FELDSPAR AND SILICA SAND PRODUCTION FOR THE GLASS MARKET IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA

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1 company developments COMPANY DEVELOPMENTS Minerali Industriali: FELDSPAR AND SILICA SAND PRODUCTION FOR THE GLASS MARKET IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA Minerali Industriali is an independent mid-size Italian company established by the merger of two historical Italian Groups: Maffei, founded in the early 1900s, and Gruppo Minerali founded in the 1970s. Minerali Industriali is focused on two main business sectors: extraction, treatment and commercialization of raw materials for the ceramic, glass, painting and sanitary ware industries; and the design, construction and start up of turnkey mining plants and equipment. Minerali Industriali s presence in the world counts 14 production units in Italy, 4 in Europe, 4 in North Africa and 5 in Central and South America. The Group s main activities are ISO 9001:2008 certified, while the operations of the Italian unit of Maffei Sarda Silicati of Orani- Ottana have obtained excellence certification regarding quality, the environment and safety. The Group has 250 employees in Italy and 300 abroad, and, in 2013, sold 3 million tons of raw materials. Minerali Industriali has strengthened its market presence thanks to the constant quality of its products, based on the huge availability of raw materials and on the continuous control of these materials and processing 48 glass machinery plants & accessories 1/2014

2 In this article, Minerali Industriali presents its Central and South American branches and production units of feldspar and silica sand used in the glass industry. With activities ranging from extraction, treatment and commercialization of raw materials, right up to the design, construction and start up of turnkey mining plants and equipment, this Group continues to strengthen its presence around the world for quality, availability and control of its product range. Fig. 1 - Feldspar mine stages. The Central Laboratory in Cacciano (Biella), Italy, is equipped with sophisticated tools for product analysis, and establishes control procedures and coordinates the activities of the laboratories in each production unit. A section of the Central Laboratory is dedicated to the study of new technologies for the treatment of raw materials to further diversify the range of products to be offered. This article gives a brief description of our company units in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. GRUPPO MINERALI DO BRASIL LTDA (GMB) Gruppo Minerali do Brasil has its head office in the city of Itupeva in the State of São Paulo, where it has been operating since 2002 with a treatment plant and feldspar production capacity of 120,000 tons per year. This feldspar is used in the Brazilian industries of glass (flat and containers), ceramic (porcelain tiles) and ceramic paint (enamels and frits). The choice to start a business to produce feldspar in the State of São Paulo was the result of a project initiated by GMB to meet the following objectives: producer and the customer and extraction of mineral from glass machinery plants & accessories 1/

3 COMPANY DEVELOPMENTS company developments Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Table 1 CHEMICAL ANALYSIS Oxide SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 TiO2 CaO MgO Na2O K2O P.F. (1000 C) % 77,5 12, 2,8 0,2 0 0, ,4 0,03 4,1 4,5 0,28 Fig. 2 - Raw material stock Fig. 3 - Internal view of processing plant (drier) Fig. 4 - Internal view of processing plant (mill) a large ore deposit (Tavares Pinheiro Mine), which guarantees continuous and constant supplies for many years; finished products, obtained with an innovative and controlled treatment process, starting from an ore deposit constituted by a homogeneous rock. The industrialization of Feldspar MB710/610 for glass industries has, as raw material, crushed granite processed at the Itupeva plant. The crushed rock is received in dump trucks and is stored in piles in the outer patio. The crushed stone is fed into a hopper and transported by a conveyor belt to the hammer mill. The ground material passes through a vibrating screen with a 1.3 millimetre screen aperture, and is dried in a natural gas rotary dryer and then is fed into high intensity rare earth roll magnetic separators, which separate the magnetic material from the non-magnetic product. The non-magnetic product can already be stored for shipment as a raw material for the ceramic industry (MB1300) or can proceed to the new process phase in order to obtain raw material for the glass industry. The products destined for the glass industry have a finer grain size than ceramic products. In order to ensure the compliance of grain size specifications, the 50 glass machinery plants & accessories 1/2014

