Company Background / History

With over 225 production plants on five continents, Sibelco is the undoubted world leader in the production of four industrial minerals: Silica sand and flours, Cristobalite, Nepheline Syenite and Ball Clay. Pure Silica sand and flour, with over 99.5 % SiO2, is the main raw material for high-grade industrial applications including float glass, glass fiber, fused silica, quartz crystal lenses, ceramics and sodium silicate. It is the ore used to produce silicon metal which forms the cores of integrated circuits. In some specialist high-tech applications, crystalline silica is irreplaceable, for example, in optical data transmission fibres and in precision casting. Sibelco applies various techniques to ensure that our high-quality industrial minerals meet the specifications of our customers. Our many different mines provide materials with a wide variety of intrinsic properties and a range of industrial processes are employed to meet customer specifications: sieving, hydro-sizing, surface-attrition, flotation, acid-leaching, grinding, calcination etc... During our 125 year history - and thanks to a special relationship of trust with our customers across a wide range of industrial applications - today Sibelco offers experience and know how that is unique.