Geological Features And Utilization Performance Of The Purple Sand Syderolite In Jiaoyuanwu District, Jingdezhen City

Purple sand syderolite is a special Chinese nonmetallic ore. In the past decade, the sharply increased demands have led the serious exhaustion resource. Therefore, finding superseding ores is one of the most important exploration targets.In this study, theories of sedimentology, mineral deposits and clay mineralogy were used to study the purple sand syderolite in the Jiaoyuanwu area, Jingdezhen. Based on literature investigation, field survey, and lithological and mineralogical analysis, the geological features of ore deposit, the mineral assemblage of the ore and the performance of processing technology were investigated.The Jiaoyuanwu purple sand syderolite mine locates in the continental red basin belonging to the northeastern part of the Leping-Shexian tectonic melange subzone. The basement of this red basin is mesoproterozoic metamorphic rock, and the basin contains clastic rocks of meandering river facies of Duojiang Formation in upper Triassic-lower Jurassic, clastic rocks of river and lake facies of Zhangping Formation and Shuibei Formation in Linshan Group in Jurassic Series. Brittle fractures are common in this mine area, but fold structures are rarely found. The orebody of purple sand syderolite is lithotically purple silty mudstone and argillaceous siltstone in the middle Zhangping Formation. Ore contains relatively high content of iron oxides and low content of muscovite clastic. In the bottom of the ore bed, white calcareous nodules are commonly distributed, which turn to be gray-yellow spots after weathering in surface.The results from X-ray diffraction analysis, scanning electron microscope and energy spectrum analysis show that silty clastic in ore is mainly quartz and feldspar, and clay mineral mainly include illite with less chlorite and very little smectite in few samples. Microcrystalline hematite is quite common in the surface of clastic mineral in ore. Surrounding rock has similar lithology with orebody except the former contains obviously higher chlorite content, which shows deposition condition for the clay ore is quite different from that of surrounding rock, at least different in source region.This study also evaluates the processing performance of craft application via analyze products sintered with purple sand syderolite. The results indicate that the clays show high performance of pottery craft, which can satisfy technical requirements of purple sand products. The clay can not only be used to produce necessary purple sand ceramics for daily use, but also be applied to make purple sand sculptures. In summary, the discoved purple sand syderolite has greatly potential for exploitation and broad application in the future.