Quantification and Qualification of Silica Sand Extracted from Padma River Sand

Abstract

The sands of Bangladesh's rivers are potentially and economically important hosts for silica sand resources. The work is based on extraction of silica sand from sands of the Padma River and quantification and qualification of extracted silica sand as glass sand. Characterization tests carried out on sand samples collected from sand bars of the Padma River in north-western Bangladesh revealed that the silica content of the sand is 76.4%. The extraction of silica sand from head sand is done by physical separation process. A chemical analysis of extracted sand is done by XRF analysis and the result shows that extracted sand contains 85.9% silica. The qualification analysis is done by glass making and characterizing the glass sample.