BLEACHING EARTHS

unable to maintain product quality and technical support.

“We see more and more small players popping up around the world offering bleaching earths. This obviously reflects that there are bleaching clay deposits with at least a basic value proposition to the market in terms of cost performance,” says Bello. “However, the biggest challenge sits on the purity of these deposits. It’s neither easy nor common to find deposits with high purity. It’s reasonable to believe that we will see more and more low-activity bleaching earths appearing on the market.”

Howes agrees, adding that a glut of poor-quality bleaching earths could begin to undermine the added-value products offered by current leading bleaching earth producers. As a result, companies like Natural Bleach and US Silica – which are developing adsorbent products to meet future needs – may have to slash their research and development budgets.

“Developing solutions to meet the ever increasing needs of the refiner is an expensive business, and requires a high level of knowledge in bleaching earths and related absorbents,” says Howes.

In addition, countries such as India and Indonesia are requiring that more value is added to the minerals mined at home, rather than exporting raw minerals, Howes add. “This may result in a need to relocate bleaching earth production from the country where the customers are, to the country where the clay is mined.”

Finally, Bello notes that the USA has boosted biofuel production in response to current geopolitical events. He sees this development as driving demand for