Analysis of Mineral Content and Magnetic Properties of Iron Sand of Bah Bolon Simalungun River, North Sumetera

Abstract

Analysis and characterization of the natural iron sand of the Bah Bolon River in Simalungun Regency has been carried out. Separation of iron sand is carried out using a 500 Gauss permanent magnet 10 times. After that, the iron sand is washed using Aquades 5 times so that the iron sand is clean of impurities and dried using an oven at a temperature of 85o C for 24 hours. Iron sand samples with a size of 250 mesh (74µm) were then characterized using SEM-EDS and VSM. Measurements using SEM-EDS show that the Sungai Bah Bolon iron sand contains 66.9% Fe, 24.3% O, and 8.8% other elements. Meanwhile, the hysteresis curve from the results of measurements with a Vibrating Sample Magnometer (VSM) shows that the Bah Bolon River iron sand has magnetic saturation (Ms), magnetic remanance (Mr), and coercivity (Hc) properties of 57.70 emu/g respectively 7.09 emu/g, and 129.93 Oe.