| INFO | NAME: | China clay waste (mica) | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| CATEGORY | CATEGORY: | Mine and quarry wastes | ||||||||||||||||||||
| RADIO_BUTTON_UNCHECKED | SOURCE: | Industrial minerals | ||||||||||||||||||||
| VOLCANO | UK TOTAL: | 707,900 tonnes (data) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| FLAG | SITES: | 18 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| MAP | DISTRIBUTION: | South West | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Widgets | TYPE: | Oversize / impurities | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Label | DESCRIPTION: | A mixture of fine sand, mica and coarse kaolin derived from wet extraction of china clay | ||||||||||||||||||||
| SCIENCE | COMPOSITION: |
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| TENANCY | MINEROLOGY: | Quartz, feldspar, schorl (Zografou, 2015) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Stream | APPEARANCE: | Fine sand, silt | ||||||||||||||||||||
| LINEAR_SCALE | PARTICLE SIZE: | < 0.5mm | ||||||||||||||||||||
| WYSIWYG | NOTES: | |||||||||||||||||||||
In the UK, china clay, or kaolin, occurs in Cornwall and Devon in deposits of global significance. The UK china clay deposits derive from the residual decomposition of granite moors and the clay is typically extracted through a ‘wet process’ by which the decomposed clay is washed from the rock it originated from, generating nine tonnes of waste for every one tonne of pure china clay extracted (Thurlow, 2005). Mica waste is the term used to describe the finest fraction of material removed in this process, accounting for 11% of the total waste. Mica waste comprises of fine sand, mica and coarse kaolin particles. There are currently no commercial uses for the mica waste fraction. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Visibility | FURTHER READING: | |||||||||||||||||||||
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