Industrial minerals

Industrial minerals are geological materials which are mined for their commercial value, which are not fuel (fuel minerals or mineral fuels) and are not sources of metals (metallic minerals). They are used in their natural state or after beneficiation either as raw materials or as additives in a wide range of applications.

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Examples and applications

Typical examples of industrial rocks and minerals are limestone, clays, sand, gravel, diatomite, kaolin, bentonite, silica, barite, gypsum, and talc. Some examples of applications for industrial minerals are construction, ceramics, paints, electronics, filtration, plastics, glass, detergents and paper.

In some cases, even organic materials (peat) and industrial products or by-products (cement, slag, silica fume) are categorized under industrial minerals, as well as metallic compounds mainly utilized in nonmetallic form (as an example most of the titanium is utilized as an oxide TiO₂ rather than Ti metal).

List of industrial minerals

• Aggregates
• Alunite
• Asbestos
• Asphalt, Natural
• Barite
• Bentonite
• Borates
• Brines
• Carbonatites
• Clays
• Ball clays
• Kaolin
• Coal
• Corundum
• Diamond
• Dimension stone
• Diatomite
• Feldspar and Nepheline - Syenite
• Fluorspar
• Fuller's earth
• Garnet
• Gem minerals
• Granite
• Graphite
• Gypsum
• Kaolin
• Kyanite / Sillimanite / Andalusite
• Limestone / Dolomite
• Marble
• Mica
• Olivine
• Perlite
• Phosphate
• Potash –Potassium minerals
• Pumice
• Quartz
• Salt
• Slate
• Silica sand / Tripoli
• Soda ash
• Sodium bicarbonate
• Sodium sulfate
• Staurolite
• Sulfur
• Talc
• Vermiculite
• Wollastonite
• Zeolites

See also

• Minerals
• List of minerals
• List of minerals (complete)