Strategic High Quality Quartz Supply for Fusion into Silica Glass

Suzuki, Carlos Kenichi; Santos, Murilo Ferreira Marques dos; Ono, Eduardo Akifumi; Fujiwara, Eric; Torikai, Delson

doi:10.1002/9781118472590.ch7

Cited by 5 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Brazil has large quartz reserves with high chemical purity (Suzuki et al, 2012;Haus et al, 2012), but the production system adopted by local producers is still unable to deal with quality variations within the mines. In addition, most of mines historically engaged in exportation frequently delivered the ore with irregular quality, i.e., with impurities and fluid inclusions exceeding the requirements of silica glass industry (Iwasaki et al, 1991;Santos et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several recent studies were conducted in universities and research centers in order to identify reserves with high quality, homogeneity, and adequate technological characteristics to enable high scale production (Santos et al, 2013;Suzuki et al, 2012). One very promising area is the Serra de Santa Helena formation, located in northern Minas Gerais State, southeastern Brazil.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quartz resources in the Serra de Santa Helena formation, Brazil: A geochemical and technological study

Santos

Fujiwara

Schenkel

et al. 2014

Journal of South American Earth Sciences

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Trace elements in quartz Resources for silica glass High purity quartz a b s t r a c tThis study presents an evaluation of Brazilian quartz deposits of Corinto and Olhos D' agua, in Minas Gerais State, as potential high purity raw material for the production of silica glass. Both deposits are part of the Serra de Santa Helena formation, which holds other quartz deposits. Several quartz samples from these mines were analyzed to evaluate their chemical purity, by determination of the content of trace elements by ICP-MS after acid digestion. The technological characteristics of the ores after flame-fusion into silica glass were evaluated according to their bubble generation and UV transparency. The results indicate that silica glass with chemistry suitable for crucible applications can be obtained from materials of both mines, and even optical grade silica glass can be manufactured using transparent ore from one of the mines. In addition, this work explores the trace elements composition of each mine, as well as their fluid inclusions, and characterizes the mines as being of hydrothermal origin. Small differences in the physical and chemical characteristics of quartz that could affect the technological behavior of the ores are related to the geological history of the mines and provide interesting insights regarding the exploration of other quartz resources within the same geological formation.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quartz resources in the Serra de Santa Helena formation, Brazil: A geochemical and technological study

Santos

Fujiwara

Schenkel

et al. 2014

Journal of South American Earth Sciences

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“…The Al content, however, presents an abnormally low value. Most quartz resources, either hydrothermal, pegmatitic or diagenetic, usually contain more than 20 mg g À1 in Al (Santos et al, 2014;Müller et al, 2012;Suzuki et al, 2012;Li et al, 2010;Müller et al, 2007;Iwasaki et al, 1991). The content of Ge is also relatively low.…”

Section: Chemical Analysis Using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Specmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Quartz resources with such characteristics are rare and their exploitation and processing are very costly Suzuki et al, 2012;Haus et al, 2012;G€ otze, 2009). Often, companies start from less pure raw materials and use industrial processing to achieve the desired chemical purity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Brazil hosts many different kinds of quartz resources (Suzuki et al, 2012;Haus et al, 2012), many of them with a high degree of purity and favorable technological characteristics for silica glass production. However, most of the mines ascribed with high chemical purity, are rocky quartz deposits, but there are a number of quartz sand deposits as well.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Quartz sand resources in the Santa Maria Eterna formation, Bahia, Brazil: A geochemical and morphological study

Santos

Fujiwara

Schenkel

et al. 2015

Journal of South American Earth Sciences

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Assessment of shear zone-derived quartz from the Etam area, southwest Cameroon as potential high-purity quartz resource: petrography, geochemistry and technological studies

et al. 2020

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This study focuses on the evaluation of the high-purity quartz (HPQ) potential of a shear zone-hosted hydrothermal and metamorphic quartz deposit in Etam, southwest Cameroon. The shear zone quartz-rich rock is monomineralic and consists of both milky and translucent varieties. The combination of ICP-MS and LA-ICP-MS analytical techniques was used to assess the chemical purity of both quartz varieties. These compositional analyses show that all quartz samples have SiO 2 content of 98.46-99.75 wt% with very low concentrations of all the other elements. Translucent quartz when compared to the milky quartz variety shows low concentration of most of the elements including the following principal impurities: Al (mean 107 µg g −1 ), Ca (mean 27.85 µg g −1 ) and Fe (mean 26.05 µg g −1 ). Bubble generation in the samples after flame fusion over a silica plate was assessed to test the suitability of the quartz in industrial uses. The results obtained from the chemical analyses and bubble formation tests indicate that all the samples investigated do not meet the HPQ requirement. However, the translucent quartz shows characteristics of medium-purity quartz and can produce silica glass for some industrial manufacturing even without further purification. In this study, the fluid inclusions in the samples were examined as this bears information on the economic viability of the deposit and provides clues on the genesis of the quartz vein. Also tiny mineral inclusions within individual quartz grains were identified by SEM-EDS. The results of these studies show that the deposit is probably of metamorphic origin marked by crystal-plastic deformation in quartz grains. The veins were later modified by hydrothermal fluid input. The results also indicate that the majority of impurities are likely hosted by fluid inclusions and thus the quartz can be upgraded to HPQ after purification by suitable methods.

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Strategic High Quality Quartz Supply for Fusion into Silica Glass

Cited by 5 publications

References 7 publications

Quartz resources in the Serra de Santa Helena formation, Brazil: A geochemical and technological study

Quartz resources in the Serra de Santa Helena formation, Brazil: A geochemical and technological study

Quartz sand resources in the Santa Maria Eterna formation, Bahia, Brazil: A geochemical and morphological study

Assessment of shear zone-derived quartz from the Etam area, southwest Cameroon as potential high-purity quartz resource: petrography, geochemistry and technological studies

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