Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
College of Engineering
Legazpi City
Clays
Submitted by:
GROUP 8
Julius Banez
Renier Villar
Sarah Mae Ajon
Dailyn Nivero
BSEM – 3
Submitted to:
Clay is a common name for a number of fine-grained, earthy materials that become
plastic when wet. Chemically, clays are hydrous aluminum silicates, ordinarily containing
impurities, e.g., potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, or iron, in small amounts.
The term 'clay' has been used in several ways: (1) to designate very fine grained
particles of less than 0.004mm diameter, (2) as a rock composed essentially of clay minerals
and (3) as a mineral group known as 'clay minerals'. As a rock, it is composed of materials
which are earthy in appearance and composed mainly of extremely fine grained mineral
particles.
Properties of the clays include plasticity (malleable and capable of being molded into
any form when moistened with water), shrinkage under firing and under air drying, fineness of
grain, color after firing, hardness, cohesion, and capacity of the surface to take decoration.
Most have the ability to soak up ions from a solution and release the ions later when conditions
change.
Water molecules are strongly attracted to clay mineral surfaces. When a little clay is
added to water, a slurry forms because the clay distributes itself evenly throughout the water.
This property of clay is used by the paint industry to disperse pigment (color) evenly throughout
a paint. Without clay to act as a carrier, it would be difficult to evenly mix the paint base and
color pigment. A mixture of a lot of clay and a little water results in a mud that can be shaped
and dried to form a relatively rigid solid.
Another important property of clay minerals, the ability to exchange ions, relates to the
charged surface of clay minerals. Ions can be attracted to the surface of a clay particle or taken
up within the structure of these minerals. The property of clay minerals that causes ions in
solution to be fixed on clay surfaces or within internal sites applies to all types of ions, including
organic molecules like pesticides. Clays can be an important vehicle for transporting and widely
dispersing contaminants from one area to another.
Individual clay particles are always smaller than 0.004 mm. Clays often form colloidal
suspensions when immersed in water, but the clay particles flocculate (clump) and settle quickly
in saline water. Clays are easily molded into a form that they retain when dry, and they become
hard and lose their plasticity when subjected to heat.
Commoner Varieties
The commoner varieties of clay and clay rocks are china clay, or kaolin; pipe clay,
similar to kaolin, but containing a larger percentage of silica; potter's clay, not as pure as pipe
clay; sculptor's clay, or modeling clay, a fine potter's clay, sometimes mixed with fine sand;
brick clay, an admixture of clay and sand with some ferruginous (iron-containing) matter; fire
clay, containing little or no lime, alkaline earth, or iron (which act as fluxes), and hence infusible
or highly refractory; shale; loam; and marl.
Formation
Clays and clay minerals occur under a fairly limited range of geologic conditions. The
environments of formation include soil horizons, continental and marine sediments, geothermal
fields, volcanic deposits, and weathering rock formations. Most clay minerals form where rocks
are in contact with water, air, or steam. Examples of these situations include weathering
boulders on a hillside, sediments on sea or lake bottoms, deeply buried sediments containing
pore water, and rocks in contact with water heated by magma (molten rock). All of these
environments may cause the formation of clay minerals from preexisting minerals. Extensive
alteration of rocks to clay minerals can produce relatively pure clay deposits that are of
economic interest (for example, bentonite ‹primarily montmorillonite ‹used for drilling muds and
clays used in ceramics).
Uses
The plastic clays are used for making pottery of all kinds, bricks and tiles, tobacco pipes,
firebricks, and other products. As a building material, it is used in the form of brick , either sun-
dried (adobe) or fired. Clays are also of great industrial importance, e.g., in the manufacture
of tile for wall and floor coverings, of porcelain, china, and earthenware, and of pipe for drainage
and sewage. Highly absorbent, bentonite is much used in foundry work for facing the molds and
preparing the molding sands for casting metals. The less absorbent bentonites are used chiefly
in the oil industry, e.g., as filtering and deodorizing agents in the refining of petroleum and,
mixed with other materials, as drilling muds to protect the cutting bit while drilling. Other uses
are in the making of fillers, sizings, and dressings in construction, in clarifying water and wine, in
purifying sewage, and in the paper, ceramics, plastics, and rubber industries.
Clay as a Soil
Clay is one of the three principal types of soil, the other two being sand and loam. A
certain amount of clay is a desirable constituent of soil, since it binds other kinds of particles
together and makes the whole retentive of water. Excessively clayey soils, however, are
exceedingly difficult to cultivate. Their stiffness presents resistance to implements, impedes the
growth of the plants, and prevents free circulation of air around the roots. They are cold and
sticky in wet weather, while in dry weather they bake hard and crack. Clods form very often in
clayey soils. Clays can be improved by the addition of lime, chalk, or organic matter; sodium
nitrate, however, intensifies the injurious effects. In spite of their disadvantages, the richness of
clay soils makes them favorable to the growth of crops that have been started in other soil.
II. Types and Classifications of Clay
On the basis of such qualities clays are variously divided into classes or groups; products are
generally made from mixtures of clays and other substances.
The dominant minerals in a clay are usually layer silicates and fine silica (quartz),
together with smaller amounts of iron sulphides and oxides, titanium minerals, various
carbonates, and organic matter. The layer silicates (phyllosilicates) can be classified into
various groups, according to their chemical composition and the layer structure of their crystal
lattice. The layers are composed of various combinations of tetrahedral silica sheets and
octahedral hydrated aluminium oxide sheets, frequently with appreciable amounts of potassium,
calcium, magnesium, sodium, and iron.
