Abstract

Manganese deposit reserves exist in Nigeria, which have potentials as raw materials for industrial applications such as batteries, steel and electrical appliances. The present level of exploitation of Manganese is very low and, in most cases, appropriate processing would be necessary to attain desirable qualities. This paper provides petrological, chemical and mineralogical characterization of manganese ore in Anka area of Zamfara state, Nigeria. A chip of about 1/8 of an inch and about 1 inch by 1 inch was cut from the lumps of Anka (Zamfara state) manganese sample using rock cutter, after which their surfaces were trimmed and the chip was mounted on a grinding machine to make the surface smooth. The samples were mounted on a slide and viewed using Leica Petrological Microscope. 500 g of the ore was weighed using digital weighing balance. The sample was crushed and ground until 80% passing of 250µm is achieved. The ground ore was blended homogenously before the analysis while for the ore microscopy study, true fraction representative of the manganese ore samples were prepared, polished mounts and characterized using Scanning Electron Microscope-energy dispersed X-ray (SEM/EDX). However, X-ray Fluorescence was used to determine the chemical composition while identification of the associate mineral phase was done using X-ray Diffraction. From the petrological analysis carried out on the crude samples reveals the presence of heavy mineral and segregation distribution of the mineral. The XRF results shows 77.81% MnO, 60.26% Mn, 10.9% Fe2O3, 4% Al2O3 while Spessartine (3MnO.Al2O3, 0.830), Silicon oxide (SiO2, 1.122), Quartz (SiO4, 0.728), Pyrolusite (MnO, 1.543), and Almandine (Fe3Al2SiO12, 1.583) were identified as the major phases in the ore.

Highlights

  • The world has become a global village and metallurgical industries could become one of the major forces in the global economy occupying a vital position in the supply chain of raw material on sustainable basis [1]

  • This paper provides petrological, chemical and mineralogical characterization of manganese ore in Anka area of Zamfara state, Nigeria

  • A chip of about 1/8 of an inch and about 1 inch by 1 inch was cut from the lumps of Anka (Zamfara state) manganese sample using rock cutter, after which their surfaces were trimmed and the chip was mounted on a grinding machine to make the surface smooth

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Summary

Introduction

The world has become a global village and metallurgical industries could become one of the major forces in the global economy occupying a vital position in the supply chain of raw material on sustainable basis [1]. The inadequate manganese supply for industrial use cannot be over emphasized in the metallurgical industries today due to the fact that there is no satisfactory substitute for its major application because steel cannot be formed or shaped without appropriate amount of manganese in it [2]. The metallurgical industries, account for over 95 % of its total usage. It is for this reason that manganese is listed amongst the strategic materials by most countries [4]. Gbadamosi et al /2021 government areas that make up Zamfara state which is domiciled in the Northwest geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Anka LGA covers a total area of 2746 km squared with the average temperature of the area estimated at 38 degrees centigrade

Characterization of Ore
X-Ray Diffractometric Analysis
Material Sourcing
Petrological Analysis of the Manganese Ore Sample
Chemical Characterization of the Manganese Ore Sample
Discussion
Conclusion

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