Assessment of Magnetite Polishing by Using Tigris River Stream Sediments in Baghdad: An Ore Microscopy Application

Abstract

This aim of this study is to assess the Tigris River sediments and utilize them as a new abrasive for the preparation of polished surface of magnetite ore to be studied under reflected light ore microscope. Such polishing process was tested using 250, 125, 71, 45, 25 and 18μm grain sizes of the river sediments. For the completion of the polishing and to obtain a glossy perfect polished surface, the 7 and 2.5 μm sized standard diamond pastes were used. After each polishing stage, the reflectance and roughness of these surfaces were measured as an evaluation step for the polishing efficiency. The reflectance values (R%) of the magnetite surface were found to be reversely proportioned to the abrasive grain size; while the surface roughness values (Ra) showed positive relationship with the grain size. The polished surface showed gradual improvement with decreasing grain size of the abrasive. The reflectance increased at a rate of  0, 0, 0.3, 1.2, 2.5, 3.7, 9.3, 20% with reducing grain sizes from 250, 125, 70, 45, 25, 18, 7 and 2.5 µm; at the same time, the  roughness reduced at a rate of 72.2, 51.8, 23.7, 17.2, 10.9, 7.5, 6, 3.8 with reducing grain size. The 18 µm abrasive grain size of river sediments was found to be the best. Buffing by 2.5 µm diamond paste as the last stage, improved the polishing efficiency and resulted in 20% reflectance.  Based on the obtained results, the Tigris sediments can be considered as fine-grained granules with the ability of preparing a flat, homogeneous surface with little roughness and reasonable degree of reflectivity.