EG9601646

Second Arab Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Cairo 5 - 9 Nov. 1994 AAEA

The Egyptian Placer Deposits- A Potential Source

for Nuclear Raw Materials
Gooda A. Dabbour
Nuclear Materials Authority, Cairo, Egypt.

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Abstract
Extensive black sands placer deposits are discontinuously distributed
along the northern Mediterranean coastal plain of the Nile Delta as well
as Sinai Peninsula i.e. in the coastal stretch between Abu Qir town to the
west and Rafah city on the eastern Egyptian Frontiers. These sediments
contain strategic and economic heavy minerals which are required for
the industrial exploitation whether for nuclear industry or other metal-
lurgical and engineering industries. The mentioned deposits comprise
huge reserves of the six heavy economic minerals which include mona-
zite, zircon, rutile, ilmenite, magnetite, and garnet.
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 The first three economic minerals namely monazite, zircon, and
rutile contain uranium, thorium, zirconium, hafnium, titanium as well as
rare earth elements, thus monazite, which is a rare earths-thorium
anhydrous orthophosphate assays 0.48% U3O8, 6.04% Th O2, and
61.31% RE2O3. Egyptian beach zircon which is a zirconium silicate
mineral contain 67.06% (Zr+Hf) O2. Traces of uranium assays from
0.04% to 0.11%. U3O8, while its thorium content varies from 0.02% to
1.19% Th O2. The beach rutile is almost a puretitanium dioxide
assaying up to 98.64% TiO2- Therefore, the geological reserves of the
nuclear materials were estimated to reveal enormous reserves.
In the light of these data, the Nuclear Materials Authority has
established a plant for the exploitation of the Egyptian placer deposits at
Rosetta area to produce monazite, zircon, and rutile concentrates. The
monazite concentrate will be processed for the production of uranium,
thorium, and rare earth oxides cakes, while zirconium, hafnium,
uranium, and thorium oxides could be extracted from the zircon
concentrate. Titanium dioxide for nuclear industry and paints could be
produced from the rutile concentrate. In the mean time zircon as a
mineral would be used in ceramic industry whereas rutile as a mineral
would be used in welding rods industry. Besides, the rare earth oxides
cake could be used in ferro-silicon alloys.

1- Introduction
The Egyptian black sands placer deposits on the Mediterranean
Coastal Plain contain many mineral species as they have been derived
from igneous and metamorphic rocks [1]. Many studies were carried
out dealing with the mineralogical composition, grain size distribution,
origin of the sediments as well as their economic considerations [1 to
25]. The mineral constituents include six heavy economic minerals;
namely magnetite, ilmenite, monazite, zircon, rutile and garnet.
Monazite, zircon and rutile minerals do contain a number of elements
necessary for the nuclear industry e.g. uranium, thorium, zirconium,
hafnium, titanium and rare earths elements. Thus, the evaluation of these
raw materials in the Egyptian blacksands placerdeposits would be
calculated on the basis of the reserves of monazite, zircon and rutile
mineral content in four localities along the Mediterranean Coastal Plain;
namely Rosetta, Baltim, Damietta and north Sinai.

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2- Geology
Since the Late Miocene [26] and before the completion of the High
Dam in May 1964, the River Nile was discharging huge quantities of
sediments during the annual flood seasons in the Mediterranean Sea.
These sediments were the final products of the disintegrated materials
from the two main drainage areas of the Nile Basin which cover an area
of about 3,000,000 km 2 i.e. The Equatorial Plateau (igneous rocks) and
the Ethiopian Plateau (metamorphic rocks).
The River Nile poured its load in the Mediterranean Sea either by
the to-day Rosetta and Damietta distributaries (Fig. 1 ) or through the
seven old extinct Nile Branches.
Ball [27] described the courses and the outpourings of the seven old
extinct Nile Distributaries and stated that the outpourings were located
in the coastal plain area that extend between Idku openning and El
Farama east of Port Said (Fig.2). In other words, the black sands
deposits are distributed along the Mediterranean Coastal Plain in the
sector extending between Abu Qir town to the west and Rafah city on
the Eastern Egyptian frontiers (Fig. 1).These sediments are now present
either as beach deposits or in the form of coastal plain sand dunes. The
high grade black sands are associated with the outpourings of the Nile
Distributaries whether the present or the extinct ones. The reserve
estimation of monazite, zircon and rutile
minerals will be carried out at the two locality related to the to-day
Rosetta and Damietta promontories and two other locality related to the
extinct Sebbenytic and Pelusaic estuaries. The study will include both
beach sediments as well as coastal plain sand dune£.

