NEPHELINE SYENITE ORE APPLICATIONS 3

Pigments and fillers.
Because nepheline syenite has high brightness, inertness, and easy wetting and dispersion in parent formulations, it is highly useful in pigments and fillers.

Aluminum Ore.
Pikalyovo Alumina Refinery in Russia is the only production facility in the world, which uses wastes from processing apatite and nepheline ores (nepheline concentrate) as a raw material. The refinery was commissioned in 1959, and its main product is alumina, with by-products of nepheline slurry, cement, gallium and soda products. It employs 3,217 people. In 2006, the refinery produced 0.3 mln tones of alumina, showing an 11.7% increase compared to output in 2005. The refinery deploys unique technology for processing nepheline concentrate into alumina, which was designed by specialists of the Russian National Aluminum & Magnesium Institute (VAMI). It enables the production facility to process between 4 and 4.1 tones of nepheline and 7.5 tones of limestone into 1 ton of alumina, 0.8 tones of soda, 0.3 tones of potash and 10 tones of cement.

Other potential Applications
Include fertilizer, refractory cement, paper production, riprap, rock wool, Portland cement and road surfacing materials such as asphalt and concrete aggregate.