Development of exploration and industrial technology to exploit new sources of wollastonite in Europe

摘要

Wollastonite is a fibrous mineral used in theindustrial production of such materials as ceramics, plastics,composites, paints and medical supplies and also as a substitutefor asbestos. Current world annual production is around 464000 t of natural wollastonite and 10 000 t of syntheticwollastonite. Production has doubled during the past eightyears and the demand is steadily increasing.Practically no information is available on the specifications forcommercial wollastonite products or the industrial processesby which they are prepared. Very few deposits are inproduction and very little knowledge exists to guideprospecting and evaluation. During the past decade, numerouswollastonite exploration projects throughout the world havefailed owing to an unexpected reduction of estimated reservesduring site investigations or the inability to produce salableconcentrates by beneficiation.Wollastonite deposits were investigated in Spain, Greece andSweden. In Spain the work centred on the detailed evaluationof a single large deposit, whereas in Sweden and in Greeceseveral smaller deposits were examined. Beneficiationtestwork, which included the development of an innovative wetcircuit, was undertaken in Italy.