Waste Utilization From Illinois
Silica Sand and Tripoli
HENRY P. EHRLINGER, III, Associate Minerals Enginer
ROY J. HELFINSTINE, Mechanical Engineer and Head Minerals Engineering Section
Illinois State Geological Survey
Urbana, Illinois 61801
INTRODUCTION
It is a pleasure to be a representative of the State of Illinois and the Illinois State
Geological Survey at this Forum.
I will take just a minute to briefly describe the Illinois State Geological Survey. We are
one of three scientific surveys under the direction of the State Department of Registration
and Education, but with our own board of Natural Resources and Conservation manned by
a group of renowned scientists and educators. The Director of the Department is the
Chairman of this Board. The other two Surveys are the State Natural History Survey and
the State Water Survey.
The Survey is assigned the responsibility of mapping the surface topography, studying
the surface and sub-surface geology, and mineral resources of Illinois, and making this
information available to citizens of the State for application to the needs of our cities,
industries, governmentals units, and land owners.
The first Illinois research began as early as 1851; the present Geological Survey was
established in 1905 under an independent commission and placed on the campus of the
University of Illinois.
We are made up of about 100 scientists with supporting staff and consist of four
groups, namely: Geological, Chemical, Mineral Economics, and Administrative. These are
sub-divided into sections.
The Geological Group consists of a Coal Section, an Oil and Gas Sction, an
Engineering Geology and Topographic Mapping Section, a Clay Resources and Clay
Mineral Technology Section, a Groundwater Section, a Stratigraphy Section, and an
Industrial Minerals Section.
The Chemical Group consists of our Section, Minerals Engineering, a Geochemistry
Section, and an Analytical Chemistry Section.
The Mineral Economics Group is not subdivided.
The Administrative Group, as the name implies, consists of Technical Records,
Publications, Educational Extension, Library, Financial Office, Information Office, and
Special Technical Services.
The mission of the Mineral Engineering Section is the utilization of Illinois Minerals;
the upgrading of natural resources found within the State to marketable grades, and
research on State minerals to show that they possess economic utility.
This is pointed out in the work of showing that blends containing Illinois coal were
cokable and at an economic and metallurgical advantage to the users. As late as 1942 almost
no Illinois coal was coked, based largely upon the research and perseverance of our
organization.
Presently, in addition to the examples we will discuss today, we are working on
feldspar beneficiation from sand dunes and terraces within the State. Several hundreds of
thousands of tons of feldspar and nepheline syenites are imported into Illinois annually as
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