General Info

Calcium carbonate, or CaCO3, comprises more than 4% of the earths crust and is found throughout the world. Limestone Chalk Other sedimentary sources Marble Dolomite Huntite Crystal forms are calcite, aragonite, and vaterite

Properties

Properties and Application

Used as a filler in plastic, paints, and coating due to its special white color (coating pigment) Paper is coated to improve its brightness, opacity, print-ability, ink receptivity, and smoothness. Provides improvements in modulus, heat resistance, hardness, shrinkage reduction, and color fastness of plastic

 Increased loadings of calcium carbonate in thermosets reduce cost and provide better surface characteristics Used in paints to extend and enhance the use of titanium dioxide. Widely as an effective dietary calcium supplement, antacid, phosphate binder, or base material for medicinal tablets. Used as mild abrasive in toothpaste Used as builder in detergent composition

 Building material in construction, also an ingredient of cement. property of double refraction is a feature valuable to a number of optical applications.

Processing of GCC
best deposits for most industrial applications are those having a high (90% CaCO3) purity and high brightness. Primary crushing in the jaw crusher. Secondary crushing using cone crusher to produce about 4cm product. Final grinding using ball mill or roller mill to produce about 5 microns product. Products finer that 10 microns requires additional processing in dry ball mill circuit with air clarification.

Processing of PCC
Limestone is calcined in a kiln to obtain carbon dioxide and quicklime. The quicklime is mixed with water to produce a milk-of-lime. Carbon dioxide gas is bubbled through the milk-of-lime in a reactor known as a carbonator.

Economics of GCC

 The market for ground calcium carbonate (GCC) has expanded from around 56Mt in 2004 to almost 72Mt in 2007, an average annual growth rate of nearly 9%. World demand for GCC is forecast to continue to grow at an average annual growth rate of 4% to 2012, to reach 87.4Mt The market for GCC in paper coating has shown a high rate of growth because of its brightness and good performance in high speed paper machines.

 The plastics industry is the second largest user of GCC, accounting for an estimated 14.4Mtpy of consumption in 2007, compared with 10.2Mtpy in 2004 Ten companies control nearly 64% of global production capacity; just two companies, Omya(Switzerland) and Imerys(France) account for 45% of global capacity.

Economics of PCC

 World demand for precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) is forecast to grow by an average of 4%py from around 13Mt in 2007 to nearly 16Mt by 2012. Growth rates will be highest in the paint (6%py) and rubber (4%py) industries though the largest increases in terms of tonnage will be in paper and paint. Much of the increase in demand will take place in Asia, especially in China, with much lower rates of growth forecast for North America and Europe.

 The largest regional market for PCC is in Asia, followed by North America and Europe The paper industry is the largest consumer of PCC estimated 5.5Mt in 2007, this market accounted for over 40% of world PCC consumption. World demand for PCC in paper is forecast to grow at an average of nearly 3%py through 2012. Chinese PCC consumption is forecast to rise by 6%py to reach 8Mt in 2012, around half the estimated world total.

 The three main international producers are MTI of the USA, Omya of Switzerland and Imerys of France. Three Chinese producers Guangxi Guilin Jinshan Chemica, Dujiangyan Calcium Carbonate and Guangdong Enping Jiawei Chemical are now ranked in the worlds top ten, although all Chinese companies just operate domestic plants.

Calcium Carbonate Supplier in the Philippines

Marble and Marbelized Limestone of Bulacan UNILAN Industrial Company of Quezon Tayabas Lime Industries of Mandaluyong Manila Limestone Philippines of Guimaras Island