Kaoline Mapping Using ASTER Satellite Imagery: The Case Study of Kefalos Peninsula, Kos Island

The present work aims to map kaolin occurrences on the Kefalos peninsula, SW Kos Island, Greece, through the elaboration of ASTER satellite imagery. The island of Kos is located on the eastern edge of the South Aegean Active Volcanic Arc (SAAVA) and is characterised by its complex geologic structure. During Plio-Pleistocene, the voluminous eruption of the Kos Plateau Tuff was recorded on Kefalos; the largest quaternary eruption in the Mediterranean. Kaolin is the product of hydrothermal alteration of the Pliocene volcanic rocks with rhyolitic composition. Our study emphasises the usefulness of satellite imagery combined with the Mixture Tuned Matched Filtering (MTMF) technique to detect occurrences of industrial minerals, kaolin-group minerals in this case, either in terms of raw mineral exploitation or by mapping hydrothermal alteration.

Development of High Added Value Products from Industrial Minerals for Hybrid Energy Storage

Industrial minerals are at the forefront of innovation and play an essential role in many innovative applications. Their functionalities and properties make them very versatile materials which are essential to many industries. A combination of properties such as heat capacity, density, price, availability, and eco-friendliness are exceptional and crucially advantageous of industrial minerals utilisation as thermal energy storage (TES) systems. This technology stocks thermal energy by heating or cooling a storage medium so that the stored energy can be used at a later time for heating and cooling applications and power generation. In this context, the utilisation of industrial minerals as carriers for impregnating phase change materials (PCM) can deliver new innovative products acting as short-term energy storage systems for construction applications to the market. TES is a technology that can solve the existing mismatch of energy supply and demand and improve buildings’ system performance by smoothing temperature fluctuations, as well as improving the reliability of the heating and/or cooling source. However, the most recent publications in this area are focused on PCM-enhanced building components thermal and kinetics analysis rather than focusing on the building component scale. This study is focused on the industrial minerals-PCM application as part of the building’s envelope, aiming to determine the benefits for buildings in terms of thermal energy performance and renewable energy penetration based on real data, harvested by an intelligent monitored building in Lavrion Technological and Cultural Park operated solely for research activities.

Towards Better Valorisation of Industrial Minerals and Rocks in Serbia—Case Study of Industrial Clays

The improvement in valorisation of industrial minerals and rocks in Serbia is related to improvement of legislation, and to adoption of best possible techniques for geological exploration and estimation of resources/reserves. Therefore, we analyzed the actual practice in the field of geological exploration which has not changed significantly in the last 30 years, as well as legislation related to the mining industry and access to land. The improvement of legislation mostly depends on the state authorities. Contrary to that, the enhancement of geological exploration methodology should be the issue of experts working in that area of the mining industry but is also very much related to the existing legislation. Serbia still has very strictly prescribed procedures, which are generally good; however, it is an overly complicated and restrictive system for performing geological exploration and evaluation of mineral deposits. The most important improvements in legislation in the last twenty years are presented and discussed, as well as problems that still need to be solved and solutions found to fully understand the potential of industrial minerals and rocks in Serbia.

Editorial for Special Issue “Industrial Minerals”

Industrial minerals play an important role in keeping our society running, as they are used in a wide range of industrial and domestic applications [...]

COMPARISON OF PARTICLE SHAPES OF CONVENTIONALLY GROUND BARITE, CALCITE AND TALC MINERALS BY DYNAMIC IMAGING TECHNIQUE: A REVIEW

Shape of particles made by grinding is one of the important measures for determining the utilizations of industrial minerals namely barite, calcite, and talc particles, particularly at production (like coating pigments, paints, rubber and paper) and processing stages (beneficiation by flotation). Therefore, measurement of particle characteristics is a critical issue in the development and control of industrial mineral products in most of the industries for some demanding applications. Ball and rod mills are commonly used as conventional grinding mills to produce a controlled grind size for the flotation circuit in the beneficiation of industrial minerals. Dynamic Image Analysis (DIA) offers reproducible results of a huge number of particles for some industrial minerals namely, barite [1], calcite [2] and talc [3] particles, whose shapes are crucial for some industries utilized as fillers. Thus, this review is about the comparison of shape values in terms of circularity (C) and bounding rectangle aspect ratio (BRAR) determined by the real time DIA. It was found that the shape results of the previous studies for the same samples by SEM measurement [4] were in good agreement with DIA results. It was concluded that the more rounded particles were encountered in the rod milled products for calcite and barite minerals. On the other hand, the more elongated particles were found in the ball milled products for talc mineral. It was attributed to the material type since the same mills were used for all tests. Hence, DIA can be used as a useful tool, which is easy, fast and highly accurate to control the particle shape distributions whether the required powder is fit for use