Kaolinite Al2Si2O5(OH)4
Figure 1: Authigenic kaolinite plates covering a quartz grain overgrown with authigenic quartz. SEM image of a core
sample.
Montmorillonite (Na,Ca)0,3(Al,Mg)2Si4O10(OH)2•n(H2O)
Figure 3: Authigenic smectite (montmorillonite) overgrown on pore spaces and authigenicly-overgrown quartz grains in a
sandstone. SEM image of a core sample.
Illite (K,H3O)(Al,Mg,Fe)2(Si,Al)4O10[(OH)2,(H2O)]
- any group of clay minerals having essentially the crystal structure of muscovite. Its
other names were Gumbelite, Hydromica and Hydromuscovite.
Figure 6: Wispy, authigenic illite crystals lining a pore space in sandstone. SEM image from a core sample.
Some phyllosilicate particles are composite alternations of different clay minerals. When
mica occurs in fine-grained form in a clay it is usually referred to as illiteor clay mica and is
similar in composition to muscovite, but there is usually some substitution of hydroxyl ions into
the lattice. There are many other clay minerals, including chlorite, vermiculite, and various
chain silicates such as pyrophyllite, some of which are valuable industrial materials.
Types of Clay:
Residual clay comes directly from gradual weathering of rock into very fine particles.
The particles become mixed with water and material from the surrounding soil. Residual
clays are most commonly formed by surface weathering, which gives rise to clay in three
ways:
Sedimentary clay is formed when particles of weathered rocks are carried from the
place in which they were formed, usually by streams of water, and deposited in another
place. It occurs in layers.
1. Kaolin is a fine white clay consisting chiefly of the mineral kaolinite. The purest clays are
the china clays and kaolins.
Figure 8: Washed Kaolin Clay
The kaolin group of clay minerals includes kaolinite and halloysite, both of which
are hydrated aluminium silicates. Kaolinite has a simple layer structure; a kaolinite layer
is composed of one tetrahedral sheet combined with one octahedral sheet. Clays
predominantly composed of kaolinite are commercially known as ‘kaolin’.
The name comes from the Chinese “Gaoling,” a reference to a mountain which
provided a source of the raw mineral. The Chinese used this mineral to produce their
famously fine porcelain, and when European explorers were introduced to Chinese
ceramics, many of them remarked on the delicate quality of Chinese ceramic work. This
was made by possible by kaolin, a material that Europeans were not familiar with, and
European ceramicists spent centuries trying to replicate the techniques used in China to
produce porcelain.
Applications
One of the most widespread uses of kaolin today is in paper manufacturing. The
mineral is used to coat and fill paper, and the paper industry demands huge volumes of
it annually. Varying levels of kaolin can be used to change the texture and appearance
of paper products.
The raw china clay is subject to a refining process including spiral classification,
hydrocycloning, deflocculation, bleaching and finally drying, micronizing, air-classification
and surface treatment.
Figure 11: Hydraulic excavators, bucket-wheel excavators and wheel loaders are used in the excavation process.
The unrefined soil is transported to the refinery or to the slagheaps by means of dumper trucks, conveyor belts
or winches.
Kaolin extraction has traditionally been by hydraulic mining in which high
pressure jets of water are used to disaggregate the weak, kaolinised granite and
dispersed the Kaolinite particles, together with the other components of the granite into a
slurry. Ripping, drilling and blasting of the granite are also used to improve yields and
unkaolinised material is removed for tipping, although some is processed into aggregate.
More recently, ‘dry’ mining has been introduced. This allows more selective extraction
and improved yields. The kaolinised granite is extracted by shovel and truck and is
transported to a primary screening process to remove large oversize material. The
undersize is disaggregated by high pressure jets of water for subsequent processing in
the conventional way.
Separation of the fine kaolinite particles from the coarser waste, consisting
mainly of quartz, unaltered feldspar and mica, is by a series of wet refining techniques.
Additional techniques are used to improve the brightness (whiteness) and particle size of
specific grades of clay. These include blending, fine grinding, chemical reductive
bleaching and/or the removal of iron-bearing impurities using superconducting magnets.
Some clays are also calcined at specific temperatures to give different products.
The ultimate disposal of the waste products has been a major problem because
of the large areas that are required and the visual impact. However, about 40
abandoned pits have been backfilled where this has not affected researves or the
requirements for water holding areas. As the surface extent of workings reach their
practical limits surface tipping is giving way in favor of backfilling.
2. Ball clay contains kaolinite and certain micas, and has strong bonding properties. It is a
name for a group of plastic, refractory (high-temperature) clays used with other clays to
improve their plasticity and to increase their strength.
Ball clays are sedimentary rocks, usually laid down in fresh water, which are
composed of a special type of kaolinite known as b-axis disordered, together with clay
mica (illite), which gives the clay good plasticity and strength, making it particularly
suitable for ceramics. Fireclays have a similar mineral composition to ball clays, but are
generally less pure and lack plasticity and strength. Large quantities of fireclay were
formerly used in the iron and steel industry, but nowadays their main use is for making
bricks and sanitary ware. Halloysite has the same basic layer configuration as kaolinite,
but the layers are rolled up into scrolls. Deposits of halloysite are valued for use in high-
quality ceramics, such as porcelain.
Ball clay is an extremely rare mineral found in very few places around the
world. Its name dates back to the early methods of mining when specialized hand tools
were used to extract the clay in rough cube shapes of about 30 cm. As the corners were
knocked through handling and storage these cubes became rounded and ‘ball’
shaped. It also is sometimes referred to as plastic clay.
