Imerys, the world’s leading industrial minerals group, in a significant move for the industrial minerals sector has closed its purchase of Greek industrial minerals group S&B Industrial Minerals SA. The buy brings considerable mineral assets to the French multinational, in particular bentonite, perlite, and wollastonite. S&B's perlite processing plant and port at Voudia, Milos [...]
Titanium dioxide feedstock output to remain steady In expectation of a challenging 2015 and “to drive greater value”, Rio Tinto Plc today announced an organisational restructure, essentially a streamlining in splitting up its Energy business and condensing into four product groups: Aluminium, Copper and Coal, Diamonds and Minerals, and Iron Ore. One of RBM’s [...]
Where? Right here at the Mineral Logistics Forum 2015, 23-24 April 2015, Rotterdam – the networking and knowledge hub for all those active in logistics for industrial minerals. IMFORMED announces an exciting speaker panel with Imerys, Sibelco, Rio Tinto, Magnesita Refrátarios, NSG Pilkington, Midegasa, and RoBuLog discussing their mineral to market supply chains and latest [...]
The sharp drop in oil price has clearly impacted the ceramic proppants market with major producers halting expansion plans and in more severe cases closing plants. How long can we expect these doldrums to last? The first casualty, reported earlier by Newsfile, was the closure of Oxane Materials Inc.’s Van Buren plant in Arkansas on [...]
Prof. Haydn H. Murray, world renowned industrial minerals geologist and long time professor of geology at Indiana University passed away peacefully on 4 February 2015 in Bloomington, Indiana. Haydn Murray was a great worker and friend to the industrial minerals community. He was a major fixture at the meetings of the Society of Mining, Metallurgy, [...]
Logistics is one of the most important components of any industrial mineral operation or project development. And yet it is the one aspect in industrial mineral project due diligence that is most often overlooked. It can make or break a project’s route to successful fruition. Why is logistics so important to industrial minerals? IMFORMED is [...]
IMFORMED launches new platform for industrial minerals networking and research, announcing high profile Forums on mineral logistics, oilfield, and foundry markets. A new source of information and networking events dedicated to the global industrial minerals business was launched in January 2015. Topically focused forums for the mineral logistics, oilfield, and foundry markets have been announced [...]
Hectatone’s first shipment of organoclay for oilfield drilling Hectatone Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Lithium USA Corp., has produced an organoclay, branded Hectatone™, from its processing plant near Fernley, Nevada, using lithium-rich hectorite from the Kings Valley deposit. The world’s second source of the special clay mineral hectorite came on-stream at the end of [...]
Rio Tinto Minerals (RTM), which claims to supply almost 50% of the world’s refined borates, has reported that its 2014 borates production was up 3% over 2013 to 508,000 tonnes B2O3 content. RTM’s Boron huge open pit mine yields more than 80 different minerals including tincal, kernite, ulexite and colemanite. [...]
Oil price crisis, what crisis? Despite apparent gloom for the outlook of drilling activity and its impact on oilfield mineral demand, M-I SWACO appears to be pressing ahead with plans to open a new barytes mine in the UK. The proposed Duntanlich mine site, near Aberfeldy, located below the Farragon Ridge. The new 120,000 [...]
