Mineralogy and Radioactivity Evaluation of Dry Stream Sediments as Raw Materials Resources in Umm Naggat Area, Egypt

Abstract

Umm Naggat, located in the central region of Egypt's Eastern Desert, features a landscape characterized by metavolcanic rocks, older granites, Dokhan volcanics, layered gabbros, younger granites and alkaline granites. This investigation focused on heavy minerals allotted to dry stream sediments. This study considers heavy mineral deposits and their distribution, evaluation, and validity as safe raw material resources. Bulk chemical analyses, irradiation measurements and environmental impacts were carried out. The investigated heavy minerals, including magnetite, ilmenite, zircon, rutile and fluorite, are uniformly distributed. Leucoxene, apatite, monazite, thorite and uranothorite present in minor and trace amounts. Chemical analyses of bulk stream sediments reveal enrichments in Na2O, K2O, Rb, Y, and REEs, which are attributed to dominating alkali rocks and zircon, monazite, thorite, xenotime and fluorite heavies. Radioactive chemical and spectrometric measurements reflect low contents of eU and eTh and indicate that the rates of exposure, dosage, and computed effective dose are below or close to the permissible limits. The radiology results confirm that the stream sediment in the Umm Naggat area is environmentally safe and suitable for industrial applications.