Chapter 45 Heavy-Mineral Sands of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains, USA

Abstract

Abstract The Eastern North American Titanium Province extends from Labrador to Florida and westward toward the Mississippi River. In the United States, this province covers the Atlantic Coastal Plain and a substantial portion of the Gulf Coastal Plain. Heavy minerals were first mined from surface and near-surface sands of the Atlantic Coastal Plain in 1916, when Buckman and Pritchard opened a mine on a beach near Mineral City, Florida, to recover ilmenite. Numerous heavy-mineral deposits have since been identified within the surface sands of the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains. Although some of the deposits are now being mined, others are no longer active, or have been lost to mining because of cultural developments. Some are likely to be mined in the future. Significant heavy-mineral deposits have been or are being exploited in New Jersey, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Some important heavy-mineral deposits formed in beach ridges at the height of major marine transgressions, e.g., the Trail Ridge and Highland (Maxville) deposits along Trail Ridge, and the Yulee, Cabin Bluff, Altama, Aurora, and Chowan deposits along the Pamlico shoreline. Other deposits developed in beach ridges formed at times of temporary halts or during minor transgressions in periods of general regression, e.g., the Green Cove Springs, Boulougne, Folkston, and Lulaton deposits. Those formed in alluvial environments include Manchester, Lakehurst, and Camden, as well as those of the Virginia and North Carolina Fall Zone. The most significant heavy-mineral deposits of the onshore Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains, as far west as the Louisiana–Texas border, are reviewed.