Economically viable rare earth element deposits along beach placers of Andhra Pradesh, eastern coast of India

Palaparthi, Jyothirmayi and Chakrabarti, Ramananda and Banerjee, Santanu and Guin, Rasmohan and Ghosal, Shayantani and Agrahari, Sudha and Sengupta, Debashish (2017) Economically viable rare earth element deposits along beach placers of Andhra Pradesh, eastern coast of India. In: ARABIAN JOURNAL OF GEOSCIENCES, 10 (9).

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Abstract

A comprehensive study was carried out in order to determine the radioelement and rare earth element (REE) concentrations in beach placer deposits at selected locations along the eastern coast of Andhra Pradesh in India. This was done to evaluate the economic value of these deposits. The findings of this study suggest that high Th and low K concentrations delineate the prospective regions having REE deposits. The beach placers, in general, can be characterized by high thorium and moderate uranium concentrations. The concentrations of REEs vary in the following order: Ce > La> Nd > Pr > Sm > Gd > Dy. Rapid in situ thorium prospectivity coupled with laboratory-based techniques like ICP-MS, as proposed in this study, would help in the identification of prospective REE sources along the coastal placers. The development of indigenous resources of light rare earth elements (LREEs), medium rare earth elements (MREEs), and heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) would decrease the dependence on imports, which have a strategic hold on the production and supply of the REEs, globally.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	ARABIAN JOURNAL OF GEOSCIENCES
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the SPRINGER HEIDELBERG, TIERGARTENSTRASSE 17, D-69121 HEIDELBERG, GERMANY
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Centre for Earth Sciences
Date Deposited:	10 Jun 2017 04:39
Last Modified:	10 Jun 2017 04:39
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/57166

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