Hatiya is the second largest island of Bangladesh
and is situated near the Meghna River estuary in the central coastal
zone of Bangladesh. This island hosts a few scenic beaches with a huge
deposit of mineral sands. Representative mineral sand samples from
various beaches of this island were collected during the year 2019, and
analyzed for different mineralogical contents using state-of-the-art
techniques, such as WD-XRF, XRD, SEM and EDX. This study determined
various mineralogical contents, such as SiO2 (73.58%), micas (40.30%), Al2O3 (12.13%), TiO2 (0.56%), MgO (1.31%), Fe2O3 (4.71%), K2O (3.1%), Na2O
(1.92%), CaO (3.16%), some earth metals, and heavy minerals, such as
ilmenite (14.77%), garnet (11.02%), rutile (14.94%), magnetite (15.26%),
and zircon (13.63%), were identified in the analyzed samples. It is
suggested that the studied sand can be utilized as a raw material in the
glass industry, due to its high SiO2 content. The
approximate prices of heavy and light minerals, such as garnet (USD
75–USD 210/mt), ilmenite (USD 110/mt), magnetite (USD 84/mt), rutile
(USD 840/mt), zircon (USD 1050/mt) and micas (USD 109/mt), some oxides
such as K2O (USD 350–400/mt), CaO (USD 350–450/mt), Al2O3 (USD 1000-USD 1300/mt), TiO2 (USD 4000–4500/mt), and Fe2O3
(USD 650–1500/mt), and some other heavy metals (Rb, Th, Ba, V, Cr, Cs,
Ni and Co), indicates a great economic value of the sand of the Hatiya
Island beaches. This study recommends that Hatiya Island’s minerals
should be mined responsibly and used effectively, to enhance the
nation’s economy.