DETERMINATION OF URANIUM AND THORIUM CONTENT IN THE VARIOUS STAGES OFMONAZITE UPGRADING

A dominating characteristic of monazite minerals in black sands is the presence of natural Th and U. During the upgrading of monazite from E gyptian beach sands it has been found that there exists a predictable relationship between the monazite content of the different concentrate s and electrical conductivity. Uranium and Th concentrations have been determined, for different upgrading stages of monazite applying gamma -ray spectrometric and ''ED-XRF'' spectrophotometry techniques. Electr ical conductivity measurements for the different concentrates have als o been performed. It has been found that the conductivity of the diffe rent concentrates decreases with increasing U and Th content, i.e. per centage monazite. Use of electrical conductivity measurements can be e xpected to be of value as a rapid quality control technique for evalua tion of the monazite content in the upgrading of beach sands. These sa me measurements provide a basis for the high efficiency of the electro static separation technique in obtaining high-grade monazite concentra tes.