3- Reserves Estimation
The four chosen localities for geological reserve evaluation for
monazite, zircon and rutile are considered to be the principal black
sands deposits. The first locality is on both sides of Rosetta promontory.
It extends from Idku Lake outlet to El Burrullus Lake openning. This
stretch is about 70 km long and its width varies from about 200 m to
about 5000 m with an average width of about 800 m. The area is
characterized mainly by beach deposits except west Rosetta outpouring
sector which has coastal plain sand dunes. The depth of the black sands
in this area reaches about 9m. Beyond this depth, the sand fraction
decreases to be less than 40% while the clay fraction constitutes the
193
major percentage. Above the mentioned depth, the sand fraction
generally exceeds 60% of the sediments.
The second locality is the coastal plain sand dune belt in which the
heavy minerals content reaches up to about 35% and covers the area
from Burg El Burrullus village eastward to El Gharbia Main Drainage, a
stretch of about 15 km long and average width of about 800m. The
height of the sand dunes in this area reaches up to 15m, however, an
average height of 5m will be considered. Assuming that the beach
sediments under the sand dunes reach about 10m depth, the thickness of
the deposit in this area will be considered as 1 5m.
The third locality is the north western part of El Manzalla Lake and
the beach area just east of Damietta outpouring. The depth of this
deposit will be 10 m and the area is about 30 km2. This area is
characterized by a series of parallel sand bars called "Barr" trending
generally northwest and are separated by longitudinal lagoons called
"Tawal". The mechanism of formation of these parallel sand bars was
attributed by Said [281 and Hamama [291 to be the result of the
accretion of the bottom sediments of the continental shelf by the wave
action and the continuous accumulation of these sands till the sand bar
became exposed on the surface of the sea water leaving a longitudinal
lagoon behind it.
The last locality is the north Sinai coastal plain sector which extends
between the eastern openning of El Bardawiel Lake at El Zaraniq in the
west and El Arish town in the east. This stretch is about 20 km in length
and about 500 m width It is characterized by beach deposits lined from
the south by north Sinai sand dune belt [30]. The depth of the deposit
in this area is about 10 m.
In order to estimate the reserves of the black sands in the four
localities and consequently the monazite, zircon and rutile mineral
content, the apparent specific gravity of the dry sand used in the
calculations must be 1.7 g/cm3 [31]. Also, the average frequencies of
each of the monazite, zircon, and rutile minerals in the Egyptian black
sands will be considered as 0.02%, 0.22% and 0.12% respectively.
Due to the fact that Egyptian beach monazite almost belongs to one
variety, its uranium and thorium contents do not vary greatly, on the
otherhand, the uranium and thorium contents of zircon show great
variation due to the presence of several varieties of beach zircon. The

194
existence of uranium and thorium in zircon is either due to defects in
zircon structure or to inclusions of radioactive minerals like
uranothorite. The coloured, cloudy, zoned (inclusions) and metamict
zircon varieties contain more uranium and thorium than the colorless
water-clear zircon varieties [32, 33, 34, 35 & 36]. Therefore, the
different varieties of the Egyptian beach zircons were separated on the
basis of their mass magnetic susceptibility. The obtained fractions were
analyzed for their uranium and thorium contents. The U3O8, Th O2 and
the frequency of each fraction were calculated and tabulated in table
(1). From these values the average content was found to be 0.06% U3O8
and 0.04% Th O 2 .

TABLE.I: FREQUENCIES OF MAGNETIC ZIRCON FRACTIONS

AND THEIR U 3 O 8 AND Th O 2 CONTENTS.

Current u3o8 ThO 2 Frequency

(amp) % %
0.3
%
0.037 0.148 0.78
0.5 0.065 0.555 0.85
0.7 0.111 1.186 2.73
0.9 0.088 0.540 2.36
1.1 0.075 0.219 3.33
1.3 0.080 0.092 4.37
1.5 0.070 0.073 2.58
1.5 Non mag 0.046 0.020 82.28

The uranium, thorium, titanium, and rare earths elements contents in

the Egyptian beach monazite were taken from the chemical assay given
by Hammoud [ll]on 99.9% monazite concentrate. The adopted
percentages of the nuclear elements in monazite, zircon and rutile used
in the reserve calculations are shown in table (2). Accordingly, the
tonnages of the oxides of each of the uranium, thorium, zirconium plus
hafnium, titanium, and rare earths elements and the estimated reserves of
the monazite, zircon and rutile are calculated and tabulated in table (3).
The obtained reserve estimates of the black sands, monazite, zircon and
rutile in the four studied localities are also shown in table (3).

