High Quality Building Products Using Specialty Minerals Ground Calcium Carbonates and Talcs
Today’s beautiful homes and attractive commercial
and industrial buildings result from the development of high-quality,
durable components manufactured by the building products industry.
Limestone,
or ground calcium carbonate, is one of the most commonly used minerals
in building products and construction applications, along with a related
mineral, dolomite, a calcium magnesium carbonate. As fillers and
extenders, these materials provide improved performance and cost
benefits to a broad range of industrial, environmental, and agriculture
applications that impact our daily lives. Building product applications
include asphalt roofing shingles, vinyl floor tile and sheeting, tape
joint compounds, glass, stucco, concrete, masonry, and swimming pool plasters. Talcs are also used, generally in joint compounds.
Chemical purity, as well as optical brightness and
color, which vary with each deposit, play a major role in the end value
for the application. Combining extensive Research and Development with
Application Technology and support to customer trials, Specialty
Minerals is well positioned to supply you with high-performance
products or to work with you to develop new grades tailored to your
building product application.
Building Products With SMI Minerals
Specialty
Minerals ground limestones, dolomites, and talcs play functional roles
in a variety of components used in residential and commercial
construction, such as:
Specialty Minerals Products for Building Components
Specialty
Minerals supplies crushed, screened, ground, and pulverized limestone
and dolomite products direct from our quarries in Adams, Massachusetts,
Canaan, Connecticut, and Lucerne Valley, California. Talc is mined and
ground in Barretts, Montana.
Specialty Minerals Building Product Limestones in the Eastern United States—Adams, Massachusetts
Manufacturers
of building products in the Eastern U.S. can select from a wide range
of ground calcium carbonates (GCCs) produced at the Adams,
Massachusetts, plant of Specialty Minerals Inc. (SMI). The large Adams
deposit of high-brightness calcite, or crystal calcium carbonate, has
been mined since 1848—a long history of service to regional producers of
building products.
SMI’s Adams plant produces limestone from 1”
landscape chips down to 3 micron industrial grades. Adams manufactures
fine-ground GCC for paint, plastics, and other building product
applications, sold under the Vicron® GCC and Marblewhite® GCC trademarks. Coarse-ground and screened-stone limestone products, Vical®, ATF™ and Eco-Cal®
GCCs, provide excellent value in roofing, masonry, joint compounds, and
other building product applications, as well as in agricultural and
environmental uses. High-calcium chemical and metallurgical limes are
also produced at Adams.
Like all Specialty Minerals-Performance Minerals
plants, Adams is certified ISO 9001 and uses rigorous quality monitoring
and continuous-improvements processes to provide customers with
uniform, high-quality products.
Specialty Minerals Ground Calcium Carbonates For Building Products
Choose
from the following families of high-quality ground calcium carbonates
produced at Adams for roofing, flooring, joint compounds, and other
building product manufacture:
Vicron® GCCs – 3.5 to 10 micron high brightness ground calcium carbonates
Marblewhite® GCCs – high brightness ground limestones, 200 and 325 mesh.
Vical® GCCs – 16 to 100 mesh, dedusted limestones with moderate brightness
ATF™ GCCs - bright screened limestones, in 10 to 40 mesh grades.
Some building product applications may require a
grade with a customized particle size and/or particle size distribution.
We are happy to work with you to provide the right limestone grade for
your building product. Contact Us to discuss your needs.
Specialty Minerals Building Product Dolomites in the Eastern United States—Canaan, Connecticut
Ground dolomites for building product manufacture
are produced in the Specialty Minerals Inc. (SMI) plant at Canaan,
Connecticut. The dolomite deposit in Canaan is a true dolomite—calcium
magnesium carbonate—not just a magnesium carbonate—containing dolomitic
limestone.
The ground and screened dolomite products are used
for filling and extending cast polymers, asphalt roofing, vinyl
composite tiles, stucco, joint compounds, masonry products, sealants,
and pool plastering. Coarse-ground grades, CCA™, FCA™ and MS-4™, provide
a source of extremely white aggregate for manufacturing white
split-faced blocks and precast shapes. Bright white Marblemix®
dolomitic pool sands are ideally suited for plastering swimming pools
and spas. For joint compound, sealants, putties, caulks, and other
building products, Dolocron® dolomite fillers provide high
brightness and low oil absorption. The DF™ series of dolomites offer a
wide variety of performance options for vinyl composite tile, stucco,
and grout manufacturers.
Like all Specialty Minerals-Performance Minerals
plants, Canaan is certified ISO 9001 and uses rigorous quality
monitoring and continuous improvement processes to provide customers
with uniform, high-quality products.
Specialty Minerals Dolomites For Building Products
Building
product manufacturers can choose among the following families of
high-quality ground dolomites produced at Canaan for roofing, flooring,
joint compounds, cast polymers, concrete, masonry, and other
construction components:
Some building product applications may require a
grade with a customized particle size and/or particle size distribution.
We are happy to work with you to provide the right limestone grade for
your building product. Contact Us to discuss your needs.
Specialty Minerals Building Product Limestones in the Western United States—Lucerne Valley, California
A broad range of ground calcium carbonates (GCCs)
are produced for the building products industry in the Western U.S. by
Specialty Minerals Inc. (SMI) at its plant in Lucerne Valley,
California. The high-quality limestone deposit there has been mined
since the mid-1800s, with finely ground industrial products manufactured
since 1961.
The high-brightness and high-purity limestones from
Lucerne Valley are used in many building products, such as roofing,
flooring, tape joint compounds, cast polymers or cultured marbles,
stucco, and cement and masonry, as well as in such other applications as
plastics, coatings, rubber, caulk and sealants and gel coats.
Lucerne Valley’s fine-ground, bright-white Vicron® GCC family of 2 to 13 micron products and Marblewhite®
GCC family of 30 to 325 mesh products provide options for formulators
in the plastics, joint compound, and caulk and sealant industries.
Coarser Vical® GCC products are excellent raw materials for
glass, vinyl composite floor tile, asphalt shingles and other roofing
materials, while Marblemix® GCCs are manufactured especially for swimming pool and spa plastering.
Like all Specialty Minerals-Performance Minerals
plants, Lucerne Valley is certified ISO 9001 and uses rigorous quality
monitoring and continuous improvement processes to provide customers
with uniform, high-quality products.
Specialty Minerals Ground Calcium Carbonates For Building Products
The
following families of high-quality ground calcium carbonates are
produced at Lucerne Valley for roofing, flooring, cast polymers, joint
compounds, and other building-product manufacture:
Some building-product applications may require a
grade with a customized particle size and/ or particle size
distribution. We are happy to work with you to provide the right
limestone grade for your building product. Contact Us to discuss your needs.
Specialty Minerals Talcs For Building Products—Barretts, Montana
Specialty
Minerals Inc. (SMI) has been producing talcs from its two mines in
Barretts, Montana, since the 1950s. These bright, high-quality talcs are
used in the building products industry, primarily in tape joint
compounds and paints. In joint compounds, talcs add trowelability, crack
resistance and good surfaces after sanding.
The Barretts Specialty Minerals-Performance Minerals
plant is quality certified under ISO 9001 and uses rigorous quality
monitoring and continuous process improvement to satisfy customer needs
for performance and consistency.
Specialty Minerals Talcs for Building Products
The grades of talc recommended for use in tape joint compounds are: