Mineral #1 Talc – Cameron, MT - provided by Imerys Talc - Ericka Sholey
Talc is our planet's softest known mineral. All talcs are lamellar, chemically inert, organophilic and water repellent, but no two talcs are the same.
Their unique properties bring added performance to a wide range of products and processes.
Talc is a hydrated magnesium silicate. There are many types of talc and each ore body has its own features, its own geology, formed many millions
of years ago. As a natural ore, talc is always found in combination with at least one other mineral. The most common of these is chlorite, a
chemically and structurally similar ore. Other associated minerals often found with talc include dolomite and magnesite.
Although all talcs are lamellar, their platelet size differs from one deposit to another. Small crystals provide a compact, dense ore, known as
microcrystalline talc. Large crystals come in papery layers. This form of talc is known as macrocrystalline talc. The unique mineralogy and
morphology of each type of talc determines its individual properties, and confers specific functions to a particular end-use.
People always think of talc as white, but it can also be grey, green, blue, pink and even black.
Talc is used in a variety of products and processes. For example, talc is used in:
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Agriculture for fertilizers, animal feed, pesticides, and UV protection of fruit crops.
Ceramics for improving optical and mechanical properties of floor and wall tiles, in refractories, catalytic converters and diesel particulate
filters
Cosmetics as body powder, blush and eye shadows, and soap
Food as a coating agent and chewing gum filler
Paints as a filler and extender
Paper as a filler and for pitch control
Plastics as a reinforcing filler
Pharmaceuticals as a coating and carrier for medicated powders
Rubber for seals, hoses, membranes, cables, tires, and other mechanical rubber goods.
– taken from www.imerystalc.com
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Mineral #2 Bituminous Coal – Erbacon, WV – Upper Kittanning Seam - provided by Alpha Resources – Van L. Davis
Coal is classified into four main types or ranks (anthracite, bituminous, sub bituminous, and lignite), depending on the amounts and types of carbon it
contains and on the amount of heat energy it can produce. The rank of a deposit of coal depends on the pressure and heat acting on the plant debris as
it sank deeper and deeper over millions of years. For the most part, the higher ranks of coal contain more heat-producing energy.
Anthracite contains 86-97% carbon, and generally has a heating value slightly higher than bituminous coal. It accounts for less than 0.5% of the coal
mined in the United States.
All of the anthracite mines in the United States are located in North-eastern Pennsylvania.
Bituminous coal contains 45-86% carbon. Bituminous coal was formed under high heat and pressure. Bituminous coal in the United States is
between 100 to 300 million years old. It is the most abundant rank of coal found in the United States, accounting for about half of U.S. coal
production. Bituminous coal is used to generate electricity and is an important fuel and raw material for the steel and iron industries.
West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania are the largest producers of bituminous coal.
Sub-bituminous coal has a lower heating value than bituminous coal. Sub-bituminous coal typically contains 35-45% carbon. Most sub-bituminous
coal in the United States is at least 100 million years old. About 46% of the coal produced in the United States is sub-bituminous.
Wyoming is the leading source of sub-bituminous coal.
Lignite is the lowest rank of coal with the lowest energy content. Lignite coal deposits tend to be relatively young coal deposits that were not
subjected to extreme heat or pressure, containing 25%-35% carbon. Lignite is crumbly and has high moisture content. There are 19 lignite mines in
the United States, producing about 7% of U.S. coal.
Most lignite is mined in Texas and North Dakota. Lignite is mainly burned at power plants to generate electricity.
– information taken from www.newcenturycoal.com See also http://www.alphanr.com/poweringthefuture/pages/lifecycleofcoal.aspx
Mineral #3 Phosphate Ore - Wauchula, Florida – provided by CF Industries – Calli Ward
The area in Central Florida where phosphate is found is known as Bone Valley because deposits often contain fossils of prehistoric creatures
including mastodons, saber-tooth tigers and teeth from 40-foot sharks. Phosphate deposits in Florida are among the richest and most accessible in the
world. Although there are several theories about how the deposits were formed, many experts believe the ocean covered what is now Florida about
10 million years ago. Phosphate ore is found from 15 to 50 feet below the ground, generally in equal parts of sand, clay and phosphate rock.
