GEOCHEMISTRY AND MINERALOGICAL EVALUATION OF QUARTZ ITE BEARING KYANITE IN KUTA, NORTHWESTERN NIGERIA.

Abstract

Kyamite is blue to green triclinic mineral, origina ted from moderately high pressure and temperature associated with regional metamorphism of politic ro cks. Kyanite is associated with minerals like staurolite, andalusite, talc and corundum, and is a member of 1:1 aluminous-silicates. Economic occurrences are of lump massive and lenses with at least 35% content of SiO 2 and 40% Al 2 O 3 . This present study is necessitated as a result of the in dustrial applications of kyanite. The Kuta kyanite - quartzite form a narrow ridge of about 300 metres h igh and 6km 2 , it intruded into the country rock of mica-schist. AAS and XRD techniques were employed i n the determination of chemical and mineralogical composition of ten representative raw and beneficia ted kyanite-quartzite samples. Beneficiation was do ne by electromagnetic and methylene iodide separation techniques. The combined AAS and XRD analyses results show that Al 2 O 3 + SiO 2 constitute 92% and kyanite alone constitute 55% of the beneficiated samples, quartz, mulite and silliminite 45%. Evalu ation of the indusrial suitability show inconsisten t of the Kuta kyanite with BSI and ASTM standards specif ication for industrial mineral, it can be use as refractory material based on the alumina content.