195
TABLE II: AVERAGE CONTENTS OF THE NUCLEAR RAW
MATERIALS IN MONAZ1TE, ZIRCON AND RUTILE.

Oxides Monazite Zircon Rutile

(Hamoud) Deer et al. (371
U3O8 % 0.48 0.06* —
Th O 2 % 6.04 0.04* _
(Zr + Hf)O 2 % — 67.06* —
Ti O 2 % 0.06 0.06** 98.64
RE 2 O 3 % 61.31 0.03** -
* El Shazly et al. [19] - **Hammoud [11]

TABLE III: ESTIMATED RESERVES OF THE BLACK SANDS,

MONAZITE, ZIRCON, AND RUTILE AS WELL AS THE
NUCLEAR ELEMENTS IN THE FOUR STUDIED
LOCALITIES.

UNIT ROSETTA BALTJM DAMIEITA SINAI TOTAL

Length (m) 70,000 15,000 30,000 20,000 135,000
Width (m) 800 800 1,000 500
Depth (m) 9 15 10 10
Volume (m3) 494 x I06 180 x 106 300 x 106 100 x 106
1074.OxlO6
Weight (t) 839.8xlO6 306 xlO6 510 x 106 170 x 106
1825.8xlO6
MONAZITE (0 167,960 61,200 102,000 34,000 365,160
ZIRCON (0 1,847,560 673,200 1,122,000 374,000 4,016,760
RUTILE <*) 1,007,760 367,200 612,000 204,000 2,190,960
U3Q8 (t) 1,915 698 1,163 388 4,164
ThO2 (0 10,884 3,966 6,610 2,203 23,663
(Zr + HO O 2 (t) 1,238,974 451,448 752,413 250,804 2,693,639
TiO2 (t) 995,272 362,647 604,411 201,470 2,163,800
RE2O3 (0 103,531 37,724 62,873 20,958 225,086

4- Discussion
The extensive Egyptian black sands placer deposits exhibit vast
reserves of monazite, zircon and rutile beside magnetite, ilmenite and
garnet minerals. The former three minerals have nuclear importance
due to their content of nuclear raw materials. Monazite which is a rare
earths-thorium anhydrous orthopliosphate contains uranium, thorium,
196
titanium and rare earth elements. Zircon is mainly a zirconium silicate
mineral with uranium, thorium, hafnium, titanium, and rare earth
elements in minor quantities. Rutile mineral is essentially a titanium
dioxide assaying up to 98.64% TiC>2 but some rutile varieties contain
Nb and/or Ta due to similarities of their ionic radii [37]. Therefore, their
reserves in the black sands were calculated and were found to be
enermous quantities.
Different previous studies have dealt with the reserves of the heavy
economic minerals in Rosetta and Damietta localities either in the top
meter, in 12m depth or 20m depth. El Shazly [38] estimated the
economic mineral reserves, the monazite reserves and both the U3O8
and Th O2 reserves in east Damietta locality as well as east Rosetta
locality to a depth of 20m. (Table4). About 707 million ton of heavy
economic minerals were estimated in 1.6 km2 in Abu Khashaba beach
to a depth of 12m [39]. Another estimate in an area of 8.25 km2 to
20m depth in the same locality exhibit 30.5 million ton of heavy
economic minerals containing 113,000 ton monazite, 354,000 ton
zircon and 220,000 ton rutile [40].Moreover,EBASCO [41] estimated
37,200,000 ton heavy economic minerals in 12 km 2 to 20m depth in
east Rosetta beach and 5,400,000 ton heavy economic minerals in about
5 km 2 at west Rosetta locality to a depth of about 20m.

TABLE IV: RESERVES OF ECONOMIC MINERALS,

MONAZITE, U 3 O 8 and Th O2 ESTIMATED BY EL
SHAZLY [38],

Locality Econ. Monazite u3o8 Th O2

Minerals (ton) (ton) (ton)
(ton)
East Damietta 138,446,000 2,748,000 12,360 162,680
East Rosetta 477,800,000 3,520,000 15,840 208,308

