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Silica Sand Resources In

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Eng. Geologist. Rafat A. GhandouraAssist. Head of Industrial Minerals Dept.

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Saudi Arabia has numerous industrial minerals commodities. One

of the most important commodities are silica sand and quartz.

Abundant resources of silica sand have been explored in Saudi

Arabia during last 40 years.

Most high grade silica sand deposits occurs in form of sandstone

formations that bounds the Arabian Shield to the north and east.

Sandstone's deposits are in general friable, loosely to moderately

cemented and require pulverization to yield silica sand.

Majority of silica sand resources are white to off-white, it is

moderately sorted sand with low-iron and other contaminants.

Silica sands have a large number of industrial uses depending ontheir characteristics. Numerous minor uses are based on either thechemical purity or physical properties of this and (such as grain-size distribution or grain shape).

Introduction

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Silica (SiO2) Origin

There are different silica (SiO2) resources forms:

Hydrothermal Quartz: quartz veins and pegmatite's.

Silica Sand.

Sandstone.

quartzite rocks.

Chalcedony.

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Saudi Arabia has numerous industrial minerals commodities. One

of the most important commodities are silica sand and quartz.

Abundant resources of silica sand have been explored in Saudi

Arabia during last 40 years.

Most high grade silica sand deposits occurs in form of sandstone

formations that bounds the Arabian Shield to the north and east.

Sandstone's deposits are in general friable, loosely to moderately

cemented and require pulverization to yield silica sand.

Majority of silica sand resources are white to off-white, it is

moderately sorted sand with low-iron and other contaminants.

Silica sands have a large number of industrial uses depending ontheir characteristics. Numerous minor uses are based on either thechemical purity or physical properties of this and (such as grain-size distribution or grain shape).

Introduction

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The abundant existence ofsilica sand in the KSA iswithin the geologicalsequences of the Paleozoic,Mesozoic, and Cenozoicsuccessions the bound theArabian Shield to the north,east and south and appearsporadically in relict Tertiarydeposits on the Red Seacoastal plain.

Geology

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Silica Sand Formations

Sag Formation

Qasim Formation

Sarah Formation

Biyadh Formation

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Main Silica Sand Occurrences

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Tabuk

97.5 - 99.0 %Si O2

0.04 - 0.05 %Fe2 O3

1.27 %Al2 O3

100 M m3Reserve

Dommat aljandal

96.3 - 99.8 %Si O2

0.21 %Fe2 O3

1.06 %Al2 O3

150 M m3Reserve

Tayma

94 - 99.8 %Si O2

0.05-0.06 %Fe2 O3

1.2 %Al2 O3

840 M m3Reserve

Hail

96 - 97 %Si O2

0.04-0.06 %Fe2 O3

1.25 %Al2 O3

LargeReserve

Qasim

94.5 – 99.8 %Si O2

0.06-1.2 %Fe2 O3

1.1 %Al2 O3

Very LargeReserve

Riyadh

97.5 – 99.4 %Si O2

0.12-0.18 %Fe2 O3

1.0 %Al2 O3

300 M m3Reserve

Al Jubayl

92 – 96.3 %SiO2

0.04-0.43 %Fe2O3

2.3 %Al2O3

16 M. m3Reserve

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Rabia & Nassar

Delmon

National Factory

Adwan Chemicals

Aldrees

Ad-Doghom Mining

Mahmoud saeed

Al-nazal

Al-Zahid Mining

Almarbaie

Muadinoon

Zahrat al-Riyad

Tuwaig

Al-Raddadi

Silica Sand Producers in

Designated Silica Complexes in

Saudi Arabia

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Industrial Application

in Saudi Arabia

Glass

Ceramic

Paint

Chemicals

Concretes

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Presently, there are three silica

sand complexes developed in

Saudi Arabia that have a number

of silica sand quarries. These

three areas are:

1) Ad-Doghm (near Riyadh)

2) Tayma South (south of Tabuk)

3) Dawmat al-jandal ( south of al-

jouf )

Silica Sand Mining in Saudi Arabia

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SILICA PROCESSING

washing

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Production of Silica SandThe silica sand production has significant increased between

2003-2007, whereas, there is a slight decrease in 2008-2009,

and the percentage of production has raised again.Weight

production

of silica

sand

(tonnes)

Year

364,0002003

594,0002004

518,0002005

781,0002006

820,0002007

799,0002008

709,0002009

820,0002010

1,300,0002011

1,270,0002012

1,276,4662013(e)

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

364

594

518

781

820

799

709 8

20

1300

1270

1276

Th

ou

sa

nd

to

nn

es

Years

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Silica Sand Import

Weight (tonnes)Year

NA2003

NA2004

21,2042005

28,6342006

41,8752007

73,7102008

45,0222009

46,4372010

42,9252011

79.1162012

49,7232013

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

0 0 2

1

29

42

74

45

46

43

79

50

Th

ou

sand

to

nn

es

Years

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Silica Sand Export

Weight (tonnes)Year

372,6742003

115,3902004

88,7572005

287,6162006

349,9082007

392,0002008

461,8782009

435,2562010

583,7752011

558,0162012

641,1282013

0

200

400

600

800

373

115 89

288350 392

461 435

584 558641

Th

ou

sand

to

nn

es

Years

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COUNTRYPRODUCTION (THOUSAND TONNES)

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013E

USA 27,900 27,300 29,700 30,600 30,000 30,400 25,000 29,900 43,700 50,700 52,500

Germany 8,500 8,500 7,500 8,160 7,700 8,190 6,450 7,000 7,770 7,500 7,400

Australia 4,500 4,500 4,500 4,500 5,600 5,600 5,600 3,760 3,760 3,760 3,800

Italy 4,500 4,500 4,500 4,000 5,300 5,300 5,200 5,300 5,600 5,300 5,600

UK 3,000 3,000 3,000 3,000 14,000 13,800 13,800 19,800 19,800 16,400 16,400

TOTAL 72,688 71,400 75,100 76,410 62,600 63,290 56,050 65,760 80630 83,660 85,700

OTHER

COUNTRIES22,412 23,600 39,900 41,590 63,400 57,710 49,950 55,240 57,370 55,340 55,300

WORLD TOTAL

PRODUCTION95,100 95,000

115,00

0118,000 126,000

121,00

0106,000 121,000 138,000 139,000 141,000

World production of silica sand

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SAUDI ARABIAN

QUARTZ RESOURCES

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Saudi Quartz OccurrencesQuartz occurrences are situated in within the Arabian Shield.Most quartz occurrences in Saudi Arabia are found as:quartz veins :Most quartz veins are isolated with dimensions not

exceeding to 80m X 100m X 100m.

quartz cupolas :appears to be dome shaped quartz bodies – cupola.

pegmatites (granitic composition):Conventionally, zoned pegmatite bodies have been mined

for feldspar as the feldspar occurs in the marginal zone of

such bodies.

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CONCLUSIONSilica sand resources are abundant and many of them are

intensively explored and analyzed.

Most silica sand is high quality, white, low iron and suitable

particle size for a number of industrial applications.

Most silica sand resources can be upgraded with suitable

processing, therefore, effective and optimum processing is

needed for almost all silica sand resources.

Processing of silica sand enhance the whiteness and purity

of sand – decreases iron and alumina and increases silica

contents.

Processing is important to bring silica sand to the required

technical specifications of industrial products.

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