What are Industrial Minerals?
California’s diverse geography and geology uniquely situate us to have varied and abundant source of minerals. The industrial minerals found in California include limestone, clay, industrial sands, pumice, borates, diatomaceous earth, and rare earth minerals. Less common than aggregates, they are every bit as important to our daily lives, economic vitality, and environmental quality. Their uses include glass-making, nutritional supplements for livestock and farmlands, cement for concrete products, calcium for vitamins, bricks, pipe for our water systems, roofing materials, glass-making, home insulation, wall-board, cleaning materials for porcelin and tile, water and air filtration systems, energy-saving light bulbs, scientific tools, fiber optics, environmentally friendly paper, paints, golf courses, athletic fields, and cat-litter. The list goes on and on… Industrial minerals play several important roles for California. Regional sources of limestone, gypsum, and industrial sands are
