Function
It promotes and fosters the interests of the metals and mining industry in any part of the world and the corporations, companies, firms and persons engaged or interested in the industry or in industries ancillary to or allied with the metals and minerals industry.
Its members include all the major industrial mineral mining operators in the United Kingdom. Its work is concentrated on representing its member's interest at Government and European level on environmental and health & safety issues. It is actively involved in lobbying and consulting on proposed legislation.
It is an active member of Euromines (the European Mining Federation) and values the access and links to European Commission legislative procedures, which this brings. The majority of new legislation which has impact on the mining sector originates in Brussels. Therefore, the Association is committed to participating in Europe.
It represents the commercial interest of the UK's mining industry outside of coal mining, and includes industries mining:
Potash includes various mined and manufactured salts that contain potassium in water-soluble form. The name derives from pot ash, which refers to plant ashes soaked in water in a pot, the primary means of manufacturing the product before the industrial era. The word potassium is derived from potash.
Potassium chloride is a metal halide salt composed of potassium and chlorine. It is odorless and has a white or colorless vitreous crystal appearance. The solid dissolves readily in water, and its solutions have a salt-like taste. KCl is used as a fertilizer, in medicine, in scientific applications, and in food processing, where it may be known as E number additive E508.
BHP, formerly known as BHP Billiton, is the trading entity of BHP Group Limited and BHP Group plc, an Anglo-Australian multinational mining, metals and petroleum dual-listed public company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
The Leblanc process was an early industrial process for the production of soda ash used throughout the 19th century, named after its inventor, Nicolas Leblanc. It involved two stages: production of sodium sulfate from sodium chloride, followed by reaction of the sodium sulfate with coal and calcium carbonate to produce sodium carbonate. The process gradually became obsolete after the development of the Solvay process.
Anhydrite, or anhydrous calcium sulfate, is a mineral with the chemical formula CaSO4. It is in the orthorhombic crystal system, with three directions of perfect cleavage parallel to the three planes of symmetry. It is not isomorphous with the orthorhombic barium (baryte) and strontium (celestine) sulfates, as might be expected from the chemical formulas. Distinctly developed crystals are somewhat rare, the mineral usually presenting the form of cleavage masses. The Mohs hardness is 3.5, and the specific gravity is 2.9. The color is white, sometimes greyish, bluish, or purple. On the best developed of the three cleavages, the lustre is pearly; on other surfaces it is glassy. When exposed to water, anhydrite readily transforms to the more commonly occurring gypsum, (CaSO4·2H2O) by the absorption of water. This transformation is reversible, with gypsum or calcium sulfate hemihydrate forming anhydrite by heating to around 200 °C (400 °F) under normal atmospheric conditions. Anhydrite is commonly associated with calcite, halite, and sulfides such as galena, chalcopyrite, molybdenite, and pyrite in vein deposits.
Potassium sulfate (in British English potassium sulphate (SOP), also called sulphate of potash, arcanite, or archaically known as potash of sulfur) is the inorganic compound with formula K2SO4. It is a white water-soluble solid. It is commonly used in fertilizers, providing both potassium and a source of sulfur.
Rio Tinto is an Anglo-Australian multinational and one of the world's largest metals and mining corporations. The company was founded in 1873, when a multinational consortium of investors purchased a mine complex on the Rio Tinto, in Huelva, Spain, from the Spanish government. Since then, the company has grown through a long series of mergers and acquisitions to place itself among the world leaders in the production of many commodities, including aluminium, iron ore, copper, uranium, and diamonds. Although primarily focused on extraction of minerals, Rio Tinto also has significant operations in refining, particularly for refining bauxite and iron ore. The company has operations on six continents, but is mainly concentrated in Australia and Canada, and owns its mining operations through a complex web of wholly and partly owned subsidiaries. Rio Tinto has joint head offices in London and Melbourne.