Figure 12: Ball Clay Ore from Turkey
Applications
A vital material in ceramics - Ball clays are used in many different industries, but in
particular form a vital component in ceramic manufacturing. Kaolin (‘china clay’)
produces a very white color when it is fired, but used alone it is brittle and weak and
must be mixed with ball clay to produce a workable, malleable raw material. As a result
of their sedimentary origin, raw ball clays have a wide range of colors. However, many
of them are valued by the ceramics industry for their white-firing properties, which are
determined by the levels of iron and other coloring/fluxing oxides within the clay.
Wall and floor tiles: Combined with talc, feldspar, quartz/silica and kaolin, ball clays are
utilized for their plasticity and bonding properties.
Glazes and engobes: Ball clays are also used in the
production of coatings for ceramic products to ensure the
perfect finish.
A rare coincidence of geological conditions was required to form and preserve the ball
clay deposits:
2) erosion of these rocks into fresh or brackish water 'traps' for the ultra fine particles
before they could be washed out to sea;
Over the centuries there has been an evolution in the methods used to extract
the valuable seams of ball clay. The methods varied slightly between the three areas of
production. They are summarised below and then described in more detail.
Small open pits - the natural development of shallow trenches, which grew in size when
pumping techniques improved in the 19th century.
Square pits - a development of small open pits in South Devon, England enabling clays
to be worked at a greater depth
Shaft mining (underground) - widely adopted from the second half of the 19th century
Inclined shafts (underground) - a variant of shaft mining adopted in North Devon,
England from the end of the 19th century until the 1960s
Adit or Inclined tunnel mining (underground) - came into use in the 1930s and
adopted in place of most shaft mining from the 1950s to the 1990s
Large scale opencast working - progressively replaced all underground mining during
the second half of the 20th century: the only method after 1999.
A. Shallow Trenches
The tenant farmers who first found clay under their fields dug it with whatever
farm implements came to hand. As time went by special techniques and tools were
developed to work the clay. Despite some local variations, they were broadly similar in
each of the three production areas.
The basic system was to dig a shallow trench. After removing unwanted
overlying material called 'overburden' (or 'head' or 'ridding'), the 'claycutters' cut the
exposed floor of clean plastic clay into a criss-cross pattern of 9 inch (23 cm) squares
using heavy iron spades with 4 inch (10 cm) wide blades known as 'thirting' (or
'thwirting') irons. Following this, another claycutter used a weighty, ash-handled tool like
a wide-bladed pick or mattock called a 'lumper' to undercut each square to a depth of 9
inches (23 cm) and lever out the resultant cube of clay weighing about 36lbs (16.3 kilos):
70 balls made a 'tally' of 221/2 hundredweight (1.14 tonnes). The claycutters dipped their
tools into a bucket of water to lubricate the cutting. A tool called a 'poge' - a curved iron
spike set into a stout pole - was then used to pitch the cubes up the stepped sides of the
pit to the surface and onto a packhorse or cart. A lighter version of the lumper known as
a 'tubil' or 'tubal' was used to trim the working. In this way the whole floor area was
removed to reveal the next layer for extraction.
Figure 18: An open pit showing cubes of ball clay
being cut vertically using a thirting iron (central
figure), undercut using a lumper (right figure,
partly concealed) and loaded into a wagon using a
poge (left figure), c. 1930
surface and not overlain by too much overburden. Neatly terraced slopes were a feature
of the best of these pits. However percolating groundwater and rainwater tended to
cause open pits to flood, and their depth and area were therefore limited by the capacity
of pumps to dispose of the water. Hand operated elm-barrelled pumps with a maximum
lift of 15 feet (4.6 metres) were used originally, and although it was possible to have a
series of pumps each with such a 'lift', it was not until the introduction of Cornish plunger
pumps towards the end of the 19th century that open pits were developed to any great
depth.
The ground water and rain that tended to cause open pits to flood also caused
their soft sides to subside. To control subsidence timber began to be used. This
developed in South Devon into a system of excavating a sequence of 'square pits' that
were timber lined and braced. After trial and error
the optimum size was found to be 18 to 24 feet
(5.5 to 7.3 metres) square. These square pits
could then be dug to a depth of 50 feet (15.2
metres) with a series of pumping 'lifts' and ladders,
but for a long time only the clay within the pit area
was worked. About 12 feet (3.7 metres) of solid
ground was left unworked between them and the
Figure 19: Diagram showing timber supports
for a square pit waste from one pit was used to backfill another.
To relieve the strenuous labour of manually lifting the clay and waste to the
surface, a wooden crane of a type unique to the ball clay industry called a 'crab' would
be erected beside the square pit to hoist the clay and waste to the surface in an elm
bucket. The crab was a pivoting 'gallows' type crane held in place by two legs called 'tie
backs'. Hand winches or horse drawn winches (known as 'whims') were used to raise
and lower the buckets.
Each square pit produced a few hundred tonnes of the several types of clay
through which the pit was sunk. Most were worked for just a few months until incoming
water became too much for the hand pumps. Whilst shallow open pits remained the
principal means of extracting stoneware clays, the square pit system was used to win
the more valuable potters' clays that were typically found at a greater depth.
