Resumen de Kaolin in India: : Cracking high value markets
Industrial Minerals
Kerala hosts some of India's highest grade and finest quality kaolin and is home to one of the country's main producers, English Indian Clays Ltd. (EICL). Recently, the government of Kerala's mining and geology department, launched exploration programmes which identified two major kaolin zones in the state. A southern zone was discovered between Thiruvananthapuram and Kundara (Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts) and a northern zone was delineated between Kannapuram Madayi-Cheruthazham (Kannur district) to Nileswarm-Manjeshwaram (Kasargod district). A combined reserve of 172m tonnes (80m tonnes probable and 92m tonnes possible) sedimentary and residual kaolin has been estimated for the discovery. Kerala china clay is one of the finest quality clay available in the country.
In anticipation of robust demand growth from kaolin's various end-use segments, most of India's kaolin processors have expanded their capacities, or are planning to do so. EICL, the leading producer of kaolin in the country, has streamlined its operations and is capable of processing up to 240,000 tpa kaolin across its three plants in Kerala.
One of the largest miners and processors of kaolin in India, Ashapura has been mining and processing kaolin products from its reserves in Gujarat for several decades. Having recognised the high demand and coinciding shortage of high quality kaolin in India, the company acquired mines containing reserves of 2.5-3m tonnes kaolin in Kerala. Ashapura claims that the ore extracted from these mines has a kaolinite content of 96%, meaning it can supply superior quality material in terms of whiteness and other properties.
