Is kaolinite clay a lean clay, silty clay, or fat clay?”
Kaolinite is a clay mineral with the chemical composition Al2Si2O5(OH)4. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral sheet of alumina octahedra.[3] Rocks that are rich in kaolinite are known as china clay or kaolin. The name is derived from Gaoling or Kao-Ling (“High Hill”) in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China.[4] Kaolinite was first described as a mineral species in 1867 for an occurrence in the Jari River basin of Brazil.[5] Kaolinite is one of the most common minerals; it is mined, as kaolin, in Brazil, France, United Kingdom, Germany, India, Australia, Korea, the People’s Republic of China, the Czech Republic, and the United States. Kaolinite has a low shrink-swell capacity and a low cation exchange capacity (1-15 meq/100g.) It is a soft, earthy, usually white mineral (dioctahedral phyllosilicate clay), produced by the chemical weathering of aluminium silicate minerals like feldspar. In many parts of the world, it is
