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Concept
Ilmenite
Summary
Ilmenite is a titanium-iron oxide mineral with the idealized formula FeTiO3. It is a weakly magnetic black or steel-gray solid. Ilmenite is the most important ore of titanium and the main source of titanium dioxide, which is used in paints, printing inks, fabrics, plastics, paper, sunscreen, food and cosmetics.
Ilmenite is a heavy (specific gravity 4.7), moderately hard (Mohs hardness 5.6 to 6), opaque black mineral with a submetallic luster. It is almost always massive, with thick tabular crystals being quite rare. It shows no discernible cleavage, breaking instead with a conchoidal to uneven fracture.
Ilmenite crystallizes in the trigonal system with space group R. The ilmenite crystal structure consists of an ordered derivative of the corundum structure; in corundum all cations are identical but in ilmenite Fe2+ and Ti4+ ions occupy alternating layers perpendicular to the trigonal c axis.
Pure ilmenite is paramagnetic (showing only very weak attraction to a magnet), but ilmenite forms solid solutions with hematite that are weakly ferromagnetic and so are noticeably attracted to a magnet. Natural deposits of ilmenite usually contain intergrown or exsolved magnetite that also contribute to its ferromagnetism.
Ilmenite is distinguished from hematite by its less intensely black color and duller appearance and its black streak, and from magnetite by its weaker magnetism.
Image:Ilmenite.GIF|Crystal structure of ilmenite
File:Ilmenite-65675.jpg|Ilmenite from Froland, Aust-Agder, Norway; 4.1 x 4.1 x 3.8 cm
File:Ilmenite and hematite under normal light.jpg|Ilmenite and hematite under normal light
File:Ilmenite and hematite under polarized light.jpg|Ilmenite and hematite under polarized light
In 1791 William Gregor discovered a deposit of black sand in a stream that runs through the valley just south of the village of Manaccan (Cornwall), and identified for the first time titanium as one of the constituents of the main mineral in the sand. Gregor named this mineral manaccanite.
Official source
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