Goa's hidden Helium reserves

by NANDKUMAR KAMAT
Posted on 2008-08-17
What people do when they look at the beaches of Goa-especially the coastal belt from Terekhol to Siridao in north Goa? They just take it as deposits of sand-nothing more. The beach sands in north Goa have various shades from yellow to black. The streaks of shining metallic particles are clearly visible.  People, the village panchayats and even the state government take these sands for granted.  But little do they know that these sands have precious minerals with very low and harmless radioactivity –these are the placer deposits containing the metals of rare earth group. Similar deposits are found on the west coast from Ratanagiri to Travancore.
In Malabar the sands contain Thorium, which India intends to use in new type of nuclear reactors. Goa can not allow to destroy the sand deposits, which contain the strategic minerals like Illemenite (containing Titanium-a strategic metal which India has to import) and Monazite. The alluvial sands of ‘Kali River’ on southern border of Goa may contain vast reserves of illemenite and monazite. In fact the name of the river - “Kali’ seems to have been derived from the black sand deposits. But these deposits are getting destroyed due to the alluvial sand mining business, which does not distinguish between non-silica mineral components.
There is something else which is hidden in the black monazite sand deposits of the beaches of north Goa. It is the lightest gas- Helium-the second most abundant gaseous element in the universe. Helium is not naturally available on earth. It has to be obtained through cumbersome extraction process. Helium is needed in several areas of scientific, medical, techncological applications. Nuclear reactors need helium. Rocket engines need Helium.
Superconductivity research needs helium. Any experiment in cryogenics, cryobiology which study ultralow temperature phenomena need Helium. Meteorological balloons need Helium. But India has to import Helium from USA, which is blessed with gas mixtures containing helium. So US companies find it profitable to extract it from this mixture whereas the process from minerals if expensive. 
Helium imported from USA is relatively cheaper today but in future India may be denied import of Helium. A day would come when India would suddenly wake up to find out that no attention has been paid to guard country’s Helium containing minerals-such as cleveite, monazite, thorianite. It takes a huge amount of time for naturally radioactive minerals to form Helium. This gas is trapped within these minerals and can be released either by treatment with strong acids or by thermal treatment-that is to heat the minerals to above1000°C.  these sands contain. Goa’s shining black beach sand deposits contain Monazite and Monazite contains trapped Helium. So why not these sands are treated as “precious strategic mineral reserves”? Heating of monazite containing sands to high temperature releases Helium.
One metric tonne of Monazite sand can release about one to two thousand litres of trapped Helium. If we consider the entire north Goa belt and the monazite stratum of the estuarine and Khazan land within the flood plain of Terekhol, Chapora and Mandovi rivers- then Goa is sitting over an underprospected and grossly undervalued monazite mineral deposit of several million tones. This translates theoretically into millions of litres of precious Helium gas, which our country would need very badly for future technological applications.
Therefore it makes sense to prepare to do precise geoprospecting and mapping of the monazite mineral reserves beginning from the alluvial sand deposits, the placer deposits on the beaches and other areas, which have not been previously explored. Environmentalists need not make any noise over the fact that Goa’s beach sands contain precious Helium.
There is a big if about when and how these minerals would be exploited. But that does not give license to any person to take these sands for granted and permanently destroy country’ potential future source of a rare and strategic gas. In the language of natural resource economics, if a simple valuation of Goa’s potential Helium gas reserves is made then it would show that Goa is sitting over mineral assets worth billions of Rs These assets need to be captured by developmental planners when projects are proposed at the cost of loss of monazite sand deposits. Goa can contribute in future to country’s energy security, space research and superconductivity research by ensuring protection of the precious trapped Helium gas deposits. Let us take these black
shining sands on our beach seriously from today.