FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Peter V.]

Dear mineral forumers,

I am a young business man interested in green business, I have recently found my new love called perlite. My love for this mineral is based on the fact that its anorganic.
I am trying to find someone with expertise in this stone and hopefully someone with knowledge of manufacturing perlite insulation plates or other perlite products.
All help would be very much appreciated as I am having a hard time to find someone with knowledge about this stone.

Kind regards,
Peter

[Riccardo Modanesi]

Hi Peter!
For what I know, perlite is a rock and it is the mother-rock of the round-formed oxydiane whose nickname is "Apache's Tear". This stone has a very beautiful appearance, it is transparent with a smoky brown-greyish colour. Perlite is white.
Greetings from Italy by Riccardo.

[Peter V.]

Thank you for your reply Riccardo.
I have a understanding about what the rock is but I am trying to find out what determines the quality/price and I am trying to get in touch with someone who can explain me more about the processing.

Besides that, could anyone recommend where I can get a good complete chemical analysis? I am in the Philippines.

Thanks,
Peter

[GneissWare]

This is not a commercial forum so you will not be getting any pricing information. If you want to know about mineralogy or geologic environment, that is a valid line of inquiry.

[Peter V.]

Thanks for the replies. I am not interested in the actual price but I am trying to understand what determines the price except for the size. If that is a problem on this forum I am sorry and will not mention it anymore.
I am more interested in the processing of this rock. Anyone with expertise on expanding and or processing this rock please let me know. I am having a hard time finding people with knowledge about this rock. If anyone could recommend me anyone or another site, it would be very much appreciated.

@vic:
I already have a ''mine''.
A good friend of mine his family farm got hit by a vulcano in 1997 and left nothing but a large perlite field. So we are trying to find a way to make use of this special rock which has alot of potential in several industries (and growing).

Thanks everyone.

[Jim Robison]

As noted above, understanding geology and mineralogy of the material is very important. Perlite is often sold in a high temperature heated form called expanded perlite, and used for insulating material. The heating causes bubbles in the rock to expand. In this way the rock gains value. Natural perlite may also exhibit this characteristic, and testing is required to determine this.

From a marketing point of view, unless some value can be added, you will be dealing with a bulk material that is very widely available (your neighboring fields for example) and unless you can make your material special, there is no reason for your neighbor not to try to undersell you once a market is established. Because the material is cheap and light in weight, freight costs and distance to market are major factors.

To learn more, try the publications in the US of the Society of Mining Engineers annual review of industrial minerals in the Mining Engineering magazine. There are probably also trade organizations you can find on the Internet.

[Peter V.]

Well I understand its hard to compete with China and that is the reason I am looking for a way to process the Perlite to add value without investing too much capital.
Its quite difficult to find someone with expertise who is willing to share the information on for example expanding the product.

Thank you for your reply Jim.

[Peter V.]

Dear mineral forumers,

As you can see I am still quite new here and trying to do some research on this wonderfull rock called perlite.
The reason I am such an fan of this rock is because its anorganic and its finding more purposes in our daily lives as we speak.
A dear friend of mine, his family farm got struck by a vulcano in '97 leaving nothing left except perlite and blacksand. We are trying to find out what we can do with this stone that as far as I know has no function in nature.
First of all we are trying to determine what determines the quality, is there anyone with expertise on this rock?

Kind regards,
Peter

[GneissWare]

[pvpind]

Hello Peter,

I joined this forum just to answer your questions about perlite. I work for a expander in Ohio and think I might be able to direct you to the answers you are looking for.

This link will direct you to the Perlite Institute. This is a trade org. that has compiled data that will help you understand perlite and it's many uses.

perlite dot org

About processing you can look over this website. They are the manufacturer of the two furnaces we currently operate.

incon-corp dot com

Hope you find this helpful.

