The use of ilmenite as weighting material in drilling mud

摘要

This paper discusses the results of a laboratorystudy of the potential of utilizing ilmenite from tin tailings asweighting material in drilling mud. The results showed that for agiven mud density, ilmenite gave a lower solid content.Compared with barite, ilmenite gave a much higher yield pointand gel strength, but there were little differences in apparentviscosity and plastic viscosity. Ilmenite was also found to give ahigher API fluid loss than barite. The high yield point and gelstrength of the mud that used ilmenite as weighting materialcould be lowered by increasing the concentration oflignosulfonate in the mud. The results confirm that incomparison with barite, ilmenite from tin tailings has thepotential to be used effectively as weighting material in drilling mud.