List of countries by bentonite production

Bentonite is an absorbent aluminium phyllosilicate generally impure clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite. There are a few types of bentonites and their names depend on the dominant elements, such as potassium, sodium, calcium, and aluminium. As noted in several places in the geologic literature, there are some nomenclatorial problems with the classification of bentonite clays.

Bentonite usually forms from weathering of volcanic ash, most often in the presence of water. However, the term bentonite, as well as a similar clay called tonstein, have been used for clay beds of uncertain origin. For industrial purposes, two main classes of bentonite exist: sodium bentonite and calcium bentonite.

In stratigraphy and tephrochronology, completely devitrified (weathered volcanic glass) ash-fall beds are commonly referred to as K-bentonites when the dominant clay species is illite. Other common clay species, and sometimes dominant, are montmorillinite and kaolinite. Kaolinite dominated clays are commonly referred to as tonsteins and are typically associated with coal.

List of producing countries

This is a list of countries by bentonite in 2006 mostly based on British Geological Survey accessed in June 2008.

Rank by sovereign state	Country/Region	Bentonite production (tonnes)
	World	14,600,000
1	United States	4,620,000
2	China	3,200,000
3	Greece	1,100,000
4	India	1,081,000[1]
4	Turkey	600,000
5	Russia	500,000
6	Italy	470,000
7	Mexico	435,273
8	Brazil	419,214
9	Germany	363,998
10	Argentina	256,165
11	Czech Republic	220,000
12	Iran	186,323
13	Spain	160,000
14	Cyprus	150,620
15	Australia	135,000
16	Bulgaria	134,500
17	Slovakia	95,700
18	Poland	93,880
19	South Korea	61,137
20	Azerbaijan	40,600
21	South Africa	32,878
22	Algeria	27,110
23	Ukraine	25,000
24	Bosnia and Herzegovina	24,050
25	Macedonia	20,353
26	Romania	20,229
27	Pakistan	20,000
28	Vietnam	20,000
29	Denmark	19,011
30	Croatia	16,410
31	Uzbekistan	15,000
32	Peru	14,590
33	Colombia	8,500
34	Hungary	6,635
35	Egypt	6,300
36	Nicaragua	6,300
37	Indonesia	5,000
38	Georgia	4,487
39	Philippines	3,600
40	New Zealand	3,028
41	Thailand	1,200
42	Burma	800
43	Armenia	720
44	Mozambique	610

References

External links

• British Geological Survey World Mineral Statistics