Beach placer mineral evaluation using Geospatial techniques:A case study between the Kallar Vembar coast,Gulf of Mannar, Tamilnadu

Abstract

Beach Placer Mineral assessment (BPMA) is carried out using GIS overlay analysis.In this study is also emphasis relationship between beach physiography, beach profile and beach deposits with reference to beach placer mineral occurrence estimated. Various spatial data sources like Satellite data used for analysis the shoreline change, coastal geomorphological change pattern studies. Total coastal stretch of 24 km beach placer mineral sample collection and beach profile survey carried out by using GeoXT pathfinder GPS.After the field work, different chemical analysis carried out for beach sediment mineral separation. More over in GIS part the spatial integration performed through Arc GIS 10.1 software for identifying the different beach placer potential zones.Final integrated GIS analysis showed that excellent to very good placer concentration identified in coastal villages of Kalaignapuram,Periasamypuram and Pachayapuram region.In additionally,the moderate to fair concentration of placer minerals are observed in Kallurani and Vembar villages and also poor concentration are noticed in coastal village of Kallurani.