Mineralogical and Chemical Assessment of Cassiterite Ore from Du, Jos South, Plateau State, Nigeria as Potential Raw Materials for Tin Metal Extraction

Abstract

In the early 1970s, Nigeria held the 7th position on the world record for tin metal production and exportation, and that seems to be history now, as the nation's economic focus is now highly concentrated on petroleum and natural gas exploration and exportation. In Plateau State, tin mining activities date back to the early 1960s. Currently, in the Du community in Jos South of the State, huge tin ore deposits are found and locally mined by indigenes with poor derivation of economic value. Thus, the objectives of this study were to investigate the elemental, chemical/mineralogical contents and tin content of the cassiterite ore of Du in Plateau State. The study retained focus on X-ray fluorescence, Flame Atomic Absorption with inductively coupled plasma-Graphite Furnace Atomizer to examine the chemical compositions of the sample and SEM for crystal structural analysis of the ore. Results of elemental analysis showed in percentage that the ore contains: 7.168%, 6.146%, 3.471%, 2.027% of tin, zirconium, iron, and titanium, respectively and 449.29, 602.5 of Na₂O and K₂O in parts per million. The main minerals of the ore were: 60.98% SnO₂ > 8.70% SiO₂ > 5.70% ZrO₂ > 5.56% of Fe₂O₃ > 4.81% NbO > 4.07% TiO₂ > 3.26% Bi₂O₃ > 2.99 of WO₃ > 2.33% CuS₂. The results reveal that the cassiterite ores contain low silica content and a significant percentage of tin and other valuable metals and are therefore suitable raw materials for utilization for the production of cassiterite concentrates and extraction of tin metal.