Is ilmenite magnetic?
Weakly. The Handbook says ilmenite is weakly magnetic; USGS pulled 8 samples at 0.025 to 0.40 amp, best 0.20 to 0.30. No rutile sample came out below 0.80 amp.
Weakly. The Handbook sheet for ilmenite, Fe2+TiO3, hardness 5 to 6, says weakly magnetic. USGS Open-File Report 99-529 pulled 8 ilmenite samples at 0.025 to 0.40 amp, best 0.20 to 0.30, on a laboratory separator: paramagnetic by its definitions. Magnetite came out at 0.01 amp; no rutile sample came out below 0.80.
In short
- Two sources, one word. The Handbook of Mineralogy ilmenite sheet says weakly magnetic, with no some-samples qualifier. USGS Open-File Report 99-529, Table 1 pulled 8 ilmenite samples at 0.025 to 0.40 amp, best 0.20 to 0.30, on a Frantz isodynamic separator. USGS calls ferromagnetic only what is strongly attracted to a magnet, like a piece of iron, naming magnetite, maghemite, pyrrhotite and pentlandite; ilmenite is paramagnetic by those definitions.
- The titanium ladder. The iron and titanium oxides and titanium minerals in Table 1, by best range: magnetite 0.01 amp; hematite and geikielite 0.10 to 0.30; ilmenite 0.20 to 0.30; ilmenorutile 0.50 to 0.60; titanite 0.80 to above 1.70; brookite, rutile, perovskite and anatase above 1.70. Iron by mass falls down the ladder from 72.36% to none, geikielite apart, and ilmenite, at 36.81%, sits between the iron oxides and the titanium dioxides.
- The 0.40/0.80 split. Every ilmenite sample was extracted by 0.40 amp. No rutile sample came out below 0.80 amp across 10 samples, brookite and titanite none below 0.70, perovskite and anatase none at or below 1.70. On the separator, ilmenite and the TiO2 minerals do not overlap at all. Ilmenorutile, between them at 0.50 to 0.60, has no row on the September 2026 IMA-CNMNC Master List.
- Documented failure: geikielite. Geikielite is MgTiO3 on the IMA list, iron-free as written, yet its one sample has a best range of 0.10 to 0.30, at or below ilmenite’s. The geikielite sheet’s two analyses carry 3.81 and 18.9 wt% FeO. The report gives no cause for this row, and this page offers none: iron in the formula does not order the ladder.
- The hand magnet. Neither source tests one. The ilmenite sheet records ilmenite as lamellar exsolutions in hematite or magnetite, and ilmenite’s total range begins at 0.025 amp, inside magnetite’s below 0.01 to 0.05. A strong snap to a magnet is what the magnetite sheet describes, not what the ilmenite sheet does.
| Name (Table 1) | Formula (IMA) | Fe by mass | Ti by mass | Total range (amp) | Best range (amp) | Samples | Handbook magnetism |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magnetite * | Fe2+Fe3+2O4 | 72.36% | 0% | Below 0.01 to 0.05 | 0.01 | 6 | Strongly magnetic |
| Hematite * | Fe2O3 | 69.94% | 0% | 0.025 to 0.50 | 0.10 to 0.30 | 11 | None printed |
| Geikielite | MgTiO3 | 0% | 39.83% | 0.025 to 0.60 | 0.10 to 0.30 | 1 | None printed |
| Ilmenite | Fe2+Ti4+O3 | 36.81% | 31.55% | 0.025 to 0.40 | 0.20 to 0.30 | 8 | Weakly magnetic |
| Ilmenorutile | No IMA row (script) | - | - | 0.30 to 0.80 | 0.50 to 0.60 | 1 | No sheet used |
| Titanite [=sphene] | CaTiO(SiO4) | 0% | 24.42% | 0.70 to above 1.70 | 0.80 to above 1.70, dc | 4 | No sheet used |
| Brookite | TiO2 | 0% | 59.93% | 0.70 to above 1.70 | Above 1.70 | 2 | None printed |
| Perovskite | CaTiO3 | 0% | 35.21% | Above 1.70 | Above 1.70 | 3 | No sheet used |
| Rutile | TiO2 | 0% | 59.93% | 0.80 to above 1.70 | Above 1.70 | 10 | None printed |
| Anatase | TiO2 | 0% | 59.93% | Above 1.70 | Above 1.70 | 1 | None printed |
Is ilmenite magnetic? What the Handbook sheet says
The ilmenite sheet says weakly magnetic, as a property of the mineral, not of some samples. The Handbook of Mineralogy ilmenite sheet gives Fe2+TiO3, hexagonal, as thick tabular crystals to 25 cm and as granular or massive material and lamellar exsolutions in hematite or magnetite, hardness 5 to 6, density 4.72, iron-black with a black to reddish brown streak, and, in its physical-properties line, weakly magnetic. The chromite sheet, by contrast, says only that some samples are weakly magnetic; that wording is worked on is chromite magnetic.
Its neighbours, as printed. The magnetite sheet says strongly magnetic. The hematite, geikielite, pyrophanite, ecandrewsite, ulvöspinel, rutile, anatase and brookite sheets print no magnetic property; the rutile sheet prints photosensitive. The species facts for ilmenite, with its titanium worked by mass, are on ilmenite.
