Minerals

As part of our strategy to expand our business in the mining and minerals sector, Glenmex Naturlich Limited engages in international trading of selected raw materials essential for Ceramic industry, Foundries, Steel industries, Construction Industry and Cement Industry. We are specialized in the innovative procurement, exchange and delivery of essential mineral products along with ceramic clay.

Ball clays are kaolinitic clays that commonly consist of 20–80% kaolinite, 10–25% mica, 6–65% quartz, as well as organic matter. Ball clay is formed from the weathering and transportation by water of parent rocks. Seams in the same deposit will vary in composition, depending on the quantity of the principal and accessory minerals.

Ball clays are fine-grained, highly plastic clays, which are principally used in the manufacture of ceramic whiteware and sanitaryware where they are appreciated for their plasticity, unfired strength and their light colour on firing. Selected clays can even give pure white end products. Among others, ball clays are also used in refractories, in polymers, in adhesives and sealants and in horticulture as soil amendments.

At GNL, we have a deep understanding of our customers’ requirements and their markets through waste experience. Our teams will continue to help customers meet their technical challenges, providing local support and the best ball clay blends to enhance their performance. We source ball clay from our mining partners located in Gujarat and Rajasthan provinces of India and supply to customers located in United Arab Emirates, Italy and Spain.

Kaolin is a rock from which the clay mineral kaolinite is derived. This one has been used for millennia as the principal ingredient in porcelain tableware. Today GNL kaolin bring critical properties to a host of end applications ranging from paper to paints, fiberglass to cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Kaolin, or ‘china clay’ as it is commonly called, is a hydrated aluminum silicate crystalline mineral formed over many millions of years by the hydrothermal decomposition of granite rocks. Hydrous kaolin is characterized by its fine particle size, plate-like or lamellar particle shape, and chemical inertness. Metakaolin is manufactured by the calcination of kaolin to form an amorphous pozzolanic white mineral additive for use in cement-based products. Calcined Kaolin is an anhydrous aluminum silicate produced by heating ultrafine natural kaolin to high temperatures in a kiln. The calcination process increases whiteness and hardness, improves electrical properties, and alters the size and shape of the kaolin particles.

GNL offers a wide range of innovative and sustainable engineered kaolin-based solutions to help optimize customer performance within industries as diverse as ceramics, cosmetics, paper and packaging, paints, pharmaceuticals plastics, and rubber and supply quality kaolin from its partner’s deposits and beneficiation plants in India and Brazil.

Our products offer unique and specific geological properties which we fine-tune to meet the specific requirements of the diverse markets we serve.

Feldspar is the name given to a group of naturally occurring alumino-silicate minerals containing varying amounts of potassium, sodium, calcium, and/or lithium. The feldspar group of minerals is by far the most abundant group of minerals in the Earth’s crust, making up about 50% of all rocks. Feldspar minerals are essential components in igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks, to such an extent that the classification of a number of rocks is based on their feldspar content.

Although highly present in igneous rocks like granite, commercial feldspar is generally mined from pegmatite or feldspathic sand deposits. Feldspars are generally divided into three categories, feldspar, pegmatite and feldspathic sand, and are primarily used in industrial applications for their alumina and alkali content. Feldspars and pegmatites play an important role as fluxing agents in ceramics and glass production and are valuable functional fillers in the paint and adhesive industries.

GNL has a wide portfolio of feldspar and pegmatite products. With in-depth knowledge of how feldspar interacts in our customers’ end products, we will continue to harness our minerals to help customers improve performance, reduce costs and minimize their carbon footprint.

Bentonite is a highly absorbent, viscous plastic clay which is a valuable binding, sealing, absorbing and lubricating agent in a huge variety of industries and applications. Bentonite is a very soft plastic clay consisting predominantly of montmorillonite, a fine particle-sized hydrous aluminum silicate and member of the smectite group. Most bentonites are formed by the alteration of volcanic ash and rocks after intense contact with water. Bentonite presents strong colloidal properties and increases its volume several times when coming into contact with water, creating a gelatinous and viscous substance. Its specific properties include swelling, water absorption, viscosity, and thixotropy. These properties are in demand in a huge range of industries served by GNL.

