Study of Rare Earth Elements (REE) in Ex Tin Mining and Kaoline Mining in Merawang District, Bangka Regency)

Abstract

Indonesia have natural resources in producing rare earth elements (REE). The abundance of
mineral resources in Bangka Island is related to the strategic geological position of Bangka
Island formed on the Southeast Asian Tin Belt (Cobbing, 2005). Geologically, the REE
deposits are associated with acid rocks (granitic) and phosphatic deposits. This study
focuses on primary samples taken directly from ex tin mining area and ex kaolin mining in
Merawang District, Bangka. The analysis of the sample uses X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) to
find out the REE content are Ce, La, Nd, Sb, Sc, Sm, Te, Th, Y, and U. The analysis results
show that the spread of elemental content in the sample tends to have a relatively similar
presence. But in Sample 1 shows the Ce element is the dominant element that is equal to
25.19 ppm, equivalent to 0.002% of its availability in sedimentary sand in the ex tin mining.
while on the ex kaoline mining area the results of the analysis showed that there was
Thorium (Th) content in Sample 3 of 70.05 ppm or 0.007% and was the highest content
compared to other elements in all samples.