Figure 20: Head of shaft mine showing a 'crab'
crane and an elevated timber ramp known as a
'high back'. The pivoted arm with a ring at the
end, called a 'mouse', is a safety device to prevent
the bucket being 'overwound', c. 1950
of material to be dug to reach it, which meant changing from digging a wide square pit to
digging a vertical shaft wide enough simply to accommodate the bucket, ladders and
pump lines.
By the 1870's underground shaft mining was enabling large quantities of deeper
clays to be worked in all three production areas. By the end of the century the availability
of Cornish pumps did away with the depth limitations of hand pumps. As a result, shafts
could then be used to extract potters' clays at a depth of 50 to 150 feet (15 to 46 metres)
- the greatest depth reached being 200 feet (61 metres) - whilst square pits and open
pits remained in use to work the shallower stoneware clays.
Typical cross section dimensions of the shafts were 9 feet x 4 ½ feet (2.75 x 1.37
metres) and 13 feet x 6 feet (3.96 x 1.83 metres). The horizontal frames of larch
supporting the sides of the shafts were separated vertically by timber 'studdles' between
which boards and 'vraiths' or 'wreathes' of sedge grass or heather were rammed to hold
back the sands through which the shafts were frequently driven. The shafts were divided
into two compartments, one for hoisting by means of a crab and one for the access
ladders and pump lines.
Because of the poor ventilation, normally only four miners at a time worked
underground. A miner at each of two 'headings' cut the clay with a tubil. Another miner in
each heading barrowed the clay down the drive to the base of the shaft using a heavy-
duty elm wheelbarrow, typically carrying about 3 hundredweight (136 kg). The miners
worked in what were, by modern standards, appallingly unsafe conditions - by
candlelight and sometimes ankle deep in water. In many mines there was the ever-
present threat of a sudden water inrush and the ignition of 'fire damp' methane gases.
Nevertheless, records of serious accidents (as distinct from singed eyebrows!) are
surprisingly rare.
The 'top-ganger' - who was in charge of the gang working in the mine - operated
the crab at the top of the shaft. The buckets carrying about 7 hundredweight (317 kg) of
mined clay or waste were hoisted by wire ropes connected via overhead pulleys to
steam engines or, later, DC electric motors in remote winch or drum houses that served
several mines. Water wheels and turbines powered some Cornish pumps and hoists.
The ganger controlled his rope hoist by means of a lever and long pull wire connected to
a drum in the winch house, which he could engage against a continuously revolving
shaft. Clay from the hoisted bucket was discharged into wagons. A 'top trammer' was
responsible for the haulage of the wagons (by wire ropes from the winch house) up
elevated timber ramps known as 'high backs' and the discharge of the clay and waste
into separate heaps. The screeching of the ubiquitous wire ropes in their pulleys was the
characteristic noise of the ball clay works.
Several companies established their own sawmills (replacing earlier saw pits) for
the specialised cutting of the considerable quantities of mining timber that were required.
One company even became involved in forestry. Skills such as those of the blacksmith
(who forged the claycutters' tools), carpenter and rope splicer were essential in support
of the claycutters. The claycutters' work - both in the pits and underground - was
extremely arduous. Considerable physical strength was required to extract and man
handle the clay, often in soaking wet conditions. A miner's pay depended on the tonnage
produced by him and his gang (so-called 'piecework'), but the pay was generally good so
that, for generations, sons followed their fathers down the mines. Strength of character,
prodigious cyder consumption and powerful tug of war teams were characteristic of the
claycutters - as was rheumatism!
By the end of the 19th century shafts in North Devon were being sunk with a
steep incline of 75 degrees from the horizontal, enabling wagons to run underground
and be hauled to the surface on rails in the shafts. The tunnels of the North Devon Clay
Co. were lined with bricks made at the adjacent Marland brickworks.
Figure 22: This photograph shows the inclined shafts at Peters
Marland, North Devon c. 1900, showing head frames, mining wagons
and stockpiles of clay adjacent to the three foot gauge railway.
In the 1920's and 1930's some of the clay companies experimented with new
working techniques and equipment. Advances were made by The Devon & Courtenay
Clay Co. in the technique of sinking shafts through waterlogged sands, using techniques
developed in the trenches of the First World War. This permitted hitherto inaccessible
reserves to be worked. Devon & Courtenay in South Devon and the Meeth Clay
Company in North Devon drove the first primitive 'adit' mines to follow seams from the
bottom of existing pits. Steel arches were introduced in Meeth to support the main
drives. In 1929 The Newton Abbot Clays introduced the first steam excavator. Draglines
were also introduced, potentially allowing the removal of greater thicknesses of
overburden.
G. Adit Mining
'Adit' or 'Inclined Tunnel' mining, which had been introduced in the 1930's, largely
replaced vertical shaft mining during the 1950's and 1960's. Pairs of tunnels in South
Devon and single tunnels in Dorset were driven into the ground at a shallow angle
following a particular seam from close to its outcrop to a considerable depth. A retreat
method of working was then followed. Rails were laid in the drives so that wagons
winched from a surface gantry could be used to haul the clay underground - replacing
wheelbarrows - up to the surface.
To maintain ground support over the years and in view of the increased tunnel
size, the main drives were supported either by squared timbers or by steel arches or
rings with timber backing boards. During the 1960's, leading up to the Queen's Award for
technical innovation, the adit system was greatly improved with the introduction in South
Devon of hydraulic mining machines (that greatly reduced the use of pneumatic
spaders), of submersible pumps and of steel wagons with automatic tipping at the
surface.