In foundry making, bentonite is a critical constituent in the casting of high-quality foundry products where it is used as a binder for the production of green sand molds to ensure defect-free final castings. In iron ore pelletizing bentonite is used as a binder for the formation of iron ore pellets. Bentonite is used in drilling and tunneling fluids to lubricate and cool cutting tools, remove cuttings and help prevent blowouts. In the paper industry, the high surface area of bentonite in combination with its unique properties makes it ideal for various applications.

With demand for bentonite likely to rise for green moulding sand casting, oil drilling, pelletizing, and cat litter applications, bentonite markets are slated to grow over the next few years, GNL is set to supply consistent quality products to feed these markets.

Mica is an ultra-platy, chemically resistant, reflective, refractive, resilient and temperature stable mineral, highly prized in a range of applications. Mica is a naturally occurring, highly platy phyllosilicate of aluminium and potassium that occurs in book-like form that can be easily split into extremely thin, often transparent sheets that are both tough and flexible. Mica is fairly widespread and occurs in igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks. Large mica crystals are typically mined from granitic pegmatites.

Only very few crystals are industrially mined. Muscovite white mica is the most common commercial form, accounting for 90 % of global consumption, followed by phlogopite, a bronze-colored variety. Mica is unique among platy minerals due to the broad range of particle sizes naturally available from microns up to several centimeters and even meters! We supply both muscovite and phlogopite mica to serve the plastics, paints, ceramics, sound-damping and cosmetics markets.

GNL focuses its attention on the supply of platy micas for the polymers, coatings and construction and cosmetics industry.

Quartz is one of the most common and well-known minerals on the planet. Best known as the principal constituent of glass, quartz offers multiple other uses ranging from construction granulates to solar panels. Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silicon and oxygen atoms and the second most abundant mineral in the planet’s crust, after the feldspar family of minerals.

This versatile mineral is both durable and chemically inert and demonstrates excellent heat resistance as well as electrical properties. Following transformation into silicon (Si) through gaseous reduction at high temperature, it becomes a valuable metalloid for the production of solar panels, semiconductors and electronics, aluminum and steel alloys and for the construction industry. Silicon tetravalence allows for numerous chemical combinations that are particularly appreciated in silicone applications such as cosmetics, gaskets elastomers, prostheses. GNL high purity quartz is an ideal material for manufacturing the crucibles used in the casting of silicon for photovoltaic cells that make up solar panels and semiconductor components. In the aluminum and iron & steel industry, quartz pebbles are essential ingredients in the manufacture of ferro-alloys and silicon for aluminum alloy and silicone production.

GNL will continue to focus its research efforts on finding new outlets for its high-purity quartz products that support the use of energy from renewable sources such as solar power cells.

The softest rock on the planet, talc is an ultra-versatile mineral valued for its diverse properties by a wide range of applications. Talc is a hydrated magnesium silicate. Talc deposits form from the transformation of high magnesium rocks by siliceous hydrothermal fluids. Most talc originates from the alteration of dolomite or ultramafic intrusive rocks. Following this process, talc is always found in combination with other minerals. Carbonates and chlorite are the most common associated minerals.

Each talc deposit has a unique morphology and mineralogy, but all talcs exhibit the following unique properties: softness, water repellency, chemical inertness, platyness, and an affinity for organic substances. These properties make talc a highly prized multi-functional filler and process enabler in an array of applications from plastics to plastic, paper, rubber, ceramics to paint industry.

Our market focus will continue to be towards providing increasingly specific natural, talc-based products to meet the demand for lightweight and eco-friendly materials and enhanced energy efficiency.

GNL trades a broad range of minerals throughout Asia, Europe, and South America. Our seasoned traders design strategies to optimize the value of our generation and mine assets, to manage risks, and to ensure that our customers have a reliable supply of increasingly suitable quality minerals.