Abstract
Sea beaches are always a good source of heavy minerals around the world. Cox’s Bazar has 120 km of unbroken sandy sea beach. The study includes the sea beaches of 5 upazilas (Moheshkhali, Kolatoli, Ramu, Ukhia, Teknaf) in Cox’s bazaar district for studying the concentration, identification and investigation of heavy mineral deposits along the sandy beaches. This study has concentrated on the physical properties, identification, and abundance of the heavy minerals fraction in sediments collected from the study area. Satellite imagery Landsat-8 OLI was used for remote sensing verifications. The image processing and crucial analysis carried out using Environment for Visualizing Images (ENVI), Arc GIS and Erdas Imagine software. Coastal areas adjacent to Teknaf upazila has a very significant amount of heavy mineral reserves, almost 16%. The study has identified around nineteen variety of heavy minerals from the collected samples in the study area. Ilmenite, Kyanite, Garnet, Rutile, Zircon, Magnetite, Augite, Hornblende, Enstatite, Epidote, Andalusite, Hypersthene, Diopside and Cassiterite have been found the most abundant in the entire study area. The Coastline of Bangladesh was surveyed completely to map the heavy minerals which are potential resources for our national economy.
Highlights
Heavy mineral sands generally contain high specific gravity (SG > 2.9) and occurring as detrital minerals such as rutile, sillimanite, monazite, xenotime, chromite, tourmaline, garnet, staurolite, zircon, ilmenite, magnetite, and kyanite
Fine and medium sand are comparatively higher in some areas of Teknaf beach, which indicates that these areas may have higher percentage of heavy minerals
A group researchers found that the grain size of heavy minerals decreases from north to south and the sediments transported from northern region [37]
Summary
Heavy mineral sands generally contain high specific gravity (SG > 2.9) and occurring as detrital minerals such as rutile, sillimanite, monazite, xenotime, chromite, tourmaline, garnet, staurolite, zircon, ilmenite, magnetite, and kyanite. These heavy minerals are resistant to abrasion, chemically stable, and can endure diagenetic modification [1]. Developing countries like Bangladesh need to focus on the detail mapping and rigorous exploration activities in the coastal areas of the country. In the coastal areas of Bangladesh, heavy minerals with beach placer deposits are abundant specially in the southern and eastern margin of the coastal belt [6-9]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
