Resumen de Imerys: : Europe still key for industrial minerals
[Owen Herod] used the example of a smartphone to illustrate this point. A smartphone screen is made using high precision abrasives, while the cover is composed of carbonates, mica, talc and carbon black. The device's steel reinforcement requires refractory minerals to produce, the microchip is the product of silicium, refractories and high purity quartz and its insulating foils are made of graphite. And, finally, a smartphone's lithium-ion battery contains both graphite and lithium.
"Per phone, there might not be a huge quantity of minerals used," Herod said. "But it adds up" - particularly as such devices become more and more popular in Europe and across the world.
Herod drew particular attention to Imerys' kaolin production at St Austell in Cornwall, UK, a 150-year-old mine which produces 800-900,000 tpa kaolin, and the company's newly-acquired bentonite deposit on the Greek island of Milos, which has an output of 1m tpa bentonite.