Draglines - or huge cranes that could easily hold several full-sized cars - remove the top layer of soil, and scoop up the phosphate matrix. The matrix
is put in a pit where high-pressure water guns create a slurry that can be pumped to a processing plant. The "beneficiation" process separates the sand
and clay from the phosphate rock. After the largest particles are removed, the slurry is run through a hydrocyclone that uses centrifugal force to
remove the clay. Waste clay is pumped to a settling pond. Sand and sand-sized phosphate particles - called "flotation feed" - are put through a process
which uses chemical reagents, water and physical force to separate the sand and phosphate. Remaining sand is pumped back to the mine where it will
be used to restore the site when mining is complete. Phosphate ore must be chemically processed before it can be used as a water-soluble fertilizer.
Mixing it with sulfuric acid creates phosphoric acid that's used in fertilizer. Reclamation efforts developed over the past 30 years have been so
successful that thousands of acres have been donated to local governments for parks. Providing habitat for wildlife also is a top priority, and
researchers have identified 348 species of animals using reclaimed phosphate mines including the threatened scrub jay. Florida provides 75 percent
of the phosphorous used by U.S. farmers and about 25 percent of world production. Critical for root and flower development in all plants,
phosphorous is quickly depleted in soils and must be replenished regularly if fields are to remain fertile. In 2003, nine U.S. firms in four states mined
phosphate rock ore, compared to 20 firms in 1997. In 2003 mines produced an estimated 33.3 million metric tons of phosphate rock, with a value of
$895 million.
– information taken from http://www.baysoundings.com/sum02/behind.html
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Mineral #4 Barite – Cartersville, GA – provided by New Riverside Ochre – Stan Bearden
Barite is the primary, naturally occurring, barium-based mineral. Barium, atomic number 56, derives its name from Greek and means
heavy. Barite is also known as baryte, and in Missouri is known as “tiff”. The primary countries in which commercial deposits of barite
are currently found are the United States, China, India and Morocco. Barite’s high density and chemical inertness make it an ideal mineral for many
applications.
The chemical formula for barite is BaSO4. It has a high specific gravity of 4.50 g/cm3. Its Mohs hardness is 3.0 to 3.5. Barite, which may
be found in a variety of colors including yellow, brown, white, blue, gray, or even colorless, typically has a vitreous to pearly luster.
Barite may be found in conjunction with both metallic and nonmetallic mineral deposits. To be economically viable for extraction, barite usually
needs to be the predominant material in a deposit. The types of deposits in which it is normally found include vein, residual, and bedded. Vein and
residual deposits are of hydrothermal origin, while bedded deposits are sedimentary.
Major deposits in the United States have been found in Georgia, Missouri, Nevada and Tennessee. In Canada, the mineral has been mined in the
Yukon Territory, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. In Mexico, barite deposits have been discovered in Hermosillo, Pueblo, Monterrey and Durango.
Drilling Industry - The overwhelming majority of the barite that is mined is used by the petroleum industry as a weighting material in
the formulation of drilling mud. Barite increases the hydrostatic pressure of the drilling mud allowing it to compensate for highpressure zones experienced during drilling. The softness of the mineral also prevents it from damaging drilling tools during drilling
and enables it to serve as a lubricant. The American Petroleum Institute (API) has established specifications for the use of barite in
drilling mud.
Medical Industry - An application where many people have heard of barite is within the medical field. A high-purity form of barite is used in
the gastrointestinal tract where its density prevents x-ray penetration, and thus is visible on an x-ray. The outline of the gastrointestinal tract
thus becomes visible allowing the determination of normal and abnormal anatomy.
Other Uses - Barite is also used in a wide variety of other applications including plastics, clutch pads, rubber mudflaps, mold
release compounds, radiation shielding, television and computer monitors, sound-deadening material in automobiles, traffic
cones, brake linings, paint and golf balls.
– information taken from http://www.ima-na.org/barite
Mineral #5 Polygarskite Clay – S. Georgia-N. Florida Fuller’s Earth District – provided by Oil-Dri, Inc. – Candace Trimble
Stratigraphic Unit Mined-Meigs Member of Coosawhatchie Formation of the Hawthorne Group.
