Mössbauer spectroscopic study of China clay samples collected from different Indian sites

The paper describes part of the study carried out on the iron bearing phases of china clays collected from different china clay reserves of the country. Chemical assays of the clays as well as the “panned” impurities were determined by standard methods and the rational mineral data was calculated from the composition. XRD and thermal analysis also were carried out to get the mineralogy of the samples. Mössbauer spectral studies were conducted on the iron rich phases separated from the clays by “panning” to get information on the different iron minerals present in these clays. It was observed that Mössbauer spectra of the impurities from the low iron containing clays were qualitatively much different from those of the impurities from the high iron containing clays.