About Mineral Sands

Heavy Mineral Sands (HMS) are naturally occurring sands that contain concentrations of minerals with specific gravity of >2.85 g/cm3. Heavy Minerals include:

• Zircon
• Ilmenite
• Rutile
• Monazite and Xenotime

Heavy Minerals are then concentrated by marine processes to form concentrations within beach and sand dune environments. The HMS accumulates via a mechanical wet gravity sorting action, which occurs due to the HMS being more than twice the density of water and significantly heavier than normal quartz sand grains.