A practice to extract rare earth minerals through mining process from open pits, beaches, river beds etc. is known as sand mining. These rare earth minerals consist of 17 chemical elements. These rare earth minerals generally consist of elements like ilmenite, rutile, garnet, zircon, sillimanite, leucoxene and monazite. They are used in manufacturing consumer products and high tech applications. Established in 1989, V. V. Mineral (VVM) is the largest manufacturer and exporter of rare earth minerals ¨C ilmenite and granet. It is the first private ilmenite exporter in india. VVM have achieved noteworthy market share in Europe, the USA, Australia, East Asia and Middle East. VVM¡¯s annual output is 7, 00,000 metric tonnes of heavy minerals, which includes garnet abrasive, ilmenite, zircon, rutile, sillimanite and leucoxene. VVM has been awarded with quite a number of awards.