Raw material for industry - white quartz sand

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

What miracles are not prepared on Earth for man! Here, for example, is an amazing sight - white sand. From afar, you won’t immediately understand: is it snowdrifts in the middle of summer, or mountains of granulated sugar, or maybe table s alt or another chemical? And just approaching, taking it in the palm of your hand and waking up through your fingers, you understand that this is white sand, the photo of which is given in this article. And it consists of quartz - a mineral common on Earth. Quartz is included in the mineral composition of oligomictic and polymictic sands that make up desert dunes, dunes of sea coasts, and shoals of water bodies.

Natural white sand

Deposits of quartz sand are found in river valleys. White river sand is the purest, usually it does not contain pollutants, as well as mountain quartz sand, weathered vein outcrops. It is quite probable to find nuggets of precious metals or their minerals in deposits of natural quartz sand. There is white sand buried under layers of other sedimentary rocks and mined in a quarry. It usually contains pollutants in the form of an admixture of clays, sandy loams,loams, polymictic sands, which are found in the thickness of quartz sands in the form of interlayers and lenses.

Creation of nature and human hands

White sand, composed of 90-95% quartz, is not so common and is highly valued as a raw material for many industries. The lack of natural sand can be filled - to get artificial quartz sand using crushing and screening equipment. For the production of sand, monolithic blocks of milky-white quartz are used, crushing which and sifting the destroyed rock, sand is obtained with certain and desired sizes (fractions) of particles. Artificial sand differs from natural sand in exceptional monomineralism, sharp-angled grains of sand.

Where quartz sand is used

White sand is used to make glass. The following requirements are imposed on it: 95% of it consists of quartz, it must be medium-grained (grain diameter 0.25-0.5 mm), without admixture of substances that are sparingly soluble in the glass mass, without harmful impurities of minerals containing iron, chromium, titanium (they color the glass and increase its light absorption). A good glass sand is one that is 98.5% quartz and includes no more than 0.1% iron oxide.

Quartz glass is needed for the manufacture of chemical glassware, in instrument making - it can withstand significant temperature changes. For molds and cores in the foundryIn the production of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, quartz sand is also used, which is called molding sand in metallurgy. The quality of this sand is determined by its granulometric composition and the shape of the particles that affect the gas permeability, and the amount of impurities that reduce the refractoriness of the sands. It is necessary that the sands do not contain minerals with a high content of sulfur and phosphorus, which are harmful to metal casting. Quartz sand is used for the production of grinding wheels and "sandpaper" - for this sand is melted with graphite and carborundum is obtained, second only to diamond in hardness. The exceptional dirt holding capacity (sorption capacity) of quartz sand is used in filters for water purification from iron and manganese oxides. This sand is used in construction for plastering surfaces and for the production of finishing panels, concrete blocks. Used in landscape design. And even coffee warmed up in a food warmer filled with white quartz sand will delight you with its fragrant taste.