Leucoxene

Leucoxene, and leucoxene or Arizonit, is a mixture of iron and titanium- bearing minerals, but mostly anatase, hematite, perovskite, rutile and titanite, but especially ilmenite.

Leucoxene consists of about 68% of titanium dioxide of the rutile or anatase modification. The color can vary from yellow to brown to gray.

Education and Locations

Leucoxene forms as a weathering product and subsequently replaced the minerals ilmenite and titanomagnetite formed earlier ( titaniferous magnetite). It can be found in some Lavagesteinen and iron ores.

Leucoxene is one of the rarely occurring mineral mixtures, which in part may be abundant in different sites though, but overall is not widespread. So far (as of 2011) are about 260 known localities.

In Germany it occurred among others in Sinsheim and the Odenwald Baden -Württemberg and at Kropfmühl and Mähring in Bavaria. In Austria they found leucoxene been with Bernstein im Burgenland, on the Biberg at Saalfelden in Salzburg and in Bohnkogel in the community steiermarker Altenberg an der Rax.

Other localities lie among others in the Antarctic, Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, France, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Canada, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Madagascar, Morocco, Mexico, New Zealand, North Korea, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Zimbabwe, Slovakia, Spain, South Africa, Czech Republic, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, on the U.S. Virgin island of St. John, in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Use

Leucoxene as ilmenite as raw material for the production of industrial titanium dioxide ( rutile) used by the chloride process. For this purpose, it is converted by the cup - process in the synthetic rutile and separated from the iron-containing components. This rutile is then supplied to the chloride process for the production of titanium dioxide pigments.