FAQs
SOS Children's Village

The KAMIG supports the SOS Children's Village project in Rechberg. Visit this project at:

http://dahoam.rechberg.at/

FAQs


Where is KAMIG?

The company’s offices and part of the kaolin processing facilities are located in the village of Aisthofen near Schwertberg due to its rail connection.
Both of KAMIG’s mining operations are in the lower Mühlviertel region between Tragwein, Allerheiligen and Mauthausen. The main operation is in Kriechbaum, where kaolin and quartz sand are extracted.


Kamig Standorte auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen
Werk Weinzierl (GZ. 13.088/81-1.4/00)Werk Kriechbaum (GZ. 13.088/81-1.4/00)

At present the only minable deposits of kaolin are in Upper Austria on the southern edge of the Bohemian Massif in the area around Schwertberg.

Both of KAMIG’s mining operations are in the lower Mühlviertel region between Tragwein and Mauthausen.
The main operation is in Kriechbaum (30 km north-east of Linz). In Weinzierl there is a smaller deposit which is strip mined.

The company’s offices and part of the kaolin processing facilities are located in Aisthofen near Schwertberg due to its rail connection. In Mistelberg the company has mining rights to a kaolin deposit.

In Münzbach the company has leased a sandpit.

top

What is kaolin?

The kaolin deposits, which are noted for their exceptional quality, are located on tectonic fault line and developed during the Tertiary period, a geological era over 40 million years ago. At this time the land was covered with moor landscapes and marshes. The light organic acids which developed in these moors and marshes – humic acids and humic acid solutions – decomposed the feldspar in the granite with dilute carbonic acid and transformed it into kaolin.

In this way a primary deposit over 40 metres thick and with an area of more than 70 hectares was formed.
At the end of the Tertiary period, when the land had sunk, the deposits were flooded by the sea and covered with huge marine deposits. Numerous finds of mussels and sharks’ teeth unearthed during mining activity date from this period and permit the individual strata to be precisely classified.

top

Was ist Kaolin?

The name "Kaolin" comes from the Chinese word “Kao’ling“, the name of a white mountain which provided Chinese porcelain factories with a white clay mineral containing feldspar. The name was first brought to Europe from China by a Jesuit priest in the 18th century. The raw material had already been familiar for some time here and was known as "white clay" or "Passau earth".
Kaolin, according to its chemical formula an aqueous aluminium silicate and better known as white clay (Latin: bolus alba), is today one of the most important industrial silicate minerals and has numerous applications.

top

What is kaolin used for?

Kaolin was once only used in the manufacture of porcelain and ultramarine and in paints but since the start of the 20th century numerous applications have been found for it.
The paper industry is the main customer for kaolin and, depending on quality, uses it as a cheap extender or as a coating pigment to improve surface finish quality.
Porcelain and ceramic manufacturers and the fireproofing industry – i.e. the classic consumers – use kaolin in ceramic masses and in glazes.
In addition kaolin is used in a wide range of industries, for example as an extender for paints and varnishes, as an inert, strengthening filler in rubber and plastics, as a carrier for insecticides, as a filler for sealing materials, glues, pencils and crayons, in pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, etc.
Kaolin from the Mühlviertel region is pure, white and exceptionally fine – all characteristics that industry values highly.

The following is just a selection of the applications for KAMIG’s kaolin:

  • In the paper industry (newspapers, magazines, cigarette paper, …)
  • Sanitary ceramics (glazes for wash basins, WCs …)
  • In the abrasives industry (ceramically bound abrasives)
  • Ceramic tableware
  • In the tile industry (especially in glazes)
  • Tile adhesives (special adhesives)
  • In porcelain (insulators for electrical industry plants, ceramics workshops, potters’ needs)
  • In paints, varnishes (dispersion paints, aircraft varnish, furniture varnish, construction paints)
  • Pencils, crayons (leads for Jolly products, Koh-I-Noor products)
  • Adhesives (for paper cases)
  • Pesticides (Zervacol extra, game browsing repellents and pesticides)
  • Hand-wash pastes (Super sand-free hand cleaner, Handgrün)
  • In the pharmaceuticals industry (udder cream)
  • Cosmetics (Munari packs, mud packs for spa treatments)
  • Rubber industry (rubber mixtures, rubber mats, special rubber)
  • Brick industry (raw kaolin for clay bricks)
  • Green house construction (natural cleaner)

top

What else is produced?

Quartz sand is also a by-product of kaolin production. This and other quartz sands from a total of four different sites are mainly used in the building industry but also in the construction of sports facilities (golf courses and beach volleyball courts) and in many other areas. You can find more information here. In strip mining the clays in the overlying strata are mainly supplied to the brick industry. Other materials are used as filler.

top