How Australia's silica industry is growing without fracking

• Autores: Industrial Minerals
• Localización: Industrial Minerals, ISSN 0019-8544, Nº. 583, 2016 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Mayo)
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Australia's silica sand industry has been well established for several decades, with much of its output going into traditional markets such as construction, glass and foundry. Unlike the US, where the fracking industry has expanded rapidly in the last five years to drive silica sand consumption in oilfields, growth in demand for silica Australia has been spread across a wide variety of markets, including a number of high value applications for quartz sand and silicon metal.

    Silica is also mined at Belgium-headquartered Sibelco SA's North Stradbroke Island project, Earth Commodies Ltd's Coonarr Creek deposit, South Pacific Sands' Ningi Sands deposit and at Solar Silicon Resources Group Ltd's (SSRG) Lighthouse lump silica quartz mine. SSRG also holds the non-operational Mourilyan Sand deposit, which contains silica sand suitable for use in LCD and speciality glass manufacture.

    South Australia has two operating silica mines, Glenshera and 23-Mile. In 2013, production of glass and foundry sand in South Australia was 476,000 tonnes, predominantly from Glenshera, which is located near Willunga, south of Adelaide. Unimin Australia, which is part of Sibelco, operates the former ACI silica sand pit at Glenshera. Production of silica sand commenced in 1987 and replaced ACI's former beach dune sand mining operation at Normanville. The mine supplies Australia's largest container glass plant at Croydon, Adelaide.