Gypsum industry news

Oman: A geological survey undertaken by Minerals Development Oman (MDO) in Shaleem has uncovered ‘large’ local gypsum reserves. The Muscat Daily newspaper has reported that MDO CEO Nasser al Maqbali said that the reserves would contribute to the continued steady growth of Omani crude gypsum’s stake in the global gypsum market. Maqbali added that the resource is characterised by high purity, competitive prices and proximity to consumer markets.

MDO previously discovered 15Mt-worth of gypsum reserves in Wadi Al Jizi, from which it will supply 1Mt/yr of gypsum to the local steel industry. Uses of limestone in the steel sector include flue gas desulphurisation (FGD), which produces synthetic gypsum.

US: The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports that total gypsum board product sales grew by 4% year-on-year to 2.54Bnm² in 2021 from 2.43Bnm² in 2020. 22.4Mt of gypsum was mined in 2021, a 1% rise from 21. Synthetic gypsum supply decreased by 10% to 13Mt from 14.4Mt. Imports declined by 11% to 25,700t from 29,000t but exports grew by 11% to 98,800t from 89,300t.

Uzbekistan: The government has shared plans for the establishment of a new building materials production cluster in Bukhara Region. Activities within the cluster will include gypsum extraction.

US: American Gypsum has received a licence from the Eagle County Board of Commissioners for the expansion of its 336ha Eagle County opencast gypsum mine near Gypsum, Colorado by 12% to 376ha. The Vail Daily newspaper has reported that the expansion will secure the company’s nearby gypsum wallboard plant’s raw material supply until 2046.

Plant manager Chuck Zaruba said “As the state continues to grow, we are an essential product for that to occur.” He added that the producer’s local operations provide more than 100 year-round jobs.

US: The US Geological Survey (USGS) has reported a 13% year-on-year increase in national calcined gypsum production in the first half of 2021 to 9.57Mt from 8.5Mt in the first half of 2020. The country’s gypsum mines produced 10.1Mt of natural gypsum, down by 3.8% from 10.48Mt in 2021. Synthetic gypsum production remained in line with first-half 2020 levels at 7.2Mt. In total, the US exported 17,900t of natural and synthetic gypsum, up by 8.2% from 16,600t. It exported 49,000t of calcined gypsum, up by 10% from 44,500t.

In the second quarter of 2021, the US exported gypsum wallboard to 29 other countries. Volumes totalled 19Mm2, up by 40% year-on-year. Canada accounted for 95% of gypsum wallboard exports. The US imported 20.9Mm2 of gypsum wallboard during the quarter, up by 54% year-on-year. All imports came from Mexico and Canada, of which Mexico supplied 16.7Mm2 (85%).

South Africa: Waster water specialist Talbot is working with a coal producer in the Highveld region to remove gypsum generated as a by-product of its mine water purification process.

As part of a pilot project conducted in March 2020, a hydraulic filter press was used to dewater the solids, dry and press them into briquette form for transportation to end-use customers. The remaining filtrate was directed to an evaporation dam before returning to site processes via a blend line. Talbot says it reduced the waste solids from 84 - 2900mg/l and demonstrated that the technology would extract gypsum at a rate of 100kg/hr on a full-scale site operation. Previously the company has used this method on behalf of a South African platinum producer where the recovery of precious metals from a wastewater stream using the same technology.

Oman: The World’s leading gypsum-exporting country, the Sultanate of Oman, has recorded gypsum exports of over 9.0Mt in 2019 to its main recipient countries in Asia and South/East Africa. Omani producer Zawawi Minerals has estimated increased export volumes and prices by at least 6% to US$13.3/t from US$12.5/t. Its main competitor, Iran, whose gypsum exports were 4.3Mt in 2019, is set to export no gypsum in 2020 following the US-imposed executive order of 10 January 2020 banning mining in the country.

Australia: Clean TeQ plans to build a 2Ml/day DeSALx mine water treatment plant for Fosterville Gold Mine for its mine near Bendigo in Victoria. The US$2.7m unit will use an integrated precipitation and continuous ionic filtration process (DeSALx) that will produce a gypsum-based by-product. This by-product will be compatible with Fosterville’s existing lime treatment plant. Equipment supply, installation and commissioning of the water treatment plant are scheduled for 2018.

The precipitation process removes arsenic and antimony from the mine water as a co-precipitate. The water is then treated by the DeSALx process to remove hardness, sulphate and other dissolved metals. Clean TeQ is also in talks with other mining companies to test its continuous ion-exchange systems for the treatment of process water treatment for recycling or environmental discharge.

Chile: Knauf Gips KG has purchased a gypsum quarry from cement producer Cementos Bio Bio for US$20m. The acquisition will allow Knauf to consolidate its presence in South American. The company, which already owns three gypsum plants in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia, plans to expand its geographical reach to Ecuador, Venezuela, Central America and the Caribbean.

India: Rajasthan's suspended mining secretary Ashok Singhvi, who was arrested for allegedly running a massive bribery racket, was instrumental in throwing open Rajasthan's gypsum reserves, which are the largest in the country, to indiscriminate mining.

On 17 August 2014, the mines department headed by Singhvi de-reserved gypsum mining in Rajasthan, ending the exclusive gypsum mining rights enjoyed by state-owned Rajasthan Mines and Minerals Ltd (RSMM). According to documents recently accessed by local press, the mines department threw open some 28.3km² of gypsum mines without inviting applications or notifying specific mining zones, in clear violation of the centre's 30 October 2014 guidelines. Several of the leases were granted on 12 January 2015, one day before the central government promulgated the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015, which ended discretionary bases of awarding leases and made auction the sole method of allotment.

The guidelines, issued to curb illegal mining, intended to provide greater transparency in the use of natural resources. However, documents show that the Rajasthan Mines Department granted 15 gypsum mining leases against applications dated before 17 August 2014, when gypsum mining was the exclusive right of RSMM and no applications for its mining could have been entertained from anyone else. Some applications dated as far back as 8 May 2012, more than three years before gypsum was de-reserved for mining by private companies. This meant that leases were granted to 'favourites' on back-dated applications so they could qualify on a 'first come, first served' basis. Leases were hurriedly awarded on this basis to avoid running into the new MMDR ordinance, which came in to effect on 13 January 2015 and mandated the auction route for granting leases.