Upon breaking apart andesite, what do you get?

Question

I'm aware that andesite consists of about 60 percent silica and as for minerals, pretty sure it's usually pyroxene and plagioclase. What form would these take on if they were to be separated? Especially interesting, I think, is what would happen to the silica: would it be in its "commercial" powdered form?

Answer 1

Andesite is high in silica (rhyolite would be the highest). It is formed of quartz, plagioclase, amphibole, and pyroxene and is fine grained (unable to see seperate minerals with the naked eye). To seperate the high-silica minerals you would powder it and then put it through a machine that separates the minerals based on magnetic properties. To do this for research purposes, this process is time consuming and tedious (as all science seems to be at some point or other...), however one of the end products would be fine grained quartz. However, there are other rocks that are nearly 100% or actually 100% quartz that would provide a much richer source of silica for commercial purposes.