Minerals for agriculture and the chemical industry

Abstract

A very wide range of minerals is exploited for use by the chemical and agricultural industries, and it would be tedious to examine a comprehensive list here. Instead, this chapter examines the geology and mineralogy of six important raw materials: sodium carbonate, halite and potash salts, borates, phosphates, sulphur and zeolites. Of particular importance are evaporite deposits, where natural processes of refining have separated soluble salts by fractional precipitation. For other materials reference should be made to the encyclopaedic texts of Lefond (1983), and Harben and Bates (1990), and for an introduction to the industrial chemical processes involved Swaddle’s text (1990) is an ideal companion to this chapter although ‘Shreve’ (Austin, 1984) is more detailed and more widely available.