Wollastonite, Kyanite & Mica (Ceramic, Refractory & Filler Minerals)

Acicular wollastonite, kyanite-group refractory minerals and muscovite and phlogopite mica for ceramics, refractories and fillers

Wollastonite (HS 2530.90) is a calcium metasilicate that grows as needles, and the needle is the product. Grades are sold on aspect ratio, from about 5:1 in milled powder grades to 15:1 and above in high-aspect grades, and on fineness, with median particle sizes from about 13 microns in polymer-reinforcing grades to 325-mesh powders for coatings, ceramics and adhesives. Its Mohs hardness of 4.5–5, specific gravity of 2.86–3.09, white colour and 1,540°C melting point make it a ceramic-body flux that cuts shrinkage and crazing, a reinforcing filler in thermoplastics and elastomers, a pH buffer and weathering aid in paint, and an asbestos substitute in friction and construction products. Estimated world crude ore production was around 1.2 million MT (USGS 2021 summary), with China the largest producer and India, the United States, Mexico and Finland the other sources; ceramics take roughly 30–40% of sales and polymers 30–35%.

Kyanite, andalusite and sillimanite (HS 2508.50) share the formula Al₂SiO₅ and are bought as refractory raw materials on Al₂O₃ content, iron and sizing. Heated above about 1,100°C kyanite converts to mullite and silica with a volume expansion, which refractory makers use to offset firing shrinkage in bricks, castables, kiln furniture, investment-casting shells and porcelain bodies; calcined kyanite is sold already mullitised, and andalusite converts with little expansion so it goes into monolithics and high-duty bricks directly. Sources are the United States, South Africa, India, France and Peru, and Chinese sillimanite-group minerals. Mica (HS 2525) means muscovite in the electrical and cosmetic trade and phlogopite where service temperatures to 900°C are needed. It moves as sheet and block, as scrap and flake recovered as a by-product of feldspar and kaolin processing, and as dry-ground or wet-ground powder; US consumption has been led by drywall joint compound (54% in 2008), paint (22%) and drilling fluids (15%), and wet-ground mica supplies pearlescent pigments and cosmetics. Mica from Jharkhand and Bihar in India, and from Madagascar, is partly mined artisanally with documented child labour; the Responsible Mica Initiative has tracked supply-chain remediation there since 2017, and any Indian or Malagasy mica CBIL works carries a traceable licensed-mine or processor chain and the buyer's due-diligence questionnaire. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers these minerals between miners, millers and trader allocations on one side and ceramic, refractory, polymer, paint, drilling-fluid and cosmetic-pigment plants on the other, in 25 kg bags and 1–1.5 MT jumbo bags in containers or bulk vessel lots for refractory aggregate, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms. Offers stand against an SGS, Bureau Veritas or Intertek analysis of chemistry, loss on ignition, brightness where relevant, sieve or particle-size distribution and, for wollastonite, aspect ratio, with a certificate of origin and a safety data sheet. Price is negotiated per lot on grade. Send the mineral, the grade and the discharge port, and the enquiry is screened and worked against it.

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Excluded origins are not offered, including product re-exported, blended or re-processed through a third country. Every lot moves with a certificate of origin naming the producing plant, mine or grower country, and nothing is quoted before the seller and loading point are known.