Resumen de On the slate

Industrial Minerals

• growing demand for industrial slate products from the construction industry, which has seen a surge of activity in the last three years, coupled with relatively inflexible processing capacity at most slate quarries, indicates tighter supply conditions and upward pressure on prices. According to Cupa Pizarras, competition from Chinese and Brazilian lithostatic slates is not as strong as it used to be, at least in Europe, as these slates lack the durability for effective long-term roofing cover, unlike Welsh and Spanish tectonic slates. [...]from an environmental perspective, slate aggregates and minerals are a by-product of the production of roofing and other dimensional stone. Slate offcuts are typically stored in dumps at the quarries, which are inhospitable to vegetation due to their poor water holding capacity and limited nutrient supply, but the team from Universities of Santiago de Compostela and Vigo found that by covering slate dumps with a layer of SPF and organic supplements can help reduce their adverse properties and promote revegetation. “Since the electrical conductivity and pH of the SPF are in the range which is tolerable by plants, and the quantities of heavy metals are under the thresholds of toxicity, they could be used for (…) successful reclamation,” the report’s authors stated.