Iron sand

[Aquitaine]

I'm searching for a source of iron-bearing sand, and I got reccomended Lake Ontario (I'm in Ottawa), but upon further research I haven't been able to find out where this stuff is or if it even exists (Thanks to mailemaker for giving me the idea of iron sand though! :) ). So I'm wondering if there is a verifiable site near to Ottawa?

[ThomasPowers]

Iron Sand is the grains of magnetite that weathers out of igneous and metamorphic rock.  It's fairly dense and so it collects in streambeds and along shores where the water concentrates it.

You can collect it by dragging a magnet along such an area---shroud the magnet so when it sticks to it you can pull off the shroud and dump your collection.

Areas that have been glaciated often have it even if the local rocks are not bearing it.

It is also the "black sand" that gold panners refer to---but beware of working with gold panner's leftovers as some use mercury on it to recover micro gold.

Note that this is pretty much what scale produced by blacksmithing is and so collecting it in your shop can be an easy method of building up a supply for smelting.

[Aquitaine]

So, scout around, find an area that was glaciated, run a magnet along sand and keep my eyes open for oppurtunities, eh? Sounds like good advice.

[JNewman]

I am assuming you are thinking of doing an iron smelt.  You might talk to Darrell Markewitz about this.  He has done a number of smelts and has done some local ore searches.

[ThomasPowers]

Well you'll do better dragging the magnet where it's already been concentrated a bit.  Read any site on gold panning and where they suggest to get material from a stream/creek. etc.  Same places work for iron sand.  Some lake beaches concentrate iron sand and rutile sand by wave action too.

 

In our smelts we have used various "ores": bogiron, limonite, drug magnet magnetite, even found a place that sold 100 mesh magnetite as a pollution control material---cost more to ship it than to buy it!

[781]

Our water treatment plant has an iron removal filtration plant they are rehabing.  Any chance this iron would work as a smelt.  Havent tried to see if it is magnetic, but I dont think it is.  Basically when dried sit is red dust

[ThomasPowers]

what was it removed with?  If you can find what the residue actually is you can then get an idea if it can be used as an ore.

In general you need an ore with greater iron content than the slag it will form and in a form that will not cause problems in the smelt---so things like sulfide ores nead prior roasting to convert them to oxide ores.

 

But yes we have had very good smelts using ore that was pretty much a red dust.  It actually helps to have the ore finely subdivided as it makes access to the CO easier