Speicality Glass Minerals - From Street Lights To Ceramic Armour

The glass industry is one of the primary consuming markets for industrial minerals, with large volume demand for the main glass batch raw materials of limestone, silica sand, and soda ash. The flat and container glass sectors represent the bulk of glass production, and thus are the largest volume consumers of minerals. However, the speciality glass sector, albeit a smaller volume producing sector (in tonnes/month rather than day), is a high value market and also an important user of minerals for very specific applications. This paper reviews this niche market for high purity industrial minerals and comments on its future outlook.