Due to its labour- and timber-intensive nature and the high cost of safety
measures, underground mining was very expensive. As the mechanisation of opencast
working progressed, underground mining became increasingly uneconomic, except to
extract seams of the highest value that lay too deep for current opencast workings to
reach.
Having been the principal means of working for most of the industry's history,
underground production was completely replaced by opencast working in North Devon
by the mid 1970's and reduced steadily in South Devon and Dorset during the 1980's
and 90's when the company sawmills were closed, until the last ball clay mines closed in
1999. Nowadays all production is from progressively larger and deeper pits using
powerful hydraulic excavators and dumpers.
Figure 28: Systematic opencast working in Westbeare Pit, North Devon in 1989 using hydraulic excavators and
articulated dumpers running on movable concrete sleeper roads. The clay seams are being individually selected
and taken by dumper to separate lump clay storage bays.
Processing
At the beginning of the 21st century, about 75% of ball clay production is sold in
shredded and blended form, almost 10% in powdered form and over 15% is refined.
Less than 1% is sold 'as dug'. Process control has become an essential skill of ball clay
production.
Employment Relationships
Enormous changes in working methods
occurred in the ball clay industry in the second
half of the 20th century - especially during the
1960's. Highly regarded 'productivity
agreements' provided for these changes to be
accompanied by the adoption of progressive
employment practices, for which the
companies became well known. These
included the replacement of piecework and
overtime pay systems by 'staff' conditions of
Figure 32: An X‐ray diffractometer being used to
employment for all employees, with fixed rates indentify the minerals, such as kaolinite, illite and
of pay and hours of work, pensions and sick quartz, in a sample of ball clay. This and other
pay. They were combined with systematic chemical and physical tests are carried out to
monitor the properties of each seam of clay
training and great emphasis both on health and
safety and on employee communication and
involvement. The success of these arrangements depended on the high degree of trust
that developed between management and employees.
The history of ball clay is bound up with the development of canals, railways and
shipping which have all played a vital part in transporting clays economically to
customers.
The main outlets for ball clay in North Devon were Bideford Quay and, for a
period, Fremington Quay on the Taw estuary. The first recorded shipments of tobacco
pipe clay from Bideford were in the 1650's. However, after the initial century or more of
activity, the high cost of the packhorse journey from the pits at Peters Marland (relative
to transport costs in South Devon and Dorset) seems to have led to the closure of the
works in the early 19th century. The situation was improved by the construction in 1827
of Lord John Rolle's Canal up to Torrington. It was transformed in 1881 when the
eminent railway engineer, J.B. Fell, commissioned by Marland Brick & Clay Works Ltd.,
completed a 3-foot (91cm) gauge light railway from Peters Marland to Torrington -
including a remarkable wooden viaduct over the River Torridge.
Figure 36: Three foot gauge North Devon railway at Peters Marland in the 1920s, alongside the headgear of
inclined shafts. The Fletcher Jennings locomotive came from a breakwater scheme at St Helier in 1908
Eventually, in 1925, a standard gauge railway was built along the course of the
narrow gauge one, enabling clays from both Peters Marland and Meeth to be shipped
out of the rail-connected
Fremington Quay until the
closure of the line to clay traffic
in 1982. Now, once again,
Bideford Quay is regularly used
for clay shipments.
Figure 38: Clay being loaded into the hold of a vessel at
Teignmouth c. 1985. The lorry tips the clay onto an enclosed
conveyor to minimise dust. For many years Teignmouth has
been the major port for ball clay shipments.
workings were finished the land was either restored to farmland or it was abandoned. In
the latter case the pits themselves quickly filled with water and the surrounding areas
soon re-vegetated. This resulted in the creation of havens for many species of
increasingly rare flora and fauna - notably dragonflies and butterflies. Several of the old
workings have become nature reserves managed by the Devon Wildlife Trust and have
been the subject of TV films by Peter Scott and Andrew Cooper. Others have become
ponds and lakes for amenity, coarse fishing and boating. The best examples are the
famous 'Blue Pool' near Wareham and Decoy Lake in Newton Abbot, which also have
nature trails open to visitors.
Since the merging of the 15 ball clay companies into two by the end of the
1960's, workings have been rationalised and fewer, much larger, pits have been
developed. The industry was amongst the first to take measures to mitigate the
inevitable impact that its workings have on the environment, and tip design and
landscaping continue to improve within the framework of long term plans agreed with the
local planning authorities.
In far-sighted recognition
of ball clay's national importance
and scarcity, special planning
safeguards against the
sterilisation of ball clay reserves
by housing and other
development have been in place
since 1953. However the
balance to be struck between the
interests of working an
internationally rare and useful
mineral where it lies and Figure 39: The Blue Pool at Furzebrook, near Wareham a tourist
preserving the existing local attraction for over 60 years based on a ball clay pit started by Pike
Brothers c.1840. Image courtesy Miss Jenner Barnard
e
n
vironment has become an increasingly
prominent issue, especially in Dorset,
where the deposits lie in areas with some of
the highest landscape and nature
designations.
Earliest Uses
It is generally accepted that Dorset ball clays - and probably Devon ball clays too
- have been used since Roman times to make crude pottery. However it was the
introduction of tobacco to England in the 16th century by Sir Walter Raleigh and the
need for a suitable clay with which to make tobacco pipes that led to the start of the
modern ball clay trade.
Although the highly plastic ball clays were ideal for tobacco pipe manufacture,
their expansion and contraction during firing made them difficult to control in tableware
manufacture. Most pottery was made with easy-to-use local coloured clays. By the 17th
century it was common for jugs, bowls and other tableware made with these clays to be
covered with either a thick white glaze (as in Delft ware) or a white clay slip coating.
