Ilmenite is a weakly magnetic iron-black or steel-gray mineral found in metamorphic and igneous rocks. It is a crystalline iron titanium oxide (FeTiO₃). It crystallizes in the rhombohedral system, and it has the same crystal structure as corundum and hematite. Magnetic lines of force of a bar magnet shown by iron filings on paper In physics, magnetism is one of the phenomena by which materials exert an attractive or repulsive force on other materials. ... Minerals are natural compounds formed through geological processes. ... Quartzite, a form of metamorphic rock, from the Museum of Geology at University of Tartu collection. ... Volcanic rock on North America Plutonic rock on North America Igneous rocks are formed when rock (magma) cools and solidifies, with or without crystallisation, either below the surface as intrusive (plutonic) rocks or on the surface as extrusive (volcanic) rocks. ... Quartz crystal Copper(II) sulfate and iodine crystal Synthetic bismuth crystal Insulin crystals Gallium, a metal that easily forms large single crystals A huge monocrystal of potassium dihydrogen phosphate grown from solution by Saint-Gobain for the megajoule laser of CEA. In chemistry and mineralogy, a crystal is a solid... General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 8, 4, d Appearance lustrous metallic with a grayish tinge Atomic mass 55. ... General Name, Symbol, Number titanium, Ti, 22 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 4, 4, d Appearance silvery metallic Atomic mass 47. ... An oxide is a chemical compound of oxygen with other chemical elements. ... In crystallography, the rhombohedral (or trigonal) crystal system is one of the 7 lattice point groups. ... Corundum is a crystalline form of aluminum oxide and one of the rock-forming minerals. ... Hematite (AE) or haematite (BE) is the mineral form of Iron(III) oxide, (Fe2O3), one of several iron oxides. ...

Many mafic igneous rocks contain grains of intergrown magnetite and ilmenite, formed by the oxidation of ulvospinel. Ilmenite also occurs as discrete grains, typically with some hematite in solid solution, and complete solid solution exists between the two minerals at temperatures above about 950°C. Ilmenite also forms solid solutions with geikielite (MgTiO₃). In geology, mafic minerals and rocks are silicate minerals, magmas, and volcanic and intrusive igneous rocks that have relatively high concentrations of the heavier elements. ... Volcanic rock on North America Plutonic rock on North America Igneous rocks are formed when rock (magma) cools and solidifies, with or without crystallisation, either below the surface as intrusive (plutonic) rocks or on the surface as extrusive (volcanic) rocks. ... // Headline text Magnetite is a ferrimagnetic mineral form of iron(II,III) oxide, with chemical formula Fe3O4, one of several iron oxides and a member of the spinel group. ... ... Fig. ...

Sources

Although named after the locality of its discovery in the Il'menski Mountains, near Miass, Russia, most ilmenite is recovered from secondary sources, such as beach sands. It is normally found in sand as rounded particles with a diameter between 0.1 and 0.2 mm. Patterns in the sand Sand is a granular material made up of fine rock particles. ...

The world's largest opencast ilmenite mine is the Tellnes mine located in Sokndal, Norway and run by Titania AS (owned by Kronos Worldwide Inc.). El Chino, located near Silver City, New Mexico, is an open-pit copper mine Open-pit mining, or opencast mining, refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow. ... County Rogaland Landscape Dalane Municipality NO-1111 Administrative centre Hauge i Dalene Mayor (2005) Gudmund Holmen (Ap) Official language form Neutral Area  - Total  - Land  - Percentage Ranked 279 295 km² 267 km² 0. ...

In Karhujupukka located in Kolari, northern Finland there is a magnetite - ilmenite ore at around 5 million tons. The ore contains about 6.2% titanium.

The majority of the ilmenite mined is used as a raw material for pigment production. The product is titanium dioxide, which is an extremely white substance used as a base in high-quality paint. It is commonly massive, but also occurs in rhombohedral crystals. For animal and plant pigments, see Pigment, biology. ... Titanium dioxide, also known as titanium(IV) oxide or titania, is the naturally occurring oxide of titanium, chemical formula TiO2. ... In crystallography, the rhombohedral (or trigonal) crystal system is one of the 7 lattice point groups. ...

Lunar ilmenite

Ilmenite has been found in Moon rocks, and in 2005 NASA used the Hubble Space Telescope to locate potentially ilmenite-rich locations. This mineral could be essential to an eventual Moon base, as ilmenite would provide a source of iron and titanium for the building of structures and essential oxygen extraction. Lunar Ferroan Anorthosite #60025 (Plagioclase Feldspar). ... The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an agency of the United States Government, responsible for that nations public space program. ... The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) is a telescope in orbit around the Earth, named after astronomer Edwin Hubble for his discovery of galaxies outside the Milky Way and his creation of Hubbles Law, which calculates the rate at which the universe is expanding. ... An artists rendering of a lunar base. ...

References

• Lane, Megan. BBC News - How to set up a moon base, 26 August 2005
• Mineral Data Publishing, PDF
• Webmineral data
• Mineral galleries
• USGS Mineral Commodities Summary: Ilmenite 1998 - PDF