Rutile

Rutile is the mineral name for natural crystals of titanium dioxide. It is a very hard (6-6.5 Moh) and heavy titanium mineral mined in Australia, Africa, Norway, Canada, and in Florida and NY in USA. With the many companies processing it and the numerous sources it is not unexpected that stocks at ceramic suppliers can be variable. Variations in material can also a result of changes within a deposit at one mine (more on this in a moment).

Australia has very large deposits and many companies are mining them. The rutile there was produced by the weathering of granite and other igneous rocks along the seashore. The action of waves breaks down the rocks and the heavy rutile particles sediment while the lighter mineral particles are washed away. The deposits are thus in the form of beach sands. In other areas rutile is processed from materials from hard rock mines such as in Virginia and Quebec, Canada. It is possible to purify ilmenite and rutile to higher concentrations of titania and reduce iron to much less than 1%.

Related Information

Links

URLs	http://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/oxides/rutile/rutile.htm MineralGalleries.com Information
URLs	http://webmineral.com/data/Rutile.shtml Rutile at WebMineral.com
URLs	http://www.theimage.com/mineral/rutile/ Rutile information website
URLs	http://www.consrutile.com.au/ABOUTCRL/dwnstream.htm Consolidated Rutile Ltd in Australia
URLs	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutile Rutile on Wikipedia
URLs	http://www.handbookofmineralogy.org/pdfs/Rutile.pdf Rutile mineralogy
Materials	Titanium Dioxide A super white powder used in ceramic glazes to variegate, opacify and moderate color.
Materials	Rutile A raw TiO2-containing mineral used in ceramics to color and variegate glaze surfaces.

By Tony Hansen
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