Arizona Industrial Minerals and Their Processing Methods

Calcium carbonate from limestone and marble for mineral filler as well as for raw material for lime and cement plants

1. Filler uses; fine dry grinding
2. Lime; grinding and calcining
3. Cement; grinding and blending with silica, alumina, and iron sources, kilning to produce clinker, regrinding with added gypsum; may be blended with admixture chemicals at concrete producers

Bentonite for desiccants and for bleaching and clarifying of edible oils

Processed out-of-state for use as desiccants, and as acid activated clay for use in clarifying edible oils and removal of organic contaminates from leach solutions

Sand and gravel for construction aggregate

Processed by crushing, screening, and washing; some flocculation chemicals may be used in reclaiming wash water

Diatomite for metallurgical process insulation

Processed by crushing, gas fired drying, and sizing by cyclones and bag houses

Tile and brick clay

Blended with other clays, grog, and slate, extruded and fired into structural clay products such as bricks, sewer pipe, and roof tile

Salt

Recovered as brine from solution mining and harvested from solar evaporation ponds; synthetic zeolites are added to some final products for use in water softeners

Cinders

Screened for use as specialty aggregate

Pumice for laundry uses and light-weight aggregate

Screened and used directly or with adsorbed oxidants and bleaches for fabric treatment as in stone-washed denim; screened for use as light-weight aggregate

Zeolites

Selectively mined, crushed, heat activated at 400 degrees F rolled, and screened to produce sized products; also processed out-of-state; used for RAD control, adsorbents, and molecular sieves

Stone

Quarried and shaped

Perlite for filters

Selectively mined, crushed, and dried; shipped out-of-state for popping and manufacture into filters

Gypsum for wall board and agriculture

1. For wall board, selectively mined, crushed, roasted to produce plaster-of-Paris, rehydrated and fabricated into wall board
2. For agriculture, selectively mined and crushed
3. For cement additive - selectively mined, crushed, washed, dried, and screened

Silica flux

Selectively mined and crushed

Micaceous hematite for pigment

Selectively mined (reclaimed) from dumps and tailings, screened and fine sized