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Talc’s green aspect

January 24, 2010 - 00:00 GMT

KEYWORDS: Luzenac , talc , Mistron , carbon , rubber

Luzenac’s microcrystalline talc, Mistron®, has been developed for partial replacement of carbon black in rubber compounds

Luzenac operates a number of talc mines and processing facilities throughout Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America. Its talc mines in Montana, USA, produce very pure talc, which is processed to make Rio Tinto Minerals’ Mistron®  talc grades.

Microcrystalline Mistron®

From a total world production of around 7.5m. tpa, around 500,000 tpa of talc is used as a mineral filler in polymer products. Owing to its lamellar particle shape, talc is considered to be an excellent reinforcing agent in plastics and rubber products. Although global consumption of talc is still primarily for paper markets (ie. filler, pitch control), its biggest growth sector is polymers.

Generally, talc volumes in polymer applications have been growing year-on-year throughout the last decade, and increasingly the sales values of polymer products have been higher than those for paper.

Part of talc’s growing polymer use is in response to environmental...

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