[Rockhounds] Mining Lake Michigan Sand for Magnetite

[Tim Jokela Jr.]

The guys recreating the old ways of smelting iron ore into iron are 
interested in black sand, but they typically do a hundred pounds at a time 
and it's not easy gathering that much from the beach.

There are areas in Ontario I've heard with very thick layers of black sand, 
a foot or so.

One would suspect that it's simply not economical, until steel prices go 
way, way up. I can't remember what purity the magnetite is. There would also 
be major problems with property rights - who owns the beach?

For anybody with a low power microscope, the black sand marks the layer of 
dense, interesting minerals. Collect a few pounds and look for micro 
diamonds!

Cheers,

T


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <Brenick at gmail.com>
To: "Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors" 
<rockhounds at lists.drizzle.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 9:04 AM
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] Mining Lake Michigan Sand for Magnetite


> 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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