Heavy Minerals around Hammam Faraun, Sinai, Egypt

The present work is a mineralogical, sedimentological and geochemical prospecting survey of heavy minerals, through applying a systematic geochemical survey using stream sediments samples, at Hammam Faraun area, Sinai, Egypt. The majority of the sediments belong to the very coarse to coarse grained sand fraction, extremely poorly sorted with only a few being moderately well sorted. The deposition environment was proposed through two methods indicated that the majority of the sediments were river sands deposited in a fluviatile environment. Geochemical maps were prepared and existing geological maps, discriminant analysis, factor analysis and correlation coefficients were used to recognize the relationship between spatial distribution patterns and the geological and environmental factors. The recorded heavy minerals comprise magnetite, ilmenite, barite, garnet, zircon, rutile, fluorite, monazite, pyrite, leucoxene, epidote, cassiterite, hematite, pyrolusite, niobium-tantalum minerals and traces of copper minerals.