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kyanite & welcome

updated sun 17 oct 99

 

Michael Banks on sat 16 oct 99

Good to have another geologist on the list Mary, Welcome.

It's good to hear that there is plenty of kyanite in the U.S. I was
recently unable to find a regular and economic distributor of this mineral
in Australia and New Zealand. I formulated a smooth raku clay body which
required -100 mesh kyanite to produce good thermal shock resistance.
However I was forced to reformulate this at the commercial production stage
using other acicular low-expansion minerals, due to the non-availability of
the kyanite.

Kyanite is a wonderful industrial mineral and I would utilise it in a number
of applications if I could get it reliably. But glazing is not one of them
because there are better more-fusible minerals around, which are good
sources of alumina and silica.

Michael Banks,
Nelson,
New Zealand


> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Hi Everyone-
>
> I just joined this list, so........thought I oughta say hello and not just
> lurk behind the scenes.......
>
> I recently finished a Master's Degree in Geology--I studied some very
large
> kynite deposits in northern New Mexico--and now that THAT is over (thank
> goodness!!!!), I have enormous amounts of time. (snip)

> Mary Simmons
> Dept of Earth and Planetary Sciences
> University of New Mexico
> (505)277-9259
> piedra@unm.edu