Mineral sands are old beach, river, or dune sands containing concentrations of important minerals, such as rutile, ilmenite, zircon, and monazite. These "heavy" minerals have a relative density between 4 and 5.5 g/cm 3 and are much heavier than common sand minerals, such as quartz, which has a density of around 2.65 g/cm 3 .Web