Kaolin uses
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Kaolin Capital of the World
Fortunately for Washington County, a new industry emerged just as cotton was declining. Mining for kaolin, white clay used in hundreds of products including paper, paint, plastics, ceramics, food, and medicines, began in Middle Georgia in the early 1900s.
The origin of kaolin can be traced to the Cretaceous geologic period, about 70 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth and much of the southern half of Georgia was covered by a great sea. During that period the climate was more tropical than now. The seacoast stretched across Georgia from Columbus to Macon to Augusta along a line that we now call the "Fall Line. About 50-56 million years ago the weathering of the rocks of Piedmont generated large volumes of kaolinitic clays, quartz sand, and mica, as well as minor amounts of other minerals, especially iron and titanium oxides, such as limonite and anatase. Feldspar, a major component of granitic rocks such as those at Stone Mountain near Atlanta, is considered the parent material for most of Georgia's sedimentary kaolin.
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Kaolinite
Phyllosilicate clay mineral
"Kaolin" redirects here. For other uses, see Kaolin (disambiguation).
See also: Aluminium silicate
| Kaolinite | |
|---|---|
| Category | Phyllosilicates Kaolinite-serpentine group |
| Formula (repeating unit) | Al2Si2O5(OH)4, or in oxide notation: Al2O3·2SiO2·2H2O |
| IMA symbol | Kln[1] |
| Strunz classification | 9.ED.05 |
| Crystal system | Triclinic |
| Crystal class | Pedial (1) (same H-M symbol) |
| Space group | P1 |
| Unit cell | a = 5.13 Å, b = 8.89 Å c = 7.25 Å; α = 90° β = 104.5°, γ = 89.8°; Z = 2 |
| Color | White to cream, sometimes red, blue or brown tints from impurities and pale-yellow; also often stained various hues, tans and browns being common. |
| Crystal habit | Rarely as crystals, thin plates or stacked. More commonly as microscopic pseudohexagonal plates and clusters of plates, aggregated into compact, claylike masses. |
| Cleavage | Perfect on {001} |
| Tenacity | Flexible but inelastic |
| Mohs scalehardness | 2–2.5 |
| Luster | Pearly to dull earthy |
| Streak | White |
Specific
KaolinKaolin is one of Georgia’s largest natural resources. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, more than 8 million metric tons of kaolin are mined from Georgia each year, with an estimated value of more than $1 billion. Georgia is by far the leading clay-producing state in America and is recognized as a world leader in the mining, production, processing, and application of kaolin products. The word kaolin is derived from the name of the Chinese town Kao-Ling (or Gaoling, “high ridge”), located in the Jiangxi Province of southeast China, where the written description of porcelain can be found. The word kaolin is now used as a loose trade and geologic term to refer to white clayey rock that is predominantly composed of Kaolin Group (khandite) minerals. The most common constituent is the mineral kaolinite. Kaolinite is a layered silocate made of alternating sheets of octahedrally coordinated aluminum and tetrahedrally coordinated silicon that are bonded by hydroxyl groups. Kaolinite is represented by the chemical formula Al2Si2O5(OH)4, and it most oft Copyright ©aimbomb.pages.dev 2025 | |