Opaques (mostly ilmenite) make up 0 to 5 percent of highland rocks, 1 to 11 percent of low-Ti mare basalts, and 10 to 34 percent of high-Ti mare basalts (Carter 1988). Apollos 11 and 17 sampled high-Ti basalts. Apollos 12 and 14 sampled low-Ti basalts. Apollo 15 sampled a complex mixture of mare and highland material. Apollo 16 sampled mainly highland material (Taylor 1975)

Hutson, M. L.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

/ ,
Notes on Lunar Ilmenite
M. Hutson
Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
The University of Arizona _3_,,
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Opaques (mostly ilmenite) make up 0-5% of highland rocks, 1-11% of Iow-Ti mare
basalts, and 10-34% of high-Ti mare basalts (Carter 1988). Apollos 11 and 17 sampled
high-Ti basalts. Apollos 12 and 14 sampled Iow-Ti basalts. Apollo 15 sampled a
complex mixture of mare and highland material. Apollo 16 sampled mainly highland
material (Taylor 1975).
Mare Basalts (Rocks)
IImenite is the third most abundant mineral in Apollos 11 and 17 rocks. It is very
conspicuous in Apollo 11 samples, with platy crystals occasionally reaching several
millimeters in size (Levinson and Taylor 1971, Mason and Melson 1970). Ilmenite is
found in a wide variety of shapes, ranging from euhedral to anhedral, blocky, tabular,
platy, and skeletal forms (Frondel 1975, Levinson 1971). Ilmenite also occurs as rims
surrounding armalcolite cores. These rimming ilmenites generally contain exsolved
futile and spinel (Frondel 1975). However, most ilmenite is homogeneous, and the
ilmenites associated with armalcolite and exsolved rutile are "relatively rare and
quantitatively minor" (Levinson and Taylor 1971).
Lunar ilmenite is almost pure FeTiO3; a Mossbauer study of Apollo 11 ilmenite
found no detectable ferric iron (Mason and Melson 1970). The following minor and
trace elements have also been reported: Apollo 11--AI203, 0.1-0.3%; MnO, 0.3-0.6%;
CaO, up to 0.3%; Cr203, 0.1-1.3%; V203, up to 0.2%; Zr203, up to 0.3%; and MgO, up
to 6.0% (Mason and Melson 1970). [Imenite appears to be the major host phase for Zr
(Levinson and Taylor 1971). There does not appear to be any relationship between
MgO content of ilmenite and its grain size or mineral association (Frondel 1975),
although some researchers have suggested that high-magnesian ilmenite is associated
with armalcolite (Frondel 1975). Levinson and Taylor (1971) state that high-magnesian
ilmenite in Apollo 11 samples occurs as small tabular grains totally enclosed in
pyroxene. Apollo 14 ilmenite contains 0.2-0.6 wt% ZrO 2 and up to 3.9 wt% MgO, which
is noteworthy as the whole rock has lower MgO than that from other Apollo sites
(approximately 8-8.5 wt%). In addition, ilmenite from one Apollo 14 sample contained
Ti +3 (El Goresy et al. 1972). Apollo 17 sampled two types of basalts with different
crystallization histories. ]lmenite is found as primary blocky crystals in both types of
basalt and as rims around armalcolite in Type [I basalts (El Goresy et al. 1974). Apollo
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19910015907 2020-03-19T18:03:23+00:00Z
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17 ilmenite contains 0.55-0.70 wt% MnO, 1.51-4.68 wt% MgO, and 0.48-1.05 wt% Cr203
(El Goresy et al. 1974).
Mare Soils
The lunar regolith contains material ranging from fines to blocks meters across.
The material with grain size less than 1 mm is referred to as soil (Taylor 1975). This
soil consists of mineral grains, rock fragments, glasses, and agglutinates, which are
"glassy, rock and mineral fragments welded together by glass" (Taylor 1975).
Agglutinates constitute up to half of the material in some size fractions (Levinson and
Taylor 1971; Agosto 1988). As a result, the amount of ilmenite which is easily
separated from lunar soils is considerably less than the normative ilmenite. This was
shown by McKay and Williams (1979), who report modal abundances of 2.2% and 4.9%
for Apollo 11 and 17 soils with normative abundances (calculated from TiO 2 contents)
of 14.7% and 15.5%, respectively. They note that the available ilmenite in the average
Apollo 17 mare soil is only one-third of the normative ilmenite. McKay and Williams
(1979) also suggest that ilmenite abundance increases with decreasing grain size
fraction. However, a study of Luna 24 soils does not support this correlation (Laul et
al. 1987).
Frondel (1975) reports the results of x-ray studies; lunar and terrestrial ilmenite
appear to have identical crystal structure parameters. She concludes: "It would appear
that until we have many more x-ray and chemical analyses of both lunar and terrestrial
ilmenites, the lunar ilmenite and its earthly counterpart can be assumed to be the
same." However, it is known that reduction of lunar ilmenite is more difficult than for
terrestrial ilmenite, due to the lack of ferric iron in the lunar ilmenite (Briggs 1988).
Finally, McKay and Williams (1979) note that hydrogen is implanted in lunar soils
by the solar wind. Data on hydrogen content of lunar soils are sparse and not in good
agreeement. Reported bulk soil hydrogen contents range from 30-145 ppm. McKay
and Williams (1979) note that ilmenite is known to retain helium much more readily than
other minerals. Although there are no data for hydrogen, they speculate that if
hydrogen is retained similarly to helium, it could exist at the 1000 ppm level in lunar
ilmenite.
Beneficiation
A discussion of possible techniques for mining and beneficiation of lunar ores is
given by Williams et al. (1979). However, it appears that only William N. Agosto has
actually attempted to separate ilmenite from lunar soils in the laboratory (Agosto 1984,
1985, 1988i. Agosto has done electostatic separation experiments on simulant soils
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(madewith terrestrial ilmenites)and a 90-150 micron size fraction of an Apollo 11 soil.
The experiments were run both in a vacuum and in a nitrogen atmosphere. Only 30%
of the ilmenite was recovered in one pass in the vacuum (it is not clear whether he is
referring to lunar or simulant ilmenites), while much better results were obtained using
a nitrogen atmosphere, because of the density difference between ilmenite and other
minerals in the soil (Agosto 1988). Ilmenite in the lunar simulant was concentrated from
10 wt% to 95 wt%, with 68% of the ilmenite recovered after one pass in nitrogen.
Ilmenite in the Apollo 11 soil was concentrated from 10 vol% to 54 vol%, with 45%
recovery after one pass (Agosto 1984). Perhaps some combination of magnetic and
electrostatic separation is needed.
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Notes on lunar ilmenite

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