Preliminary Assessment and Processing of Beach Sands along the River Nile Banks, Northern State, Sudan

Several samples were collected from the beach sands accumulated in many places along the River Nile banks through the northern state, Sudan. The collected samples were subjected to microscopic, X-ray diffraction and chemical analysis. Mineralogical analysis has shown that the mineral components of those samples include magnetite, hornblende, garnet, ilmenite, rutile, zircon and monazite. Several separation techniques were also applied to separate the potential heavy minerals. The obtained results indicated that the tested beach sand samples contain substantial amounts of the potential heavy minerals, especially zircon and monazite.