[Rockhounds] Mining Lake Michigan Sand for Magnetite

[Brenick at gmail.com]

That just brought back good memories of visiting my mother's family in  
Grand Haven, Michigan while growing up...I spent many an hour collecting  
magnetite...wonder what ever happened to all that? I'm thinking it went in  
the garden.

Brenda

On Mar 16, 2009 10:26pm, Kreigh Tomaszewski <Kreigh at tomaszewski.net> wrote:
> I got a request from another List I am on for a sample of Lake Michigan  
> beach sand that contains Magnetite. It got me wondering.



> Has anyone heard of mining (Lake Michigan) sand with a magnet to extract  
> the magnetite at a commercial scale? They do it commercially with  
> Taconite, and they make their own sand by crushing rock, all for about  
> 3%. I have filled more than a dozen film cans with magnetite using a  
> super-magnet on about a hundred square feet of (Lake Michigan) beach sand.



> Is the percentage of magnetite sufficient to make such an operation  
> profitable? A crane with an electromagnet on a barge just offshore could  
> process a lot of sand as it circled the shores of the Great Lakes with  
> minimal economic impact.



> With the sand still moving I'll bet it could make several trips around  
> the lake and continue to harvest magnetite.



> Would anyone really object if the sand got whiter, and all the junk iron  
> near the shore got picked up? I'm surprised I have not heard of this  
> being attempted before? Have any of you?



> Is it profitable; should I be looking to claim some percentage for the  
> idea? Anyone want to start a mining partnership? ;-}



> Or am I crazy?



> Just wondering...



> Kreigh





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