$8.03
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This sand is known as "Green Diamond"; it's an orthosilicate mineral found in nature as Forsterite (Magnesium Orthosilicate). It has no relation to diamond, other than being a hard abrasive; Green Diamond is one of those brand names like "kleenex". This is a synthetic forsterite and is used mostly as an economical abrasive. It can also be used as a refractory material. It's related to olivine in that magnesium orthosilicate is one of the minerals that make up olivine, the magnesium-rich end-member of the olivine solid solution series. Some sources call this end member "forsterite olivine". That it's a refractory material makes sense because olivine is very refractory. But magnesium orthosilicate is used much more as an abrasive than as a refractory material. Olivine is the other way around and is used much more as a refractory. Another use for this material would be as a filler in resins. The gemstone peridot is a pure crystalline forsterite olivine
Synthetic magnesium orthosilicate is produced from nickel slag, which is a by-product of nickel smelting, the extracting of the metal nickel from several nickel ores. Two of the most important ores are pentlandite and pyrrhotite. When those ores are heated to high temperatures, a slag forms on the top of the molten metal. Slags of different types form on top of all molten metals and to metal smelters/refiners slag is a waste product. But many other companies have found uses for it. Nickel slag is one of the most useful (copper slag is another). There was only one nickel mine in the US, which had one particular nickel smelter slag pile in the western US which has provided much of the raw nickel slag used to make varying grades of magnesium orthosilicate on the market (whether it still does is unknown). Although the raw nickel slag undergoes further processing into sands of various composition, the name "nickel slag" is used synonymously with "magnesium orthosilicate" (it IS a lot easier to say!) and will be continue to be used in this description.
Wikipedia has an article on slag { https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slag } :
"Slag is the glass-like by-product left over after a desired metal has been....smelted from its raw ore. Slag is usually a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. However, slags can contain metal sulfides and elemental metals. While slags are generally used to remove waste in metal smelting, they can also serve other purposes, such as assisting in the temperature control of the smelting, and minimizing any re-oxidation of the final liquid metal product before the molten metal is removed from the furnace and used to make solid metal."
Nickel slag is similar, but slightly lower in hardness to garnet. Nickel slag is about 6.5 to 7 on the moh's scale, while garnet goes up to around 7.5. Both are quite a bit lower than the two most used abrasives, aluminum oxide and silicon carbide (about 9 to 10 on the moh's scale). Garnet is heavier (higher specific gravity) than nickel slag (and higher than aluminum oxide and silicon carbide). Heaviness is often good; high density increases impact force of a media, and usually but not always, that's a good thing. If you don't need heaviness (ex: you don't want the substrate to be pitted) you'll be getting more volume of abrasive per pound than with denser abrasives. That contributes to how economical nickel slag is.
The particle shape of crushed and graded nickel slag makes it ideal as a sand blasting media to remove scale, rust, or other coatings from steel (and other metals). Another of its qualities is toughness which makes it resistant to fracture break-down. It can be reused more often (as garnet is). One more quality is the total absence of free silica (a health risk which causes silicosis in the long term). Since nickel slag is mineralogically close to olivine which itself has almost a total lack of free silica, it makes sense that nickel slag has 0% free silica. The largest supplier in the US for nickel slag used as an abrasive is Green Diamond Sand Products. Wesmat in Canada is another North American supplier.
Abrasive raw material can be utilized in many ways: coated abrasives (sheets, belts, wheels), vibratory or tumbler loose abrasives in a container, blasting of loose abrasives ("sand" blasting), bonded abrasives (loose abrasive mixed with a binder to form wheels, cylinders, and special profile shapes; the binder can be a polymer (or even a ceramic that's fired), high velocity water jets with an added loose abrasive, and more.
Wikipedia describes the mineral forsterite (chemically identical to magnesium orthosilicate):
{ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forsterite }.
Forsterite, fayalite, and tephroite are the end-members of the olivine solid solution series. Fayalite is the iron rich end member and tephroite is the manganese rich endmember of the olivine group.
"Forsterite-rich olivine is the most abundant mineral in the [upper mantle of the earth] above a depth of about 400 km (250 miles)....Due to its high melting point, olivine crystals are the first minerals to precipitate from a magmatic melt in a cumulate process, often with orthopyroxenes. Forsterite-rich olivine is a common crystallization product of mantle-derived magma. Olivine in mafic and ultramafic rocks typically is rich in the forsterite end-member.....Forsterite also occurs in dolomitic marble which results from the metamorphism of high magnesium limestones and dolostones. Nearly pure forsterite occurs in some metamorphosed serpentinites. Fayalite-rich olivine is much less common.....Forsterite was first described in 1824 for an occurrence at Mount Somma, Vesuvius, Italy. It was named by Armand Lévy in 1824 after the English naturalist and mineral collector Adolarius Jacob Forster....Forsterite is being currently studied as a potential biomaterial for implants owing to its superior mechanical properties.
Another experimental use is in pozzolanic materials:
If you need an aggregate for pozzolan concrete or mortar, this is one choice. It's a different color than silica or other sands. Read on if you want more info on aggregates used for pozzolan mixes.
There are many different aggregate materials used with high performance concrete. They can be the same aggregates used for regular concrete. The countertop, decorative flooring industry uses a great variety of aggregates, some very exotic, especially when the surface is ground and polished with diamond, when exposes the internal aggregates used.
Just a few are listed in this section, differing primarily by color; white, dark, and medium.
There are other materials in our shop that could be used as aggregates. They just need to be hard and of the correct mesh size you need. If an aggregate becomes too fine, it will not act as an aggregate, but as a replacement for cement that will be of greater or lesser reactivity with the cement. Fine clays like metakaolin react chemically with the cement and alter its properties in a positive way (making a high performance concrete). Other very fine particle sized materials of lesser reactivity may actually weaken the concrete.
Aggregates that our shop carries would be classified as "sand" (either "fine" sand, about 120 to 35 mesh, or "coarse" sand with larger particles above 35 mesh). They are listed in scattered locations, so to find them just do a store search for "sand". Others are not necessarily labeled sand and would be used for their darker or lighter colors: Granular Magnetite, Fused Silica, Kyanite, Olivine, Forsterite, Ilmenite, garnet, and Crushed Glass are some examples.-
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Apr 25, 2024
Wonderful shells! They arrived intact with no breakage. Will use this seller again.
kskarad
Mar 29, 2024
Great packing and fresh sand
Trisha
Feb 29, 2024
Great vendor in every way!
William A Forrest
Aug 11, 2020
I am very pleased with the high quality metals I order, it is important that the minerals I use be exactly as described, and they are.
Robin Horn
Jan 28, 2020
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