As more end products are manufactured containing plastics and increasingly stringent safety legislation permeates all industries, the demand for flame retardants is rising accordingly.
This is welcome news for mineral producers and processors of alumina trihydrate (ATH), magnesium hydroxide, borates, and antimony trioxide.
Where the growth appears most promising is in regions which are experiencing an upgrade in end product quality and thus demand high quality raw materials for their manufacture.
This seems to be the case in Russia, and is all the more interesting to mineral developers since the country has a dearth of domestic flame retardant mineral production.
The situation has certainly galvanised Volgograd-base Nikochem LLC into action.
Nikochem, which has been developing magnesia products since 2007, has embarked on a partnership with The Russian Corp. of Nanotechnologies (Rusnano), a government nanotechnology organisation.
Rusnano has acquired a 35.8% share in the group’s...