Introduction

Definition An industrial mineral, says the Glossary of Geology, is "any rock, mineral, or other naturally occurring substance of economic value, exclusive of metallic ores, mineral fuels, and gemstones; one of the nonmetallics." Probably most geologists and engineers would accept this simple and straightforward definition, at least as a general statement. On analysis, however, certain anomalies crop up. For example, it may be considered arbitrary to include industrial diamond and corundum and to exclude their precious varieties, gem diamond and sapphire. So the present volume has a section on gems and gem materials, in spite of the definition. Another problem arises when we try to define precisely what is metallic and what is nonmetallic. Bauxite and ilmenite certainly qualify as metallic ores, but both are also raw materials of important nonmetallic substances; hence they are included in the book, A third anomaly is that, by common consent of geologists, engineers, mineral economists, and others concerned, the term industrial minerals may include not only rocks and minerals but also certain manufactured products like cement and lime, and even mixed groups of natural and artificial products, such as abrasives and refractories. Thus the central realm of the industrial minerals is clear enough, but its boundaries tend to be indefinable. Since a definition that allowed for every irregularity in the outer fringes would be excessively unwieldy, the one quoted above may be considered satisfactory. The expression industrial minerals is commonly equated with nonmetallics, and with the somewhat more precise phrase industrial minerals and rocks as in the title of this book. Characteristics of the Field The industrial minerals as broadly interpreted are a highly diverse group of materials; indeed, we may say paradoxically that diversity is about all they have in common. At one end of the spectrum are ordinary earth materials such as gravel and crushed stone, with a value of perhaps $3 per st; at the opposite end are industrial diamonds, which sell (by the carat) at the rate of roughly $18,000,000 per st. Neither the metals nor the fuels, and few if any categories of manufactured products, include items that differ in value by more than six orders of magnitude. Most gravel and stone are of no value unless close to a market; diamonds and other exotic substances possess such unique and desirable properties that their occurrence in remote corners of the earth is no deterrent to their use. The broad range of industrial minerals falls between these extremes of unit value and place value. The industrial minerals penetrate the entire fabric of modern industrialized society, from such fundamental operations as drilling for oil and smelting iron ore to the manufacture of virtually the whole array of consumer products. There is no industrial-minerals industry; there are many industries. The simple term field is convenient as an all-inclusive expression. An industry is considered to belong in the industrial-minerals field if its operations consist of extraction and processing, but not manufacturing. Thus the mining and beneficiation of feldspar is a mineral industry, but the manufacture of ceramic products is not. In the cement and lime industries, processing merges into manufacture, and the line is less distinct. It disappears altogether in a plant that extracts salt as artificial brines, and makes sodium and chlorine chemicals, all under the same roof. An aspect of some industrial minerals that differentiates them from the metals is that their physical properties carry over into ultimate use of the product. Such minerals as mica, asbes-