WHC228@AOL.COM on tue 15 apr 03
Kathi
If you are ever in Florida, near Gainsville, you should visit the clay mine
at Edgar Florida. It is where EPK is mined.
I took a tour probably ten or more years ago.
Edgar Florida is small. There are probably a lot more people living on your
block than live there. The post office is so small that if you had to change
your cloths you would have to go outside.
The clay is mined hydraulically. A large high pressure hose is aimed at the
edge of a small lake and the clay, along with a great deal of sand is washed
away from that bank. The slurry that is caused by that is sucked up from the
bottom and is transported to a place where a large number of vibrating
screens. They are large. These screens separate out sand and grade it into
sizes. The clay that eventually makes it through the screens is pumped into a
settling pond where it is precipitated out with an organic material that is a
flocculant. the water goes off the far end of this pond, and looks pretty
clean. The clay is augured to a shed where it is processed into dry clay.
Part of the drying operation includes heating the clay while it is on the
belt on its way to a crusher. The heating of the drying clay renders the
flocculant useless, so it doesn't have bad habits later. This whole operation
is done in a fairly small building. Probably less than 100'x75.'
The real product at this mine is high quality white sand. The clay is a
byproduct.
When I visited them they were confident that there is enough clay there that
they own to last for the next hundred years or more.
EPK, because of the way that it is processed will probably keep its high
quality until the deposit is used up.
I have never been to another clay operation so I do not know how it is done
in Georgia.
Bill Campbell
| |
|