All the previous reserve estimates exceed the present reserve

estimates owing to the excess depth. Besides, previous studies revealed
that the upper five meters contain nearly two thirds of the total
economic mineraly in the upper 12 meter depth [39]. This mean that
197
the upper crust of 10 meter thickness is more convincing in reserve
estimation than the 12 or 20 meter depth.
The presently evaluated four localities have a length of only about
135 km from the total length of the concerned coastal plain which
extends for about 500 km. The intervening localities do have also
monazite, zircon and rutile but with low concentrations. In addition, the
indurated sand dunes bordering the northern Sinai beach east of El
Arish to Rafah have also heavy economic minerals including also
monazite, zircon and rutile minerals. This means that the estimated
reserves of the black sands as well as the interesting minerals monazite,
zircon and rutile would increase if the whole area is taken in
consideration.
The four studied localities revealed about 1800 million tons of the
black sands which would be adequate for a profitable industrial
exploitation for about 130 years using a plant capacity of 1000 cubic
meter of dry sand per hour. In this case, the expected produced
quantities from Rosetta locality will give about 168,000 ton monazite,
1,848,000 ton zircon and 1,009,000 ton rutile. Baltim area would yield
about 61,000 ton monazite, 673,000 ton zircon and 367,000 ton rutile.
Damietta area has about 102,000 ton monazite, 1,122,000 ton zircon
and 612,000 ton rutile. El Arish beach area contains about 34,000 ton
monazite, 374,000 ton zircon and 201,000 ton rutile. Therefore, the
four localities would yield about 365,000 ton monazite, 4,017,000 ton
zircon and 2,191,000 ton rutile.
on the other hand, the total estimated reserves in the four studied
localities attain about 4,000 ton U 3 O 8 , 24,000 ton Th O 2 , 2,694,000 ton
(Zr+Hf) O 2 , 2,164,000 ton Ti O 2 and 225,000 ton RE 2 O 3 .

5- Industrial Exploitation
The industrial exploitation of these deposits will now be discussed
on the basis of three alternatives of production capacities. Proposed
capacities include 10 m3/h, 100m3/h, and 1000 m3/h of dry sands. At
the same time, the daily working hours could be 8, 16 or 24. In case of
8 working hours per day, the used tonnages of raw black sands in a year
and consequently the produced tonnages of monazite, zircon and rutile
concentrates as well as the calculated quantities of nuclear elements are
shown in table V. If the working hours per day were doubled or tripled
i.e. 16 or 24 hour per day the maximum exploited raw black sands in a

198
year the produced monazite, zircon and rutile and the expected nuclear
raw materials will be two or three times as the given figures in table V
respectively.

Besides the nuclear applications of the black sands minerals in the

nuclear industry, other metallurgical and engineering application of
some of these minerals could be mentioned. Zircon mineral could be
used in ceramic industry as the glazing material specially the colourless
water clear zircon variety which constitute about 82,28% of the beach
zircon and contain the lowest values of uranium and thorium (0.046%
& 0.020% respectively). The other zircon varieties represent about
17.72% of the total zircon and contain more uranium and thorium
(Table 3). Therefore, the colourless water clear zircon is used in the
ceramic industry while the other zircon varieties are suitable for
extraction of the nuclear raw materials. Rutile, on the other hand, beside
its nuclear industry uses is used in welding rods industry as well as in the
production of the titanium dioxide pigment. The obtained rare earths
elements from monazite processing can be used in ferrosilicon alloy
industry.

TABLE V: THE TONNAGES OF RAW BLACK SANDS,

MONAZITE, ZIRCON, RUTILE AND THE
CORRESPONDING NUCLEAR ELEMENTS PER YEAR
(8 WORKING HOURS DAILY)

10 m 3 /h 100 m 3 /h 1000 m 3 /h
(ton) (ton) (ton)
An Hour 17 170 1.700
8 Hours 136 1,360 13,600
A Year 40,800 408,000 4,080,000
MONAZITE 8.16 81.60 816
ZIRCON 89.76 897.60 8,976
RUTILE 48.96 489.60 4,896
u3o8 0.093 0.930 9.302
ThO 2 0.529 5.288 52.877
(Zr + HF) O2 60.193 601.931 6,019,306
TiO 2 48.353 483,529 4,835,290
RE 2 O 3 5.030 50,298 502,982

199
Acknowledgement
The author is deeply indepted to Prof. Dr. N.T. El Hazek, President
of the Nuclear Materials Authority for his kind advice and critical
reading the manuscript. The fruitful advices of Prof. Dr. Mamdouh A.
Hassan are greatly appreciated.

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203
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00
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\
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FIG. 1. Map Showing The Location of The Four Studied Areas

3t
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
Bolbtling •* Buco4ic
mouth .^ mouth w
Canopic fs-y* <mouh
mouth / \ •
/

3d'
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FIG. 2. Map Showing The Seven Old Extinct

Nil Branches ( After Ball, 1942 )

204