Ashapura Minechem Set to Increase Bentonite Production to 1 Million Tons

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The India-based, multi-mineral producer Ashapura Minechem Limited (BSE:527001) (Mumbai) expects the company's production of bentonite to reach 1 million tons in the fiscal year 2010-11. During the previous fiscal year of 2009-10, the company reached a production output of 700,000 tons of the mineral, placing it among the world's five leading bentonite producers.

Speaking at a conference titled "Opportunities and Challenges in the Mineral and Mining Sector in Ahmedabad, Gujarat," the Ashapura Minechem Managing Director Chetan Shah said, "We will be able to produce 1 million tons of bentonite this year, and 60% is for exports."

Ashapura Minechem has significant reserves of both sodium- and calcium-based bentonite in Gujarat's Kutch province in western India. However, the largest reserves are those of sodium-based bentonite. The mineral, which is highly colloidal clay, takes its name from Fort Benton in the United States, where it was discovered in 1898.

Sodium-based bentonite has the remarkable property of being able to absorb several times its own mass of water, expanding as it does so. This property makes it ideally suited for sealant purposes and for pet litter, but its main uses are in producing casting sands for the metal industry, iron-ore pelletization and in the drilling and geotechnical sectors.

In addition to bentonite, Ashapura Minechem is involved in bauxite, salt clay (attapulgite), fuller's earth and barite. The company recently moved into the production of value-added products such as bleaching clay, clay catalysts and calcined bauxite.

In addition to the Kutch mine and processing units, the company is active in other areas, both within India and overseas. Domestically, Ashapura Minechem is commissioning one of the largest kaolin-processing facilities at Trivandrum in Kerala, where India's finest kaolin deposits are to be found.

Another member of the Ashapura Group, Ashapura Volclay Limited (Mumbai), which is a joint venture between Ashapura Minechem and AMCOL International Corporation (NYSE:ACO) (Arlington Heights, Illinois), has a state-of-the-art bleaching earth manufacturing facility at Bhuj, Gujarat, where it uses technology developed by Mizusawa Industrial Chemicals Limited (Tokyo, Japan).

Ashapura Volclay has another plant that produces bleaching clay at Dharur in Andhra Pradesh, where it has good access to the raw material attapulgite. Bleaching clay is used in the manufacture of palm oil, and the location of the factory gives it access to the major palm oil-producing companies in Southeast Asia.

Globally, Ashapura Minechem is involved in another joint venture with AMCOL in Antwerp, Belgium. The mineral-processing complex in Antwerp takes semi-processed bentonite, kaolin and bleaching clay from India, processes the minerals, and markets them in Europe.

One of Ashapura Minechem's products, barite, is extensively used in the oil-drilling industry, and the company has established a project to establish a barite processing complex in Nigeria, which has large deposits of barite and is a leading oil producing country.

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