HALLOYSITE-KAOLIN
Halloysite-kaolin: Australia’s untapped commodity
Halloysite-kaolin is a difficult product to commercialise.
Before a company can commercialise halloysite-kaolin, it must understand the complex marketplace of the high-value commodity. One company is proving just that.
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alloysite-kaolin is an intriguing commodity growing in stature in Australia as mining companies and explorers come to understand its high value. It’s considered the most researched clay mineral in the world, yet there are no active producers of the resource in Australia to this point. However, there are a handful of emerging companies looking to change that, the most advanced of which is Andromeda Metals. Andromeda is in the process of developing its Great White kaolin project on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia and has a halloysite-kaolin specialist to call its managing director. James Marsh’s family has been keenly
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involved in kaolin over the years, and after working in Cornwall in the United Kingdom, where kaolin was first mined in the 1700s, Marsh moved Down Under in 2002 and steadily began lifting the commodity’s profile. Halloysite-kaolin is valuable because of its unique tubular microstructure, made up of hollow nanotubes that can only be observed and understood through the most powerful microscopes. It’s an incredibly rare resource, but it has a lot of applications, something being proved by Andromeda. In our conversation, Marsh demonstrated upward of seven different commercial avenues for the resource, and while Andromeda has yet to produce commercial
amounts of halloysite-kaolin, it’s already putting in the corporate groundwork. Andromeda has executed an agreement with Japanese porcelain manufacturer Plantan Yamada for its Great White CRM product, which will see the company purchase 5000 tonnes per annum of halloysite-kaolin at $700 per tonne for use in ceramics. Marsh says his relationships in the field gave Andromeda an advantage in inking this deal. “We chose ceramics first because we knew it had the halloysite which is where it’s highly valued and luckily with my background – I’ve been selling this stuff for 30-odd years – I’ve got a list of customers that I’ve been involved
