What are Industrial Minerals?
Nature’s most popular raw materials
Society uses industrial minerals, either in a processed or natural state, to make building materials, ceramics, detergents, electronics, filtration, glass, medications and medical devices, paints, paper and plastics, and many more industrial and domestic products.
So what are they? Industrial minerals are defined as minerals that are not sources of metals, fuel, or gemstones. The most widely-used industrial minerals include, bentonite, calcium carbonate, clays, diatomite, dolomite, kaolin, limestone, silica and talc.
Industrial minerals are incredibly versatile; most have at least two, sometimes many more, applications and span multiple markets.
Key facts and figures
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/members.png)
250
member companies
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/mines.png)
685
mines and quarries
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/processing-plants.png)
750
processing plants
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/people.png)
42,500 people
employed in 28 European countries (30 million jobs in downstream industries)
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/money.png)
€14 billion
contribution to the European economy
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/tonnes.png)
180 million
tonnes of minerals produced per year
Main markets for industrial minerals in Europe
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Main-markets-for-industrial-minerals-1024x472.png)
Industrial minerals are also increasingly essential to high-tech sectors through the production of wiring and fibre-optic cables, as well as environmentally friendly products and technologies such as wind turbines and photovoltaic panels.
Applications
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/smartphone-1024x727.png)
Smartphones
contain up to 60% minerals:
- cover – calcium carbonate, mica and talc
- battery – calcium carbonate, silica and clays
- reinforced steel – silica, andalusite and lime
- glass – 47g of silica sand
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/glass-986x1024.png)
Glass
contains up to 100% minerals:
- silica
- dolomite
- calcium carbonate
- lime
- feldspar
- borates
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/paper-1024x928.png)
Paper
contains up to 50% minerals:
- calcium carbonate
- talc
- kaolin
- bentonite
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/paint-1024x945.png)
Paint
contains up to 50% minerals:
- calcium carbonate
- quartz
- cristobalite
- plastic clays
- talc
- bentonite
- diatomite
- mica
- wollastonite
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ceramics-1024x928.png)
Ceramics
contain up to 100% minerals:
- feldspar
- clay
- kaolin
- lime
- talc
- silica
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/house-1024x725.png)
Houses
contain up to 150 tonnes of minerals
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/cars-1024x404.png)
Cars
contain up to 150kg of minerals
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/solar.png)
Solar cells
contain up to
95% minerals
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/turbine.png)
Turbine blades
contain up to
95% minerals
![](http://ima-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/steel2.png)
Iron making requires bentonite, lime and limestone