These clays are a middle Miocene (15-16 MYBP) infilling of a structural feature called the Gulf Trough. The clays found here are part of a world
class clay deposit found in the south Georgia-north Florida Fullers Earth District
Clay Mineralogy- low magnesium, low crystallinity, aluminum-rich palygorskite (75-80%) and Ca-Montmorillonite (10-20%) with minor amounts of
other minerals including phosphates, quartz sand and diatoms. The hand samples were collected at the Barlow mine in Thomas County, Georgia.
Mineral Description: The ore is soft (hardness 2 to 2.5), with an earthy or waxy luster, the clay is mixed mineralogy but belongs to a broad category
of minerals called phyllosilicates, in the clay minerals sub category. The crystal habit is prismatic. Color varies and in the raw state may be blue or
tan, or even greenish blue. The clay generally dries to off white, but certain blue clays dry to light gray. Specific gravity 2-2.5 g/cm3
Uses: The clays of the Meigs –Ochlocknee area in the north portion of the depositional basin are short form palygorskites principally used as”
sorbent” minerals. They can absorb as much and 150% or more of weight, they also have properties that make them good molecular filters, and they
can adsorb cations from liquids which pass through the filter material. The many uses of sorbent palygorskite include:
Agricultural carriers for fertilizer and other chemicals
Decolorizing and filtering cooking oils
Industrial Floor absorbents,
Pet Litters
Pharmaceuticals
Filtering fuels & catalyst support
Animal Feed bondants
Odor suppression & ammonia absorption in poultry litter
Granular carriers
The long form palygorskites AKA attapulgites are found in the southern area of the Gulf Trough deposits located Florida and Decatur county
Georgia. These are unique in many ways and are often called “gelling” clays. These may be used in:
Paint & coatings
Salt water drilling fluids
Suspension fertilizers,
Tape joint compounds
Adhesives
– information provided by Candace Trimble. See also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palygorskite
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Mineral #6 – Granite – Norcross, GA – provided by Vulcan Materials
Granite is a rock composed of quartz, feldspar, muscovite mica, and biotite and / or hornblende. Quartz and feldspar are its major components.
Quartz has a glassy appearance, breaks with a fracture like glass, and is harder and more weather resistant than the other minerals. Feldspar has a
greasy luster, shows a blocky cleavage, and ultimately decomposes into clay minerals. Granite is commonly used for tombstones, countertops,
building facings, and as crushed rock in concrete manufacture and on roads.
Granite began 325 million years ago as a large, hot (1300 degrees to 1400 degrees Fahrenheit) mass of magma or molten rock. This magma
originated when some of the earth's crust melted -- probably at a depth of about 11-12 miles. The magma rose upward and came to rest about nine
miles beneath Elberton. There it cooled very slowly -- taking more than a million years -- and solidified into granite. That was more than 300 million
years ago.
Since then, the granite has been pushed upward, and the land above it has been removed by erosion. The result is a granite deposit that lies just
beneath the earth's surface where it can be easily, safely and economically quarried.
– information provided by Elberton Granite Association See also http://www.egaonline.com/egaindustry/granite
Mineral #7 – Biotite Gneiss – Cumming, GA – provided by Lafarge - Don Richards
Gneiss, like granite, is predominately composed of quartz and feldspar with biotite (black mica) or hornblende as minor components. It differs in that
gneiss is a metamorphic rock and shows a flow banding or foliation caused by movement when the rock was under high temperature and pressure.
Gneiss is a regional metamorphosed rock. The parent rocks are often sedimentary, but some gneisses have formed from granite-like igneous rocks.
The main minerals include feldspars, biotite and muscovite. Gneiss is coarse-grained, with irregular banding. The colour varies from light, in
gneisses derived from granite, to dark in rocks derived from sandstones. Gneiss occurs worldwide. In Europe it is common throughout the Alps,
while in the USA there are good deposits in New York, New England and Georgia. It is sometimes used as a building stone and as a crushed stone
for concrete and road construction. The name comes from an old German word meaning to give off sparkles.
– information provided by http://www.squidoo.com/metamorphic-rocks
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Mineral #8 – Marble – Marble Hill, GA – provided by Imerys Marble – Jessica Kogel
Marble is a metamorphic rock predominately composed of the mineral calcite (CaCO3). Finely ground marble may be used as a filling and / or
coating material in paper or as a source of calcium chemicals. The stone can be used in building and sculpture, as well as, a decorative landscape
element. Many buildings such as the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC are made of Georgia marble.
