Critical review of beach sand mining in india-with particular reference to chhatrapur sand complex (OSCOM) in odisha-a case study

India, bestowed with a coastline of over 6000 km, hosts some of the largest and richest coastline placers. Our beach sand deposits and dunes contain heavy minerals like ilmenite, rutile, garnet, monazite, zircon, and sillimanite. With the help of favorable factors like network of drainage, assisted by wind and coastal processes like tides and currents, have molded the formation of the beach and adjoining dune sands. Ilmenite-rich major beach and dune sand deposits occur in the coastal stretches of Tamil Nadu (Manavalakurichi, Midalam, Vayakallur), Kerala (Chavara), Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Maharashtra. The ilmenite, found in India, commonly contains 50-60% TiO2 and is favorable for different process technologies. Zircon, Monazite and Sillimanite are omnipresent in both the beach and inland red Teri sands, and constitute potential co-products. The Indian resources of placer minerals are: 348 Million tons (Mt) of Ilmenite, 107 Mt of garnet, 21 Mt of zircon, 18 Mt of monazite and 130 Mt of Sillimanite. Indian resources constitute about 35% of world resources of Ilmenite, 10% of Rutile, 14% of Zircon and 71.4% of Monazite. India meets about 10% of the world requirement of garnet. This unique status is largely due to the exploratory efforts of the Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD) of the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India. In this project report attempt is made to review the present status and its problems and prospects of sand mining in India. Case studies are carried out and computer programs are developed to calculate certain parameters and reported in this project report