What this page does not claim. Neither the sheet nor USGS gives a cause for ilmenite’s response specifically. USGS says, in general, that chemistry is the main factor controlling magnetic susceptibility, and that iron and copper are two elements responsible for paramagnetic susceptibility in some minerals. That is as far as the sources go.
How magnetic is ilmenite? 0.20 to 0.30 amp on the USGS separator
Ilmenite was pulled at 0.025 to 0.40 amp, best 0.20 to 0.30, across 8 samples. USGS Open-File Report 99-529 (Rosenblum and Brownfield) ran 1084 samples of 378 mineral species through Frantz isodynamic separators, on grains of 125 to 150 micrometres at a 15° side tilt. For paramagnetic minerals the current started at 0.10 amp and rose in 0.10-amp steps; for the few ferromagnetic species it started at about 0.01 amp, then 0.025, 0.05 and 0.10. Ilmenite’s lowest figure, 0.025, is one of those fine steps.
The definitions. USGS calls ferromagnetic the minerals strongly attracted to a magnet, like a piece of iron, and paramagnetic those less magnetic and separable at up to 1.70 amps, the greatest current its separators reached; diamagnetic minerals are not pulled at 1.70. Ilmenite’s whole range lies in the paramagnetic band. Table 1 flags magnetite and hematite with an asterisk, often locked with other species; ilmenite carries no flag.
Ilmenite against hematite. Hematite’s best range, 0.10 to 0.30 amp across 11 samples, contains ilmenite’s; the separator does not split the two, and the comparison with magnetite is worked on is hematite magnetic and not repeated here. The site-wide answer for other species is on which minerals are magnetic and is siderite magnetic.
Can a magnet separate ilmenite from rutile? The 0.40/0.80 split
On the USGS separator, ilmenite and the titanium dioxides do not overlap: every ilmenite sample was out by 0.40 amp, and no rutile sample came out below 0.80. Method: the Table 1 rows for ilmenite, its series partner geikielite, hematite and magnetite (the ilmenite sheet’s exsolution hosts), the titanium minerals on the rutile sheet’s polymorphism and association lines (rutile, anatase, brookite, titanite), perovskite and ilmenorutile were matched to their September 2026 IMA formulas and ordered by best range; pyrophanite, ecandrewsite and ulvöspinel have no row. Ilmenite’s total range is 0.025 to 0.40; rutile’s 0.80 to above 1.70 across 10 samples; brookite’s 0.70 to above 1.70 across 2; titanite’s 0.70 to above 1.70 across 4, marked depends on chemistry; perovskite, CaTiO3, above 1.70 across 3; anatase above 1.70 on its one sample. The gap between ilmenite’s top and rutile’s bottom is 0.40 amp.
The ladder, with iron and titanium. Worked from the IMA formulas on standard atomic weights: magnetite 72.36% iron, hematite 69.94%, ilmenite 36.81% iron and 31.55% titanium, perovskite 35.21%, titanite 24.42% titanium, and rutile, anatase and brookite 59.93% titanium with no iron. In this table the best range climbs as formula iron falls, with one exception, below. The TiO2 polymorphs themselves are separated by weight, streak and optics on rutile, and titanite has its own page.
A name with no row. Table 1 also lists ilmenorutile, 1 sample, best 0.50 to 0.60 amp, between ilmenite and rutile. A case-insensitive scan of the September 2026 IMA list finds 0 lines containing ilmenorutile; it is a label name, not a species on the list, and this page attributes no composition to it.
Why does a magnet sometimes grab ilmenite? Intergrowths and the geikielite row
Documented failure: geikielite breaks the iron ordering. Geikielite is MgTiO3 on the IMA list, with no iron in the formula, yet Table 1’s single geikielite sample has a total range of 0.025 to 0.60 and a best range of 0.10 to 0.30 amp, as low as hematite’s and below ilmenite’s. The geikielite sheet says it forms a series with ilmenite, and its two analyses carry 3.81 and 18.9 wt% FeO. USGS does not say what its sample contained, and this page does not attribute the pull to that iron; one sample is one sample.
Intergrowths, as the sheets record them. The ilmenite sheet lists lamellar exsolutions in hematite or magnetite, and the ulvöspinel sheet says ulvöspinel occurs commonly as an exsolution in magnetite, or in ilmenite. USGS warns that when micro-inclusions of magnetite or other ferromagnetic minerals are present, the lower limit of extraction is difficult or impossible to determine. Ilmenite’s total range starts at 0.025 amp, inside magnetite’s below 0.01 to 0.05. A grain labelled ilmenite that snaps hard to a hand magnet is behaving as the magnetite sheet describes, not as the ilmenite sheet does.
The decision, in order. Weight first: a 20.00 g piece reads 15.76 g in water as ilmenite, 16.14 g as magnetite and 16.20 g as hematite. Streak second, remembering that ilmenite’s black to reddish brown overlaps both. The magnet last, and only to confirm magnetite. The methods are on how to measure specific gravity at home and how to use a streak plate. The magnetism questions are indexed at the collecting guides. Nothing on this site is offered for sale; the wanted list is the only commercial route.