Mineral Content and Magnetic Properties of River Iron Sand from Jayapura, Papua

Abstract

In this study, we investigated the mineral content and magnetic properties of river iron sand from Jayapura, Papua. The iron sand was collected from the Waimbow River in the Waibu District, whereas the bulk samples were extracted using a permanent magnet. The extracted iron sand was characterized using X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffractometer to identify the elemental composition and structural phase. Meanwhile, the vibrating sample magnetometer was also applied to characterize the magnetic properties. The results show that the iron sand contains magnetite as a major mineral, with soft magnetic properties. The hysteresis curve shows that the iron sand has a high saturation magnetization of 27.8 emu/g, remanent magnetization of 2.34 emu/g, and coercive field of 21.3 Oe. These results also indicate that the iron sand formation in northern Papua was mainly due to lithogenic factors.