, rutile, leucoxene, garnet, zircon, and monazite, in addition to minor accessory minerals such as apatite, titanite, and staurolite. The results show that ilmenite is the most abundant heavy mineral, with concentrations ranging from 1.701% to 16.791% and an average value of 6.033%. Magnetite contents range between 0.015% and 1.165%, averaging 0.19%, while garnet concentrations vary from 0.55% to 2.522% with an average of 1.20%. Zircon contents range from
0.05% to 1.337% with an average of 0.497%, whereas rutile ranges between 0.064% and 1.031% with an average of 0.269%. Leucoxene concentrations vary from 0.102% to 0.919% with an average of 0.448%, while monazite occurs in relatively low amounts ranging from 0% to 0.787%, with an average value of 0.034%. The vertical distribution of heavy minerals indicates a noticeable decrease in mineral
concentrations with increasing depth, reflecting the influence of sedimentary and hydrodynamic processes on the accumulation of black sand minerals in the study area. The obtained results confirm the economic importance of the Baltim–El Burullus coastal sediments as a potential source of valuable heavy minerals and provide essential mineralogical information that may support future exploitation and environmental evaluation of these coastal deposits.
