Determination of percentage ofmineral is extremely important in beach
sand mining industry. To select a site for extraction and processing heavy minerals
it is important to assess the rough concentrations. The traditional methods are time
consuming, costly, high labour intensive and difficult to handle the equipment. A
method was developed to determine the percentage of minerals in raw sand by
Digital Image Processing. HSV colour space was selected due to its wide range
when compared to other colour spaces. Non over lapping samples were analyzed in
this research. Most appropriate background was selected using colour analysis of
HSV values. Background was differentiated from the minerals by using HSV
values. By analyzing the pixels, area occupied by the minerals can be determined
and using weight to area relationship, the weight percentage of minerals can be
identified. Validation was carried out and using the statics accuracy was estimated.
There are some limitations despite the benefits.
