From Mine To Industry
Mining
The process by which China Clay (Kaolin) is made suitable for industrial applications is extensive, requiring large capital investments in equipment and technology. The journey from the mines to the paper, rubber, paint or other industrial consumer involves many phases.
The mining and processing of China Clay (Kaolin) begins with exploration.
Quality First
Exploration & Sampling
When China Clay (Kaolin) deposits are encountered, core samples of the deposits are extracted and sent to a laboratory for testing. Thousands of acres are drilled and thousands of feet of sample are tested to yield a handful of acceptable mining sites. The samples are analyzed to determine the quality and extent of the deposits.
China Clay (Kaolin) quality varies widely from deposit to deposit – and even within the same deposit. Once mined, the crude China Clay (Kaolin) is hauled to a stockpile, where the processing journey begins.
Logistics
Transporting
Clay is brought from the pit to a plant by truck, where it is processed for finished product to different specified grades.
Water Washed Process
Process
Our water-washed process transforms crude China Clay (Kaolin) into high-quality industrial grades through controlled blunging, degritting, separation, brightness enhancement, drying, and packing.
Step 01
Blunging
The China Clay (kaolin) is mixed with water to create milk-shake-like slurry. Slurry is simply the water and dispersed clay mixture, which puts the clay particles in suspension.
Step 02
De-gritting
The slurried China Clay (kaolin) is usually transported through pipelines to degritting facilities, where sand, mica and other impurities are extracted with the help of gravity.
Step 03
Solid-Liquid Separation
We feed 35–40% solid concentration slurry into the filter press by stroke pumps to separate water out of slurry. Due to stickiness of the clay we go up to 8 kg/cm² pressure. After formation of clay cake the moisture content varies from 20–25%.
Step 04
Filtering & Brightness Enhancement
With both the fine and coarse China Clay (kaolin) particle fractions, brightness is enhanced through one or more processes which remove iron, titanium, organic, and other undesirable materials.
Step 05
Drying
The wet cake having moisture 8–12% comes in contact with hot drying air in the cage mill and gets conveyed to cyclone through dryer flash ducts. Water evaporation is around 8% to 10%. Final product is around 1–1.5% moisture and size is granules cum powder.
The dried material gets conveyed to cyclone separator and discharged through rotary airlock valve. Granules cum powder are then passed through pulverizer as required. Fines are passed to bag filter and discharged through rotary air lock valves.
Step 06
Powdering & Packing
After sun drying we break the cakes into small sizes (max 5″) or powder as per customer requirement. We make powder by hammer grinding mill.