4 material is screened in high frequency screens with screen apertures according to customers specifications for which the batch in question is destined. The Feldspar MB710/610 final product for the glass market is stored in silos. The treatment plant also has a Quality Control laboratory to verify the technical characteristics of the production. GMB has invested and continues to invest in Geological and Mining Research, in order to quickly bring new sources of raw materials to the local market and expand its range of products. Recently, it acquired a mining concession for feldspar in the municipality of Morungaba, São Paulo, about 50 kilometres from Itupeva. COLOMBIA MINERALES INDUSTRIALES SA (COMIND) The activity of COMIND is extraction, treatment and commercialization of silica sand obtained from its mine, which is less than a mile from the treatment plant. In 2008, Colombia Minerales Industriales SA bought a deposit of silica sand in the state of Cundinamarca, and, in October 2008, obtained a 30-year Mining Concession complete with environmental license from the Ministerio de Minas y Energia. The ore deposit has reserves of high quality sand in excess of 30 million tons. In 2012, the activities regarding the ore deposit included the preparation of the mine to make it suitable for large-scale (approximately t/m) mining, improving the conditions of internal roads and extraction of overburden (1-4 metres thickness) present above the sand. The construction of the treatment plant also started in 2012, and was completed in the first half of The treatment plant is located in the municipality of Sibaté, which is about 50 kilometres from Bogota. The land regarding the mine, treatment plant and the sterile accumulation zone are owned entirely by COMIND. Fig. 5 - Silica and stock Table 2 CHEMICAL ANALYSIS Oxide SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 TiO2 CaO MgO Na2O K2O P.F. (1000 C) % 99,1 0,30 0,020 0,09 0,03 0,01 0,05 0,05 0,30 Fig. 5 glass machinery plants & accessories 1/

5 COMPANY DEVELOPMENTS company developments The treatment plant is involved in washing and size classification (both hydraulic and mechanical) and gravimetric process to produce up to t/m of sand with the characteristics indicated in Table 1. The main finished product obtained from the treatment plant consists of sand with low iron content, usable in the glass and ceramic industry, for the production of sodium silicate as well as in other fields such as abrasives, adhesives, etc. The treatment plant does not produce waste products, because the coarse sand is sold for the construction sector, while the finer part, consisting mainly of clay, is sold in the ceramic sector. The treatment plant has its own quality control laboratory to verify the chemical and particle size characteristics of products. The location of the COMIND plant is strategic, as it is very close to the customers (30-50 kilometres), of the region of Bogotà. MEXICAN SILICATES SA DE CV The headquarters of the company are in Tlaxcala city, about 100 kilometres east of Mexico City and, in the same State of Tlaxcala, the treatment plant with a production capacity of feldspar and quartz of about 100,000 tons per year, has been in operation since Main activities concern the mining, treatment and trade of industrial minerals such as quartz and feldspar. Mexican Silicate has obtained certificates: ISO 9001:2008, clean industry and safe installation. It uses a new Fig. 6 - External view of the processing plant type of milling equipment, result of Minerali Industriali experience, which allows important energy savings and noteworthy flexibility in the production. The final products are mainly destined to the sanitary ware industry, most of all for the three Mexican plants owned by American Standard Mexico, for the production of tiles and enamelled or ceramic frits and for the glass producers. The final product for the glass market Feldspar F1MSR is stored in silos. The treatment plant also has its own quality control laboratory to verify the chemical and particle size characteristics of the products. Mexican Silicates owns a feldspar mine at Zacatlan, known as 52 glass machinery plants & accessories 1/2014

6 Segunda Chiveria, and a minority share of the company Feldmex S.A. de C.V. Since 2012, Mexican Silicates also has a share and the management of the company Ecominerali Mexicana S.A. de C.V. in the state of Zacatlan where the mines and wet treatment plant with a capacity of about tons per year of feldspar are located. Fig. 7 Fig. 7 - External view of the plant Fig. 8 - Feldspar mine Table 3 CHEMICAL ANALYSIS Fig. 8 Oxide SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 TiO2 CaO MgO Na2O K2O P.F. (1000 C) % 68,17 18,00 0,32 0,10 0,42 <0,05 6,71 5,88 0,30 MINERALI INDUSTRIALI SRL Piazza Martiri della Libertà, Novara, Italy Tel Fax info@min-ind.it glass machinery plants & accessories 1/