From at least the 1650's potters in Bideford were using a white slip of North Devon ball
clay and scratching designs through the white slip, exposing the coloured body beneath.
Shipments of Dorset tobacco pipe clays from Poole were significant by the
1630's and were the port's most important cargo for most of the 17th and 18th centuries,
especially to London and many south coast ports. By 1662 the trade had become
sufficiently important for an Act to be passed forbidding the export of pipe clays to
foreign countries. Shipments of North Devon clay through Bideford were also important
in this period, especially to pipe manufacturers in Bristol, but shipments of South Devon
clays seem to have been relatively small until the middle of the 18th century.
Whilst the Chinese learnt how to make fine white porcelain many centuries ago, it
was only in the 18th century that European potters learnt how to make good quality
white-bodied pottery. They had to overcame the difficulties of using white firing plastic
'tobacco pipe' clays, and had to both discover and learn how to use china clays with little
plasticity.
Coade Stone
One of the lesser-known early applications of ball clay was in the production of a
high-grade ceramic known as Coade Stone. This was first produced in London in 1770
by a Mrs Coade from Lyme Regis. It was an architectural ceramic of high artistic and
technical quality that has been found to be an exceptionally durable, artificial 'stone' for
building decoration and statuary. Examples include friezes on Buckingham Palace, fan
vaulting in St George's Chapel, Windsor and the Lion Statue on Waterloo Bridge. A
recent detailed scientific analysis of the 'stone' has confirmed that ball clays from Devon
or Dorset were the major component, together with pre-fired clay. Mrs Coade died in
1825 and production had ceased by about 1840.
3. Fireclay is basically kaolinite with some iron oxides, magnesia, and alkalies. It can resist
high temperatures. Because of the abundant supply of fireclay and its comparative
cheapness, the refractory bricks made out of it are the most common and extensively
used in all places of heat generation.
Fireclays are sedimentary mudstones that occur as the ‘seatearths’ that underlie
almost all coal seams. Seatearths represent the fossil soils on which coal-forming
vegetation once grew and are distinguished from associated sediments by the presence
of rootlets and the absence of bedding. Fireclays are, therefore, mainly confined to coal-
bearing strata and are commonly named after the overlying coal seam. The term
‘fireclay’ was derived from their ability to resist heat and their original use in the
manufacture of refractories for lining furnaces. Today the term ‘fireclay’ is used to
describe seatearths that are of economic interest, irrespective of their refractory
properties. They are mainly used in the manufacture of structural clay products,
principally high-quality facing bricks. Fireclays are typically thin (normally <1 m, although
rarely >3m) and are composed of the clay minerals kaolinite and hydrous mica (illite),
together with fine-grained quartz in varying proportions; kaolinite is the key component.
Typically these three minerals make up some 90% of the rock and their relative
proportions, together with the amount of and type of impurities present (carbon, sulfur
and iron), greatly influences their ceramic properties. Fireclays are similar in basic
composition to ball clays. However, because of their much greater geological age they
are not as plastic as ball clays and they are also not as light-firing, because of a higher
iron content. These are two principal properties for which ball clays are valued.
Applications
Fire clay is a type of clay which is used in the production of heat resistant clay
items, such as the crucibles used in metals manufacturing. This type of clay is commonly
mined from areas around coal mines, although other natural deposits are also available
as potential sources, with many nations having deposits of clays suitable for use in high
temperature applications. Fire clay can also be refined and treated to make it suitable for
specialty applications.
Figure 42: Fireclay Ore
clay to reduce the risk of fire. In many settings where there are concerns about fire, fire
clay can be used.
This clay contains high percentages of alumina and silica, with minimal amounts
of trace impurities. It tends to be pale to creamy yellow in color, due to the balance
of minerals in the clay, although it can also be colored for various applications. Although
fire clay will grow sooty with use, underneath the layer of soot, the clay will remain intact.
Damage to fire clay can occur when it sustains trauma or when temperatures climb
outside its safety range.
Numerous companies make bricks and other products out of fire clay. They
specify the tolerances of their products so that people know which settings they are
appropriate for, and to help potential consumers make the best purchasing choices.
These companies can also make custom products by request for people who need
objects of a particular shape and size. For example, a metalworker might need a custom
crucible for a project.
Like other clays, this clay is highly malleable in raw form. It can be molded,
extruded, shaped by hand, and stamped. Various additives can be mixed in to make it
more coarse, and it can be ground to be smoother. Slip and scraps for fire clay
manufacturing can also be recycled, as long as they are not fired, and worked into new
batches of clay for use. Fire clay also shrinks after it has been molded and during the
firing process, which is something to be aware of when working with raw clay.
Fireclays are then normally stocked by seam, although subsequent blending with
other clays (both fireclays and other brick clays) to provide a range of properties, as well
as feedstock with consistent and predictable properties, is normal commercial practice.
For this reason it is highly desirable that a range of clays are available to the brick maker
so that bricks with different colours and textures can be produced.
Transport
The mixture is sent to the grinding mill from where it is transferred to the pug mill.
In the pug mill a suitable proportion of water is added so as to give it proper plasticity.
The mould is supplied to different machines for making standard bricks or shapes.
