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Fastmarkets lithium reporters consider why Chinese average marginal tonnage has prompted market participants to rethink their business practices and why the domestic spot price in China is becoming increasingly more relevant as the price proxy for the lithium industry.
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Abundant reserves, robust price forecasts and a lack of major catastrophes have dampened enthusiasm for innovation in the global potash industry, but does this approach risk missing important chances to improve production of one of the world’s most important minerals? Rose Pengelly reports.
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Driven by demand from multiple sectors - from construction and horticulture to fire protection and steelmaking - the global vermiculite and perlite market remains in growth mode, underscored by a healthy supply-demand balance, reports Ross Davies.
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Wollastonite has been described as “a white mineral for a greener world” and it seems governments, businesses and industries agree – with wollastonite set for increased market growth in its traditional uses plus a new focus on its powerful qualities to help tackle climate change.
Sarah Gibbons, Keith Nuthall, Raghavendra Verma and John Pagni
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Markets for oilfield minerals have had a slow start to the year while global drilling activity remains limited and oil markets repeatedly fail to break new highs.
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Mining companies have been given several solutions to reduce transport costs, including no need for tugs, which reduces onshore infrastructure, and keeping vessel sizes in a range of 22,000-60,000 dwt that would mean project development is faster, easier and cheaper.
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Demand for battery raw materials has led lithium producers to increase their total production volumes while looking to diversify their investments in different lithium operations to ramp production up faster and diminish asset risk.
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“I’ve always enjoyed brainstorming ideas with engineers, asking what else we can develop using graphite.” Stephen Riddle, chief executive officer of Asbury Carbons, speaks to Rose Pengelly about his passion for carbon, and why even four decades of experience does not mean you have seen everything in graphite.
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Led by a revival in North American sales, the outlook for the global flat glass market remains positive – as it also does for the container sector. Manufacturers will need to fork out more for raw materials, though, Ross Davies finds.
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Turkey is the standout performer in Eurasia’s industrial minerals industry but its economic recession is affecting the wider region. Rose Pengelly looks at what neighboring countries are doing to boost their domestic mining sectors.
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Renascor Resources managing director David Christensen tells Fastmarkets how the company intends to make maximum use of the financing for the development of its Siviour graphite deposit in South Australia so it can rival the world’s lowest-cost producers.
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Paper markets may be changing but the minerals used within them are still being used in the same way. Ian Wilson takes a look at precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) and discuses producer developments in 2019.
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The mineral kaolinite was named after a hillside near the village of Gaoling in Jiangxi province, China, where the clay was traditionally mined to supply the nearby famous porcelain factories in Jingdezhen. Today, as Ian Wilson* and Frank Hart ** discover, China is just as important in the kaolin - and indeed the ceramics - industry.
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Sameer Nagpal has been charged with turning Indian refractories producer Dalmia-OCL into an international brand and he is convinced he can do it.
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Steep increases in price of the raw material have squeezed margins among iodine derivatives producers, while some companies are reported to be producing very cheap derivatives in a bid to gain market share, Michael Greenfield, Market Reporter, finds.
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Widely used in industrial applications, pharmaceuticals make up a relatively modest proportion of bentonite’s end markets – a situation which could change with more research and advances in technology, Rose Pengelly, Correspondent, finds.
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The Indian ceramics industry has made steady progress in the past few years on the back of a growing middle class and several governmental schemes to boost the industry, as correspondent Sunder Singh discovered at India’s recent Ceramics Asia event.
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The chief executive of VV Minerals tells Fastmarkets that restrictions on private exports of mineral sands will be bad for production.
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“For us, customization is essential,” ArrMaz chief executive officer Dave Keselica, tell Jo Isenberg-O’Loughlin, as his company spearheads a molecule-by-molecule drive to recover every bit of lithium the company’s customers pull out of the ground.
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The global high-purity quartz market remains as tightly controlled as ever, despite efforts by China, junior companies and synthetic material producers to open up the supply chain, correspondent Rose Pengelly writes.
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Cold water was thrown on the lithium market in 2018, with prices falling and lithium miners’ equity prices declining alongside. Fastmarkets IM believes the price weakness was front-loaded, with the market deleveraging into the prospect of two to three years of supply surplus.
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An uptick in mineral exploration financing since 2017 is welcome but may not be enough to undo years of under-investment in identifying new economic deposits, correspondent Rose Pengelly finds.
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Cameron Perks, IM correspondent, looks back at the events that shaped the titanium and zirconium industries in 2018 and looks forward to what may play out in 2019
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Refractories bounced back in 2018, driving demand for bauxite and alumina raw materials, but the market continues to face what is becoming a perennial state of crisis affecting supply from China.
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Vietnam has ambitions to become one of Asia’s biggest glass exporters. Tran Kim Phuong looks at how the country is trying to achieve this by exploiting its high quality domestic silica sand reserves.
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Whether you call them technical ceramics, engineering ceramics or advanced ceramics, these materials have advanced steadily through the past year, and 2019 holds a great deal of potential for more widespread adoption, notably in the high performance industrial arena, as Charlie Wallin reports.
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The complexity of the graphite market is one of the main reasons why new producers struggle to establish profitable businesses in this sector, even if they manage get new mines into operation. Correspondent Rose Pengelly examines the intricacies of the graphite supply chain and considers who may be able to step in to help break China’s dominance.
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Funding remains a problem for almost all junior mining companies but, for industrial minerals developers, the market is particularly tough because new ways of raising money do not sit well with the sector’s opaque and illiquid pricing practices, which makes it harder to communicate value, Rose Pengelly reports.
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Magnesia prices out of China have surged in 2018 following severe environmental restrictions. Carrie Shi, Fastmarkets IM market reporter, looks over the year of shutdowns and the effect on prices.
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Improved production in most mining areas is prompting hopes that andalusite supply tightness may ease in the near to mid term, but prices are expected to stay firm due to strong end markets.
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The spreads in the bauxite market have been widening, while concerns over China's 2019 supply flow increase and keep brown-fused alumina (BFA) and white-fused alumina (WFA) prices stable.
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A round-up of all this year's events in the global industrial mineral sector.
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Strict environmental regulation on magnesite and magnesia production in China has resulted in strong demand for imported products. Cameron Perks, Fastmarkets IM correspondent, looks at how Sibelco’s Australian operations are currently benefiting from this.
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The broad upward swing has been welcomed by the beleaguered sector but there is cause for caution, writes Will Fray, senior analyst at Maritime Strategies International.
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Amid growing concern about the supply of titanium dioxide feedstocks, Fastmarkets examines the scarcity of these minerals and how processors are adapting to changes in availability.
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With trade wars once again exacerbating concerns over critical mineral supplies, Fastmarkets correspondent Rose Pengelly looks at whether new technologies can make coal a viable alternative source of rare earths.
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Prices have built steadily over the past year in titanium dioxide, and despite seasonal fluctuations and one-off events the outlook is for a period of stability lasting at least into early 2019.
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As big players in the iron oxide pigment business reap the rewards of an upturn in the construction industry, Fastmarkets IM correspondent Myles McCormick takes a look at the state of the market.
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Fastmarkets IM Correspondent Sunder Singh looks at India's titanium dioxide supply and demand dynamics, as well as the future of the industry.
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Automotive manufacturers are demanding better accuracy and longer life from abrasive tools, and this has created an opportunity for a new family of high-performance synthetic abrasives, as Industrial Minerals correspondent Rose Pengelly discovers.
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After a year of reorganization and changing narratives in the refractories industry – from significant M&A activity to raw material price spikes, and from booming end-market demand to uncertainties in global trade – Industrial Minerals correspondent Myles McCormick takes stock of a changed landscape for companies operating in the sector.
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Moves by Canada Fluorspar and Sepfluor to enter the global fluorspar market have raised questions about how this will affect the worldwide supply and demand dynamic, and how fluorspar prices may be affected.
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The non-metallurgical alumina market is diverse and complex and, over the past year, its main sub-sectors have been under pressure from rising costs and hiccups in supply, limiting availability of white fused, alumina hydrate and calcined alumina to the wider market, independent consultant, Ted Dickson, discovers.
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Pollution regulations and their enforcement in China, coupled with the maturity of the steel and refractory industries, are causing a third major disturbance to the global magnesia market.
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In a quest to make HarbisonWalker International its customers’ ‘first and only call,’ Carol Jackson has pulled out all the stops. “We are not your old refractory company,” she tells Jo Isenberg-O’Loughlin.
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Soaring frac sand demand is being met by a wave of new supply, but how will traditional sellers fare in a world where quantity, rather than quality, is king, William Clarke, Industrial Minerals reporter, asks.
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New supply from Uganda and Turkey pushed up global vermiculite production in 2017. Meanwhile, prices have increased out of the United States because customers are demanding higher grades.
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Artificial intelligence and machine learning are at the forefront of digital solutions that could dramatically improve efficiency in the mineral processing sector. But mining companies have been reluctant to invest in the technology needed to revolutionize their operations.
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Climate change policies have long been part of the conversation in the EU, which set strong 20% reduction targets for 2020, but as Vasili Nicoletopoulos* discusses, the push to go green has had an impact on the mining industry worldwide.
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Two behemoths supply the bulk of the world borates market, making for a highly concentrated industry.
Myles McCormick, IM correspondent, reports on the tussle between the major players, the current dearth of exploration and innovative efforts to increase demand.
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