Startup Mining Company Hopes to Expand Only U.S. Fluorspar Mine

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The following is an advisory by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources Inc.; Houston, Texas). Located close to Cedar City, Utah, a start-up mining venture hopes to expand the only fluorspar mine in the U.S. According to company's President, John Price, Milford Mining Company LLC is the only miner of fluorspar in the U.S. Price went on to say, We've started of on a small scale, but our market shows promise and if all goes well, we may look at expanding in the future.

According to data collected by the USGS, the U.S. consumes approximately 523,000 metric tons of fluorspar annually. All of this is imported from foreign sources, 67% from China, 22% from South Africa, and 11% from Mexico. The majority of this, about 90%, is acid grade fluorspar used in the production of hydrofluoric acid and aluminum fluoride.

Milford Mining produces metallurgical grade fluorspar and also kaolinite and silica. It is studying options for the sale of these minerals to new markets. Currently, it sells fluorspar to west coast cement plants, where it is used as a fluxing agent in rotary kilns. Fluorspar helps to reduce the melting temperature of clinker (an intermediate product of the cement manufacturing process produced in rotary kilns), enabling cement producers to increase throughput without significant equipment additions. Future plans include adding increased crushing, screening, and processing equipment to enable the company to expand service to the cement industry, as well as other metallurgical grade fluorspar users such as the steel or aluminum industries and possibly acid grade fluorspar users at some point in the future.