Have a great day,
Mike

[Pete Modreski]

Dear Peter V.,
I think that the link to the Perlite Institute website should put you on the right track for the kind of information or ideas you are looking for.
As you have I think come to understand, this Forum is really focused on information about fine mineral specimens, not industrial uses of minerals; but, the people on it are always willing to help give advice if they can.
From reading all you say, I wonder if what you really have is actually perlite, or is pumice? Perlite is a dense, grey rock, normally found as the center of older, rhyolite lava flows, and it is made into the lightweight, commercial "perlite" by artificial heating in a kiln. Pumice of course is a natural, lightweight frothy volcanic material, and has somewhat different properties and is used differently in industry and commerce. As to the exact differences in their properties and use--I'm sure that someplace like the Perlite Institute can answer that better than I can. If your material is from a recent volcanic eruption and covers your friend's fields, it sounds like it is pumice, not perlite.
Best of luck to you,
Pete Modreski, Denver CO (Forum member, and geologist with the USGS)

[Peter V.]

Thank you very much for the info Pete Modreski and Pvpind. This is such an great community!
Here are some pictures of the perlite or pumice, let me know what you think it is. Would be much appreciated.
Thanks again guys.

[Peter V.]

@pvpind I have been trying to send you an pm (personal message) but I am not allowed to for the first ten days.
I actually have both these sites in my favourites but I cant find any specifications on the equipment. I am not sure if these expansion units are too expensive or even too high capacity. We are talking about a piece of land with no more then 3,000,000 tons.
You can reach me at: justvervuurt at hotmail dot com
I would really love to talk with an expert about this mineral.

Kind regards,
Peter

[pvpind]

Peter,

I can tell you that the mineral in yuor images is not perlite and looks much more like pumice. Searching google images almost makes me sure it's pumice. Here is an image of the raw material perlite. Remember it has been screen and dry at this point.

[pvpind]

This is one of the expanded materials from that ore

[Peter V.]

Thank you Pvpind.
I would like to ask you some more questions but this does not seem the right place to discuss. Could you please contact me via email or send a pm?

[Riccardo Modanesi]

Hi Peter, hi to everybody!
I agree with Pvpind. The rocks Peter found are pumice, not perlite. Perlite is the mother-rock of the "Apaches Tear" oxydiane, and it is the rock Pvpind sent us in this forum. The one Peter represented here is very common in Southern Italy, particularly close to the volcano Vesuve near Naples, and it is the rock which destroyed the town Pompei in the year 79 after Christ during the eruption of the Vesuve. If you go and visit the archaeological site of Pompei, then you will even find tons of pumice, it is very very common!
There is another interesting proof: pumice swims on water and doesn't sink, differently from almost all of the other rocks and minerals! Try with your rocks, Peter!
Greetings from Italy by Riccardo.

[Peter V.]

Thanks for your suggestion Riccardo.
The water test: The larger ones (3/8 mm) all sank except for 1 that floated for about 30 secs and with the smaller ones (1mm) about 15-20 % stayed floating.
Is it possible I have perlite and pumice?
What is the difference between Perlite and pumice?

[Joseph Taggart]

Perlite is a volcanic glass that has absorbed moisture over geologic time. Until it is popped it is not light and does not float on water. The final popped product requires

" ...an expansion process due to the presence of two to six percent combined water in the crude perlite rock. When quickly heated to above 1600 F (870 C) the crude rock pops in a manner similar to popcorn as the combined water vaporizes and creates countless tiny bubbles in the softened glassy particles. It is these tiny glass-sealed bubbles which account for the amazing lightweight and other exceptional physical properties of expanded perlite.
Expanded perlite can be manufactured to weigh from 2 lbs/ft3 (32 kg/m3) to 15 lb/ft3 (240 kg/m3) making it adaptable for numerous uses, including filtration, horticultural applications, insulation, inert carriers and a multitude of filler applications."

Since your light colored pebbles are a recently erupted natural material, has visible crystals and has not been processed by man in an oven, it is not perlite. The only thing that it has in common with processed perlite is that it is light in color and some of it floats in water. What you have is pumice, a frothy natural glass. Unfortunately, judging by the crystals visible in the pictures the samples do not look like a uniform glassy pumice, and are not of a quality to be used as an abrasive.

Sorry, but about the only thing I can think of selling it for, is landscaping gravel or possibly gravel for a light weight concrete. But that, of course, brings up the problem of "who in your neighborhood wants any more?"

I hope this answers your questions, but sorry that it is not the economic solution to your problem.

Joe Taggart

[vic rzonca]

Peter V, after reading these posts, a thought. I'm not sure what the filler is in the new light weight sheet rock, but that might be an outlet for your gift from the earth. Good luck.