Displaying items by tag: Mining
Germany: The German Gypsum Association (GIPS) has welcomed the publication of a government report that took an inventory of natural gypsum deposits. It supports the work as it allows its members to make qualified decisions about future planning. The Federal Commission on Geosciences (BLA-GEO) has created a register of gypsum supplies in the country. The association added that it believes there will be no large-scale alternatives to natural gypsum supplies in the foreseeable future. This is due to low volumes of gypsum recycling and falling production of flue gas desulfurisation (FGD) Gypsum as coal power plants are shut down.
US: Gypsum wallboard companies sold 629Mm2 of gypsum wallboard in the first quarter of 2022, in line with first-quarter 2021 sales, according to US Geological Survey (USGS) figures. They exported 16.9Mm2, up by 6% year-on-year from first-quarter 2021 volumes. Canada received 15Mm2, 94% of exports. The US Census Bureau recorded gypsum wallboard imports of 22.2Mm2, up by 28% year-on-year. Mexico supplied 19.1Mm2 (86%), while Canada supplied 2.89Mm2 (13%).
In the first quarter of 2022, national natural gypsum production was 5.33Mt, up by 2.1% year-on-year from 5.22Mt in the first quarter of 2021.
Oman: A geological survey undertaken by Minerals Development Oman (MDO) in Shaleem has uncovered ‘large’ local gypsum reserves. The Muscat Daily newspaper has reported that MDO CEO Nasser al Maqbali said that the reserves would contribute to the continued steady growth of Omani crude gypsum’s stake in the global gypsum market. Maqbali added that the resource is characterised by high purity, competitive prices and proximity to consumer markets.
MDO previously discovered 15Mt-worth of gypsum reserves in Wadi Al Jizi, from which it will supply 1Mt/yr of gypsum to the local steel industry. Uses of limestone in the steel sector include flue gas desulphurisation (FGD), which produces synthetic gypsum.
US: The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports that total gypsum board product sales grew by 4% year-on-year to 2.54Bnm2 in 2021 from 2.43Bnm2 in 2020. 22.4Mt of gypsum was mined in 2021, a 1% rise from 21. Synthetic gypsum supply decreased by 10% to 13Mt from 14.4Mt. Imports declined by 11% to 25,700t from 29,000t but exports grew by 11% to 98,800t from 89,300t.
Uzbekistan: The government has shared plans for the establishment of a new building materials production cluster in Bukhara Region. Activities within the cluster will include gypsum extraction.
American Gypsum receives licence for Eagle County gypsum mine expansion
27 September 2021US: American Gypsum has received a licence from the Eagle County Board of Commissioners for the expansion of its 336ha Eagle County opencast gypsum mine near Gypsum, Colorado by 12% to 376ha. The Vail Daily newspaper has reported that the expansion will secure the company’s nearby gypsum wallboard plant’s raw material supply until 2046.
Plant manager Chuck Zaruba said “As the state continues to grow, we are an essential product for that to occur.” He added that the producer’s local operations provide more than 100 year-round jobs.
US Geological Survey publishes first-half gypsum and gypsum wallboard production and export data
21 September 2021US: The US Geological Survey (USGS) has reported a 13% year-on-year increase in national calcined gypsum production in the first half of 2021 to 9.57Mt from 8.5Mt in the first half of 2020. The country’s gypsum mines produced 10.1Mt of natural gypsum, down by 3.8% from 10.48Mt in 2021. Synthetic gypsum production remained in line with first-half 2020 levels at 7.2Mt. In total, the US exported 17,900t of natural and synthetic gypsum, up by 8.2% from 16,600t. It exported 49,000t of calcined gypsum, up by 10% from 44,500t.
In the second quarter of 2021, the US exported gypsum wallboard to 29 other countries. Volumes totalled 19Mm2, up by 40% year-on-year. Canada accounted for 95% of gypsum wallboard exports. The US imported 20.9Mm2 of gypsum wallboard during the quarter, up by 54% year-on-year. All imports came from Mexico and Canada, of which Mexico supplied 16.7Mm2 (85%).
South Africa: Waster water specialist Talbot is working with a coal producer in the Highveld region to remove gypsum generated as a by-product of its mine water purification process.
As part of a pilot project conducted in March 2020, a hydraulic filter press was used to dewater the solids, dry and press them into briquette form for transportation to end-use customers. The remaining filtrate was directed to an evaporation dam before returning to site processes via a blend line. Talbot says it reduced the waste solids from 84 - 2900mg/l and demonstrated that the technology would extract gypsum at a rate of 100kg/hr on a full-scale site operation. Previously the company has used this method on behalf of a South African platinum producer where the recovery of precious metals from a wastewater stream using the same technology.
Oman exceeds 9.0Mt of gypsum exports to Africa and Asia in 2019
27 January 2020Oman: The World’s leading gypsum-exporting country, the Sultanate of Oman, has recorded gypsum exports of over 9.0Mt in 2019 to its main recipient countries in Asia and South/East Africa. Omani producer Zawawi Minerals has estimated increased export volumes and prices by at least 6% to US$13.3/t from US$12.5/t. Its main competitor, Iran, whose gypsum exports were 4.3Mt in 2019, is set to export no gypsum in 2020 following the US-imposed executive order of 10 January 2020 banning mining in the country.
Australia: Clean TeQ plans to build a 2Ml/day DeSALx mine water treatment plant for Fosterville Gold Mine for its mine near Bendigo in Victoria. The US$2.7m unit will use an integrated precipitation and continuous ionic filtration process (DeSALx) that will produce a gypsum-based by-product. This by-product will be compatible with Fosterville’s existing lime treatment plant. Equipment supply, installation and commissioning of the water treatment plant are scheduled for 2018.
The precipitation process removes arsenic and antimony from the mine water as a co-precipitate. The water is then treated by the DeSALx process to remove hardness, sulphate and other dissolved metals. Clean TeQ is also in talks with other mining companies to test its continuous ion-exchange systems for the treatment of process water treatment for recycling or environmental discharge.