Polyhalite is an evaporite mineral, a hydrated sulfate of potassium, calcium and magnesium with formula: K2Ca2Mg(SO4)4·2H2O. Polyhalite crystallizes in the triclinic system, although crystals are very rare. The normal habit is massive to fibrous. It is typically colorless, white to gray, although it may be brick red due to iron oxide inclusions. It has a Mohs hardness of 3.5 and a specific gravity of 2.8.
Compass Minerals International, Inc is a United States listed public company that, through its subsidiaries, is a leading producer of minerals, including salt, magnesium chloride, sulfate of potash and other plant nutrition products. Based in Kansas City, the company provides bulk treated and untreated highway deicing salt to customers in North America and the United Kingdom and plant nutrition products to growers worldwide. Compass Minerals also produces consumer de-icing and water conditioning products, consumer and commercial culinary salt, and other mineral-based products for consumer, agricultural, and industrial applications. In addition, Compass Minerals provides records management services to businesses throughout the United Kingdom.
Carnallite (also carnalite) is an evaporite mineral, a hydrated potassium magnesium chloride with formula KMgCl3·6(H2O). It is variably colored yellow to white, reddish, and sometimes colorless or blue. It is usually massive to fibrous with rare pseudohexagonal orthorhombic crystals. The mineral is deliquescent (absorbs moisture from the surrounding air) and specimens must be stored in an airtight container.
Boulby Mine is a 200-hectare (490-acre) site located just south-east of the village of Boulby, on the north-east coast of the North York Moors in Redcar and Cleveland, England. It is run by Cleveland Potash Limited, which is now a subsidiary of Israel Chemicals Ltd. (ICL).
The Arab Potash Company (APC) is a company that is primarily involved in harvesting minerals from the Dead Sea. It is the eighth largest potash producer worldwide by volume of production and the sole Arab producer of potash. The Company was formed in 1956 in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as a pan-Arab business venture and it has a 100-year concession (1958-2058) from the government of Jordan that grants it exclusive rights to extract, manufacture and market minerals from the Dead Sea. It is headquartered in Amman and has its main plants at Ghor Al Safi. The company's stock is listed on the Amman Stock Exchange's ASE Weighted Index.
Searles Valley Minerals Inc. is a raw materials mining and production company based in Overland Park, Kansas. It is owned by the Indian company Nirma. It has major operations in the Searles Valley and in Trona, California where it is the town's largest employer. The company produces borax, boric acid, soda ash, salt cake and salt. It also owns the Trona Railway.
Qinghai Salt Lake Potash Company Limited is the largest potash production base in China. It owns a 120-square-kilometer salt lake in Golmud, Qinghai. The company was established and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 1997. It specializes in the manufacture and sale of potassium chloride which are distributed under the brand name of "Yanqiao". It is owned by Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Group and Sinochem Corporation.
Mining in the United Kingdom produces a wide variety of fossil fuels, metals, and industrial minerals due to its complex geology. In 2013, there were over 2,000 active mines, quarries, and offshore drilling sites on the continental land mass of the United Kingdom producing £34bn of minerals and employing 36,000 people.
GrowMax Agri Corp (GrowMax) is a subsidiary of Americas Petrogas, a Canadian-based natural resource company. Americas Petrogas owns 80% of GrowMax, the remaining 20% is owned by the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO). GrowMax is in the process of developing a potash fertilizer plant in the Bayovar area of Northern Peru, where it plans on producing various types of fertilizers and specialty minerals. Management has forecast production start-up by 2012.
The mining industry of Libya does not contribute significantly to its economy. Mining resources are located in remote regions with limited accessibility. The fuel sector, including oil reserves and natural gas is the major revenue-generating industry.
Lake MacDonnell is a salt lake on western Eyre Peninsula near the Nullarbor Plain. The closest town is Penong. It is the site of a former salt mine and the largest gypsum mine in Australia, on the largest gypsum deposit in the southern hemisphere.
