US kaolin producer KaMin LLC has purchased Brazilian kaolin business CADAM SA from iron ore group Vale SA for $30m.
“This places KaMin firmly as the second largest supplier of refined kaolin in the world next to Imerys,” Ian Wilson, independent industrial minerals consultant, told IM. “The capacity of the CADAM operation is estimated at 0.6m tpa and with current capacity of KaMin in Georgia estimated at around 1.1m tonnes this will give a combined output of some 1.7m tpa.”
“KaMin’s strategic focus on fine particle size clays led to our interest in looking at CADAM,” Doug Carter, vice president of technology and business development at KaMin, told IM.
The deal is for a sale of a 61.5% stake in CADAM SA to KaMin LLC for $30.1m to be paid over five years which Wilson sees as a “very...