Intricate shapes are made by hand. The bricks thus made are then dried in hot floor
driers and after drying they are loaded in kilns for firing. The firing ranges are, of course,
different for different grades of refractories. After firing, the kilns are allowed to cool; then
the bricks are unloaded. By burning fireclay is converted into a stone-like material, highly
resistant to acid, water and most other solutions. While manufacturing high aluminous
fire-bricks bauxite is added along with grog in suitable proportions.
4. Common clay contains more impurities than fire clay, and does not have as great
resistance to heat. Common clay is a mixture of kaolin, or china clay (hydrated clay), and
the fine powder of some feldspathic mineral that is anhydrous (without water) and not
decomposed.
Figure 44: Common Clay
Common clays are usually mixtures of clay minerals such as illite, smectite, and
kaolinite, together with fine silica and other minor constituents. Interlayered clay minerals
also frequently occur. Formations such as the Oxford Clay or the London Clay typify this
type of clay. Although widespread, these clay formations are important economically, for
they provide the basic material for brickmaking and for heavy clay products such as
sewer pipes and clay floor tiles.
5. Bentonite consists largely of montmorillonite. Some types that contain sodium swell
when mixed with water. Bentonite beds usually form from altered volcanic ash, but other
types of rock may also serve as sources. They are valued for use in various applications
such as drilling mud, iron ore pelletizing and foundry use, and in civil engineering, as
well as for clarifying liquids used in the food and drink industry.
The term bentonite was first proposed by Knight in 1898 after he head originally
named this clay taylorite after the site of the original mine at the Taylor ranch near Rock
River, Wyoming. The name bentonite is from the Benton Shale, the formation within
which the clay was thought to have occurred. The Benton Shale is named after Fort
Benton, Montana, located more than 640 km to the north.
Bentonites are found in both marine and nonmarine environments ranging in age
from Jurassic to Pleistocene. These beds can be very extensive geographically, range in
thickness from several centimeters to tens of meters, and are usually parallel with the
over- and underlying strata. Bentonites also occur as small, lens-shaped deposits, Other
less common types of bentonite deposits are those that grade into unaltered host rock.
Bentonites are found in a range of colors, the most common being gray, yellow,
olive green, brown, gray-blue, and white. Bentonites have a characteristic soapy texture
and waxy appearance. Sodium bentonites often display a typical “popcorn” texture on
weathered outcrops. Weathered calcium bentonites have an “alligator skin” texture.
Figure 48: Application of
Bentonite Clay on the
Face to Prevent Acnes
Overall, global consumption follows similar trends to U. S. consumption, with the
exception that use in pet litters is less, especially in developing countries. Significant
secondary uses include water-proofing and sealing applications, animal feed additives,
oil and grease absorbents, agricultural carriers, and filtering, clarifying, and decolorizing
agents. Still, smaller specialty uses of bentonite include asphalt emulsions, catalysts,
paints, plastics, inks, greases, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals.
In the United States, mining of natural sodium bentonite began in 1888 on the
Taylor Ranch near Rock River, Wyoming, and in 1903 a mine was opened in Upton,
Wyoming, within the bentonite beds surrounding the Black Hills.
Bentonite is usually quarry mined from deposits that can range anywhere from
100 feet to several thousand feet. This depends on the health and vitality of the land it is
processed from and how far a producer will go to find the right clay with the proper
characteristics and consistency.
The most common method of mining bentonite is the open pit method. This
involves removing overlying material to expose the desired commodity, in this case
bentonite. Bulldozers, scrapers, and excavators, and often a combination of these types
of equipment, remove the overburden. In a typical bentonite mine the topsoil and subsoil
are first removed and stockpiled separately for redistribution during pit closure and land
reclamation, and the overburden is then removed. In a typical bentonite mine the topsoil
and subsoil are first removed and stockpiled separately for redistribution during pit
closure and land reclamation, and the overburden is then removed.
Although most bentonite mining uses open pit methods for extraction, some
underground mining is practiced. Underground mining methods are used extensively to
mine bentonites in Durango, Mexico, and in many locations in China.
From here it is mined from the earth and brought out into the sun to remove
excess water and moisture and, to make it easier to work with. After the initial drying
begins the final transformation. It gets processed (ground) with huge hydraulic crushers
and it then goes through the final process of micronization, or "fine granulating". This is
usually done with the assistance of sophisticated and expensive granulators. Upon
completion of this final process it gets inspected by a quality control team and is sent off
for consumer use.
Uses
Because of its
absorptive abilities fuller’s
earth was once widely used to
remove oil and grease from
natural wool prior to weaving,
a process known as fulling.
Fuller’s earth is also used in
the chemical and
Figure 51: Cat Litter
pharmaceutical industries, paper making, and agriculture (including extensive use as
animal litter.) It is also used in the manufacture of foundry mouldings and can be
processed into bentonite that has a number of applications, for example in the oil
industry. In the US, its also used to manufacture cat litters.
The fuller’s earth industry, particularly perhaps in North America, has become
accustomed to applying special terms to different properties of clays and their products.
These terms may not be familiar to those outside the industry, so some simplified
explanations may be helpful, as follows:
Clumping Clays are those clays with clumping agents or a high content of
western sodium bentonite; they have become very popular for clumping of
scoopable-type cat litter products. The bentonite absorbs liquid wastes, which
clump in discrete lumps that can be neatly scooped from the litter box, leaving
only clean litter behind. Bactericides are needed to improve long-term odor
reduction in western bentonite clumping cat litters.
Dusting Clays are those clays that are unsuitable for granular products because
they break down too finely upon crushing or during shipping, handling, or use. In
cat litters, a high dusting clay product causes mudding, tracking outside the litter
box, and a dirty cat.
