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Information at a Glance
- Kaolin is named after the
Chinese locality "Kauling" or “Kao-ling” meaning high ridge. It is the
name of a hill near Yaochao Fu, mainland China, where clay was mined
centuries ago Kaolin is a clay mineral
more correctly known as kaolinite. It is also called china clay. Kaolin
is made up of individual crystals that form units termed "booklets" of
stacked sheets.
- It is a soft, earthy,
usually white mineral (dioctahedral phyllosilicate clay), produced by
the chemical weathering of aluminium silicate minerals like feldspar.In
many parts of the world, it is colored pink-orange-red by iron oxide,
giving it a distinct rust hue.
- Commercial grades of
kaolin are supplied and transported as dry powder, semi-dry noodle or as
liquid slurry. It is used in ceramics, medicine, bricks, coated paper,
as a food additive, in toothpaste, as a light diffusing material in
white incandescent light bulbs, and in cosmetics.
- Kaolinite is one of the
most common minerals; it is mined, as kaolin, in Brazil, France,
Britain, Germany, India, Australia, Japan , the People's Republic of
China, and the southeastern U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, and, to a
lesser extent, South Carolina.
- Kaolin deposits are
classified as either primary or secondary. Primary kaolins result from
residual weathering or hydrothermal alteration (or kaolinisation) of
alkali feldspar-rich rocks such as granite or gneiss, whilst secondary
kaolins are of sedimentary origin. The mineralogical and chemical
composition of kaolin depends on the nature of the parent rock and the
type and degree of alteration. Both primary and secondary kaolins occur
in South Africa.
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Kaolin has a range of
industrial applications, which are grouped in three main market areas;
paper,ceramics and performance minerals. Demand is dominated by the
paper industry, which accounts for about 70% of total sales.
- Each tonne of marketable
kaolin recovered typically produces upto 9 tonnes of waste, comprising
approximately 4 tonnes of granular waste,2.5 tonnes of rock
waste(stent),1.5 tonens of overburden and 1 tonne of micaceous
residues.Kaolin itself is used as a sustitute in filler
applications.
- Korea, Indonesia, India
and Thailand are also among the other largest current producers of
Kaolin. In excess of an estimated 5 million tonnes of kaolin is produced
in the Region from India in the west through to China, Korea and Japan
in the Far East. China is obviously one of the major producers of kaolin
with an estimated one and a half million tonnes mined annually from more
than 600 mines.
- Over the last twenty
years, kaolin has faced increasing competition from GCC and, more
recently, PCC as a filler in papermaking. In the second half of the
1990s, kaolin producers experienced a downturn in demand in Asia, which
had been a major growth area. An increase in the supply of low-cost
high-grade kaolin from Brazil put further pressure on suppliers in the
USA and Western Europe. Not surprisingly, this sequence of events led to
a series of mergers and acquisitions in the industry
-
Japan is outstandingly
important in use of high value kaolins, and around 85% of this is used
in the papermaking industry in Japan. Fibreglass manufacturing in Taiwan
has been also a very important consumer of imported kaolin, and it is
only now that this is being stemmed, mainly by re-location of several
major fibreglass producers to China.
- This trend of
industrial manufacturing towards China, based on huge growth in demand
for more than a decade and looking like continuing strongly is part of a
“sea change” in kaolin supply and demand in the
region.
- Studies on the skin and
eye irritation potential of kaolin and clay have been performed to
improve the knowledge of kaolin and clay with regard to public
health.Four different commercial samples of kaolin and clay, selected
for their representativeness of the kaolin and clay products found on
the EU market, were tested
- Kaolin has a wide range
of applications, e.g. in the ceramic industry, and as filler for paper,
cosmetic, paint and pharmaceutical industries. Processed kaolin comes in
two different forms: Dry-processed with a fineness of < 600 micron and
wet-processed with a fineness of < 100 micron.The production process
features the separation of kaolin from quartz and feldspar by dry and
wet processing.
- External factors such
as transport costs, toll fees, the strong Rand and cheap, white
substitutes (particularly
fillers) are a real concern and may affect the livelihood of major
kaolin producers within the next 2-15 years,
especially those located more than 150km from their key markets. Further
contraction, consolidation and
strategic acquisitions are expected in the clay industry
Entrepreneur who want
the information such as Processing, Technology, Applications, Equipment
Suppliers, Market, Reports, Company Profiles of Kaolin can email us to
informer@eth.net ,
primaryinfo@gmail.com |