– See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marble
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Mineral #9 – Kaolin – Sandersville, GA – provided by Imerys – Jessica Kogel
Kaolin, Al2O3·SiO2·H2O, or China Clay is a commonly distributed clay mineral. When it is found in relatively pure deposits it has value as a filling
and coating material in paper, as a component in china and industrial ceramics, and as a filler in paint, rubber, and plastics. Kaolin is Georgia’s most
valuable single mineral product.
– See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaolinite
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Mineral #10 – Bauxite – Andersonville, GA – provided by Imerys – Jessica Kogel
Bauxite is a rock formed from a laterite soil that has been severely leached of silica and other soluble materials in a wet tropical or subtropical
climate. It is the primary ore of aluminum. Almost all of the aluminum that has ever been produced has been extracted from bauxite. Bauxite does
not have a specific composition. It is a mixture of hydrous aluminum oxides, aluminum hydroxides, clay minerals and insoluble materials such as
quartz, hematite, magnetite, siderite and goethite. The aluminum minerals in bauxite can include: gibbsite Al(OH)3, boehmite AlO(OH), and,
diaspore, AlO(OH). Bauxite is typically a soft (H:1-3), white to gray to reddish brown material with a pisolitic structure, earthy luster and a low
specific gravity (SG: 2.0-2.5). These properties are useful for identifying bauxite; however, they have nothing to do with bauxite's value or
usefulness. This is because bauxite is almost always processed into another material with physical properties that are distinctly different from bauxite.
Bauxite is the principal ore of aluminum. The first step in producing aluminum is to crush the bauxite and purify it using the Bayer Process. In the
Bayer Process the bauxite is washed in a hot solution of sodium hydroxide which leaches aluminum from the bauxite. The aluminum is precipitated
out of solution in the form of aluminum hydroxide, Al(OH)3. The aluminum hydroxide is then calcined to form alumina, Al 2O3.
Aluminum is smelted from the alumina using the Hall-Heroult Process. In the Hall-Heroult Process the alumina is dissolved in a molten bath of
cryolite (Na3AlF6). Molten aluminum is removed from the solution by electrolysis. This process uses an enormous amount of electricity. Aluminum
is usually produced where electricity costs are very low.
– information provided by Hobart King at the website: http://geology.com/minerals/bauxite.shtml
Mineral #11 – Muscovite Mica – Hartwell, GA – provided by BASF
Muscovite, K2O·3Al2O3·6 SiO2·2H2O , or white mica is a flexible, often transparent mineral with an easy cleavage. Its name is derived from the
Russian province of Muscovy where it was used as a window glass. Muscovite is the most common mica, found in granites, pegmatites, gneisses,
and schists, and as a contact metamorphic rock or as a secondary mineral resulting from the alteration of topaz, feldspar, kyanite, etc. In pegmatites, it
is often found in immense sheets that are commercially valuable. Muscovite is in demand for the manufacture of fireproofing and insulating materials
and to some extent as a lubricant.
– information provided by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscovite
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Mineral #12 – Gypsum – Various Locations
Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It can be used as a fertilizer,
is the main constituent in many forms of plaster and is widely mined. As a mineral, it is alabaster, which has been used for sculpture by many
cultures including Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Nottingham alabasters of medieval England. It is the definition of a hardness of 2 on the
Mohs scale of mineral hardness. It forms as an evaporite mineral and as a hydration product of anhydrite. Gypsum is a common mineral, with thick
and extensive evaporite beds in association with sedimentary rocks. Deposits are known to occur in strata from as far back as the Archaean eon.
Gypsum is deposited from lake and sea water, as well as in hot springs, from volcanic vapors, and sulfate solutions in veins. Hydrothermal anhydrite
in veins is commonly hydrated to gypsum by groundwater in near-surface exposures. It is often associated with the minerals halite and sulfur. Pure
gypsum is white, but other substances found as impurities may give a wide range of colours to local deposits.
Gypsum is used in wallboard (Sheetrock) and plaster, and as a soil conditioner.
– information provided by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsum