Industrial Minerals and Rocks
Industrial minerals have countless uses in our modern industrialised society and in many countries form a larger proportion of total mineral production by value, than metallic minerals. ACA Howe geologists can offer a wealth of experience in this specialised field.
The term 'industrial minerals and rocks' encompasses a huge variety of products, from asbestos to zeolite. They have a very wide range of uses such as mundane construction materials, pigments, chemicals, refractories, fluxes and alloying reagents and in the manufacture of high-tech electronic components such as transistors, high performance batteries and magnets.
It is questionable whether some of the high-value, high-tech minerals should be included with the lower value end of the spectrum. Lithium minerals and columbite-tantalite and beryl and bertrandite in pegmatites and the heavy and light rare earth minerals in granitic and carbonatitic rocks are of increasing interest. The US Government has declared beryllium (occurs commercially in beryl and bertrandite) a strategic element due to its special characteristics in a wide range of applications: mechanical, anti-magnetic, radiation shielding, nuclear fuel alloys, acoustics, electronics.
Useful and economically important industrial minerals and rocks occur throughout the geological time scale in rocks of all modes of genesis. ACA Howe geologists have worked with many different types of industrial mineral deposits as these country-specific examples illustrate:
Argentina
- Borates - desk review of mining properties
Australia
- Talc - desk review of mining property
Austria
- Talc - desk review of mining property
Belgium
- Dolomite - Due diligence assessment of refractory dolomite operation
Canada
- Muscovite mica - geological evaluation and drilling of deposit in Ontario
- Lithium (e.g. spodumene, lepidolite) and beryllium (e.g. beryl, bertrandite) - assessment of pegmatite deposits in Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba
- Graphite - geological and economic review of a deposit in Ontario
- Silica - evaluation of mining operations
- Celestite - feasibility study of a deposit in Nova Scotia
- Rock aggregates, limestone, dolomite, garnet, wollastonite - field visits and reporting on an exploration and development project in British Columbia
- Talc - desk review of mining property in Ontario
China
- Limestone - assessment for concrete and flue-gas scrubbers
- Dolomite - Due diligence assessment of refractory dolomite operation
Cuba
- Zeolite - assessment of mineral property
Democratic Republic of Congo
- Limestone - resource investigation for metallurgical reagent
France
- Talc - desk review of mining property
Greece
- Chrysotile asbestos - reserve estimation and process review of an existing mine
Hungary
- Building sand, silica sand, clay, perlite, gypsum - field assessment of operating industrial minerals quarries and mines
Iran
- Chromite - geological exploration and resource estimation at an operating mine
Italy
- Talc - desk review of mining property
Sierra Leone
- Ilmenite and rutile - resource assessments of alluvial deposits and tailings
South Africa
- Andalusite - geological, mining and processing evaluation of an existing mine
- Silica - assessment of resource potential and drilling recommendations
Spain
- Talc - desk review of mining property
Tanzania
- Graphite - technical due diligence, ore reserve and financial review of proposed operation
Turkey
- Pumice - geological resource assessment of some existing quarries and prospects
United Kingdom
- Dimension stone - identification, mapping, bulk sampling and test marketing of samples, from a selection of granite, diorite, gabbro and marble prospects in Scotland
- Ball clay, barite, celestite, diatomite, feldspar, fireclay, Fuller's Earth, gypsum, kaolin, mica, potash, silica sand, talc - review of geology, resources and production in UK
- Natural mineral fertilisers, NPK, trace elements and soil conditioners - research report UK and elsewhere
- Silica sand - geological assessment and reserve estimation of an underground mine in western Scotland
- Barite and fluorspar - geological and resource investigations of a number of sedimentary exhalative and vein deposits of barite, mapping and diamond drilling of a number of deposits of barite and fluorspar in Carboniferous limestones in the Pennines,
- Perlite - Investigation of Tertiary acid volcanics in Northern Ireland and Scotland for lightweight construction aggregate and insulation use
- Rock aggregate, anti-skid roadstone and dimension stone - targeting, geological and resource and reserve estimation and pit planning of coastal and landward rock aggregate and dimension stone prospects in Scotland: anorthosite, granite, gabbro, greywacke, arkose
- Crinoidal marble - field investigation and resource estimation in Durham and Yorkshire
- Sand and gravel - resource estimation of various landward deposits and selection of near-offshore targets
USA
- Dolomite - due diligence assessment of refractory dolomite operation in Vermont
- Silica - evaluation of mining operations
- Borates - desk review of mining properties in California
- Talc - review of mining properties in Montana and Vermont