Heavy or high-density clays is a term used for cat litter products that are
denser than about 40 lb/ft3. These products typically are lacking in absorption,
take up more room in the cat box, are inconvenient for the retail purchaser to
carry, and commonly do not control odors as well as lighter clays.
Gelling clays is a term for clay that have a high slurry viscosity at low percent
solids; these clays are used as thickening agent for wall-board type joint cement,
nondripping paints, drilling muds (especially palygorskite, used to maintain
circulation when drilling in brine formations), and liquid detergent, and as a fine
pulp retention aid in paper manufacture, liquid fertilizer suspensions, adhesives
and sealants, putties and glazing compounds, and other industrial applications.
Gelling viscosity is typically measured on Fann or Brookfield viscometers. Gelling
behavior and viscosity can be enhanced by extruding the moist clay to align the
needle-shaped crystallites or by adding calcined magnesium oxide.
Granular clays refers to products that are carefully crushed and screened to a
narrow range of chip sizes, often listed such as “4-20” (passing through a U. S.
Standard 4-mesh screen and retained on 20 mesh). The granule size controls
product surface area and liquid or gas absorption in the animal litter.
Slaking clays are those clays that, after drying, break down to mud when wetted
with water or oils. Slaking is a very undesirable quality in granular fuller’s earth
products because it decreases odor control and increases liquid buildup in cat
litter and causes unsafe slippery conditions when used as floor-sweep compound
type of oil absorbent product. Slaking is caused by dispersion of the surface of
the clay granules to form a slick surface, in which the clay crystallites are
uniformly negatively charged and consequently repel each other. Paradoxically,
although slaking is undesirable behavior in granular fuller’s earth products, it is
essential in gelling clays.
Exploration method
Truck-mounted rotary drilling rigs of the type developed for placing explosive
charges for early oil-field geophysical exploration---such as the 500 and 1250 models
built by Failing, Gardner-Denver/Mayhew, and DSM---are used for the drilling depth of
100 to 200 ft common with water pressure from the drill rig’s mud pump or with
compressed air. Typically, NX-size core of about 2 1/8-in. diameter is recovered; rinsed
and trimmed; marked accurately by property code number, hole grid location, and depth
in the hole; and transported in boxes or bags to the company laboratory for extensive
quality testing.
When an area of core holes tests favorably in the laboratory, accurately spaced
core-drilling campaigns are begun on a surveyed grid of 400 to 800 ft. As the shape,
extent, and quality of new clay deposits are proven, grid drilling is narrowed to spacings
of 200 and 100 ft before overburden stripping is begun.
After the commercial clay surface is exposed, closer spaced drilling may be done
using air-pneumatic or auger methods, or the area may be sampled with a mining
backhoe. Regulated wetlands, endangered species areas, and archeological sites are
avoided wherever possible. Lately, however, mitigation is neede for wetland areas that
must be crossed by haul roads or those underlain by high-quality fuller’s earth that the
company wishes to mine.
Fuller’s earth quality is posted from drill and laboratory testing results on carefully
scaled grid maps, which are used for mine planning, government permitting, and future
clay reserve tonnage calculations. These mine planning maps show overburden
thickness and type, clay thickness and commercial quality, location of property
boundaries, and regulated wetland areas.
Mining
The deposits are worked by opencast methods. When quarried, the raw earth
contains up to 40% water (by weight). To produce natural processed fuller’s earth, the
clay is crushed, dried, screened and milled to produce material of appropriate size.
Fuller’s earth may be further processed by its treatment with a concentrated acid, hugely
increasing its absorptive capacity. This treated product is high value and worth
approximately three times that of natural fuller’s earth.
Overburden is stripped with backhoe excavators and off-road haul trucks. The
itself is excavated with backhoes, frontend loaders, or scrapers. Because sedimentary
fuller’s earth was deposited in horizontal layers or strata, quality control is kmuch more
reliable if the clay is mixed during mining by vertical excavation (such as with hydraulic
backhoes). This vertical mining averages out the horizontal layering of quality variations
and delivers better-blended crude clay to the stockpile or processing plant. Acceptable
overburden thickness can range from only a few feet or meters to more than 100ft,
depending on the mining dstrict, ore zone thickness, clay quality, and the market value
of products produced.
Highway haul trucks transport the crude clay from the property; they must meet
complex state and interstate regulqtions for haul weight, individual wheel load bearing,
spillage, tracking mud onto the paved road surface, and so forth. Thus, there is a real
cost and efficiency advantage to mining near enough to the clay processing plant so that
mine-run clay can be hauled by very large off-raod trucks on privately owned roads,
where regulated load limits do not apply. After a fuller’s earth plant has operated for a
few decades, however, it is likely that most or all of the nearby acceptable quality clay
deposits have already mined out.
Once mining is completed, the mined-pits are backfilled and leveled with
overburden from a nearby or adjacent cut, or developed into fishing ponds. The
disturbed land is restored to attractive, stable, noneroding, less than 3:1 slopes. Cover
crops of pasture grass and select tree seedlings are planted on the reclaimed land to
leave little or no hint that the property had ever been mined.
Product Processing
The clay may be dried to 10% to 50% moisture or semicalcined. Care is taken
not to overheat and reduce pore size, absorption, or CEC, and alter mineralogy to make
cat litter, bleaching and oil-absorbent material, agricultural chemical carriers (for
pesticide, herbicides, etc.), jet fuel filtration agents, or turf improvement products.
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