sandunes
Kaolin is one of those minerals that is used in everyday life but is consistently overlooked, unlike higher profile mining products such as rare earths, lithium and gold.
Yet, a closer look at what it is used for shows how indispensable kaolin actually is.
Paper, rubber, paint, ceramics, fibreglass, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals are just some notable examples with about 5kg of kaolin used in the manufacture of each car.
According to Grand View Research, the kaolin market is expected to climb from $US4.76bn in 2019 to $US6.3bn by 2027 with current supply impacted by environmental constraints and the exhaustion of premium production in the UK and US.
PepinNini Minerals (ASX-PNN) is one of the new entrants into the kaolin scene with managing director Rebecca Holland-Kennedy telling Stock-head that the company had been looking for a suitable project for some time.
She noted that its recent acquisition of Hillside Minerals and its kaolin clay tenements in South Australia was sparked by the market interest in Kaolin, or potentially the higher grade halloysite product, which could command a premium price while remaining simple to explore for.
“The market for halloysite is increasing as uses are defined. So we see potential for growth and with relatively simple exploration and processing and the location in South Australia a project that complements our lithium project,” Holland-Kennedy added.
“We would be looking at the HPA sector as halloysite is a feedstock for HPA manufacture.”
The two Hillside licences directly adjoin Andromeda’s tenements and cover 1,129sqkm with recorded occurrences of kaolin clay.
Upcoming work includes regional interpretation, reconnaissance work and mapping, geophysics and drilling.