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Brasil Minerios’ Sao Lu’s vermiculite
mine in Goania, Brazil |
2011 marked one of the greatest years of change the vermiculite industry has ever seen. What had traditionally been a small and relatively stable market, suddenly transformed into one of tremendous interest for a number of developers. Spurred by news that production from South Africa’s Palabora - the world’s leading producer - was diminishing, and eager to fill the gap created by China’s Xinlong Vermiculite Co., Ltd when it (temporarily) shut its doors, developers outlined production plans that would have seen the current global production, of approximately 580,000 tpa (USGS - 2011), almost double. As Graham Ellicott, chairman of The Vermiculite Association, told
IM at the time: “There’s more going on in the industry now than there has been in the last 30 years.”
The proof though, will be...