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Origins

The most commonly occurring bentonites worldwide are calcium bentonites. Calcium bentonites often have significantly lower swelling and liquid limits compared to natural sodium bentonite. The predominant exchange cation of natural sodium bentonites is sodium.

Smectites are clay minerals composed of individual crystallites, which are actually three-layered clay minerals. Smectite is also commonly referred to as montmorillonite, sodium montmorillonite (“sodium bentonite” or “Wyoming bentonite”), or swelling bentonite (“western bentonite”).

The natural sodium bentonites have high swelling, high liquid limit and high thermal resistance. Sodium activated bentonites are produced by the substitution of sodium ions for calcium ions. This transformation can be achieved by adding a soluble sodium salt to calcium bentonite.

Applications

• Foundry industry (moulding sand binder)

• Construction industry (Waterproof Diaphragm Walls, Filler for Geosynthetic Clay Liners (GCL)

• Drilling (bentonite slurry and injection mortar)

• Agriculture (mycotoxin absorber and binder in animal feed; also used in soil treatments and horticulture)

• Food industry (clarification of wines and fruit juices)

• Cat litter and desiccant.

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