Abstract

Clays and clay minerals have been and continue to be one of the more important industrial minerals. They are widely used in many facets of our society. Clays are important in geology, agriculture, construction, civil engineering, process industries, and environmental applications. Traditional applications number in the hundreds. Some of the more important include the use of kaolins in paper coating and filling, ceramics, paint, rubber, plastics, ink, catalyst preparations, and many others. The physical and chemical properties of kaolin are dependent on structure and composition and on the processing methods used to beneficiate the products. Bentonites are used in drilling fluids, as a binder for foundry sands and pelletizing iron ore, as a barrier to control fluid transport, as absorbents, as bleaching earths for edible oils, and many others. Palygorskite, sepiolite, halloysite, and common clays all have multiple applications. The physical properties of all these clays and clay minerals will be discussed in this article on uses of clays.