Thiele Kaolin Company

Robert A Lowe

Prakash B Malla

Cesar I Basilio

Joseph C Shi

Jorge L Yordan

Chris B Maxwell

Lee Ann Arrington-Webb

Amy C Semratedu

Owen E Etheridge, Jr

Charles Lamar Williams

A improved process for beneficiating kaolin clays to remove discoloring impurities is disclosed. The beneficiation of kaolin clay is improved by fractionating a kaolin clay starting material into a lower brightness first fraction having a majority of the discoloring impurities and a higher brightness second fraction with less impurities. The first fraction is then beneficiated (such as by flotation, selection flocculation, high intensity magnetic separation and/or leaching) to produce a kaolin clay product with improved optical properties. The first and second fractions may be combined to produce a product with improved optical properties.

Process for beneficiating kaolin clays

A process which uses selective flocculation with hydroxamates for the beneficiation of mixtures of mineral particles (such as kaolin clays). The increased selectivity of hydroxamates for certain mineral phases within kaolin clays and other mixtures of mineral particles improves the process over selective flocculation processes utilizing other activators.

Beneficiation with selective flocculation using hydroxamates

Clay materials, such as kaolin, containing expandable layer-silicates are chemically treated with a source of magnesium cations, followed by a pH adjustment, to provide a slurry product having improved rheological properties.

Process for the treatment of clay materials to provide slurries having

A kaolin clay slurry having a reduced viscosity is manufactured by a process which comprises the sequential steps of mechanically working an undispersed crude kaolin clay material having a solids content of at least about 65 percent, by weight, under conditions which insure that the kaolin clay material will be subjected to an energy level of at least 10 horsepower-hours per ton of dry kaolin clay material and then subjecting the mechanically worked kaolin clay material to centrifugation to substantially remove any particles having a diameter less than about 0.2 microns.

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Milledgeville, GA, United States of America

Robert A Lowe