Industrial Minerals

Features

• Magnesia blasts back

  After a difficult two years, the caustic calcined magnesia market is looking up. Chinese export restrictions and rising energy costs have increased magnesia prices, but recovering market demand, together with future concerns over Chinese availability, have rejuvenated western producers and added impetus to customers seeking new supply sources outside China Read More

• Refractories rising

  After a gloomy 2008-09, steel refractories are now on the way to recovery led by Asia. But raw material supply, mainly dependent on China exports, remains a concern for the industry Read More

• Alumina’s balancing act

  Producers juggle a delicate supply-demand balance as alumina’s end use sectors call for increasing production from a market still emerging from economic hardship Read More

• Ukraine’s gift and curse

  Some of Europe’s richest mineral resources lie in the middle of an energy resources super-highway from Russia into Europe. This route has given Ukraine an abundance of cheap gas that has underpinned its economy. It is an asset that has attracted many, and one that could be its undoing Read More

• End user focus: It pays to glaze

  The final addition to a ceramic body before firing, glaze controls the physical appearance and structural resilience of the ceramic piece. Here some of the key glaze minerals are reviewed Read More

Supply Developments

• BHP takes PotashCorp plunge with $39bn bid

  World's biggest miner in drastic swings towards non-metals with multi-billion bid for Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Read More

• Magnesita expands DBM capacity with improved H1 2010 results

  Dead burned magnesite expansion at Brazilian producer boosted by H1 2010 results Read More

• Almatis drops Oaktree plan for DIC debt proposal

  New Chapter 11 filing likely as speciality alumina producer enters new debt deal with parent group DIC Read More

• Oman mineral port for 2012

  Sohar Industrial Port Co.'s new minerals port throws Oman's trade doors wide open Read More

• Pressure grows on Obama’s drilling ban

  Oil rig exodus fears grow in Gulf of Mexico as Obama's drilling ban costs 800,000 tonnes in barytes demand Read More

• Kaolin consolidation continues with Imerys stake in PPSA

  French kaolin giant continues dominance of industry with Brazilian buy Read More

• Industrial Minerals Prices September 2010

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• Price Briefing September 2010

  Zircon shifts upwards; rare earths climb; titanium dioxide pushes up Read More

• Supply Situation Report: Mullite

  Supply, demand and consumption trends in the mullite industry Read More

Comment

• BHP's move into potash

  Where the grass is greener: Mining leader targets potash as the big time industrial minerals winner Read More

Strandlines

• Chinese TiO2 industry facing consolidation

  Top eight pigment producers to dominate market as India and Vietnam seek titanium dioxide independence Read More

• Henan Billions enacts 200,000 tpa TiO2 expansion

  Billions eyes millions with yet another titanium dioxide expansion in Henan province but falls on TZMI plant rankings Read More

Diary Dates

• Diary Dates September 2010

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Processing

• Fertiliser’s potassium formate potential

  A new liquid fertiliser, potassium formate, has the potential to revolutionise the consumption of potassium-bearing agrochemicals, as Eli M Feist explains Read More

Exposure

• Bayovar potash

  GrowMax, a subsidiary of Americas Petrogas Inc., Canada, is developing a surface potash brine reservoir and evaporite deposit at Bayovar in the Sechura Desert of north-west Peru Read More

People & Places

• People and Places September 2010

  Flavio Rezende Barbosa, Magnesita; Bernhard Pagenkemper, Haver & Boecker; Michael Wolfe, NYCO Minerals; Barry M. Martin, Atlantic Industrial Minerals; Adam Smits, Mineral Deposits Ltd Read More

Refractories Hotline

• Magnezit to supply upgraded Slovmag

  Russia looks to strengthen grip on European refractories industry through Slovakia project Read More

• China found guilty of refractory brick dumping

  US rules on Chinese exporters of magnesia-carbon bricks after a year long hearing Read More

Trading Faces

• Cofermin Rohstoffe GmbH

  This year Cofermin is celebrating ten years of trading industrial minerals. Managing partners Tim Geldmacher, Pawel Golak, Bernhard Krüger and Ralf Ossen talked to IM about the challenges of raw material availability and how the role of traders has evolved during the last decade Read More