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asbestos
united Kingdom summary 2000–2004
Commodity 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
24
Tonnes £ thousand
asbestos
Imports
Fibre 246 246 2 3 0 244 386 33 40 3
Waste 0 101 116 — 2 149 0 327 311 — 102
Fabricated asbestos 431 136 187 433 356 1 365 1 257 1 165 1 154 900
Friction material with a basis 5 831 6 623 10 884 7 853 7 577 22 485 29 369 40 009 34 109 31 000
of asbestos etc.
Articles of asbestos cement etc. 57 126 51 314 57 890 63 082 58 744 13 488 16 131 18 142 18 449 18 566
Exports
Fibre 2 1 1 — — 12 3 16 — —
Waste — — — — 0 — — — — 2
Fabricated asbestos 1 313 943 690 1 321 638 8 119 5 445 5 205 4 543 3 377
Friction material with a basis 5 108 5 217 4 055 3 644 3 338 33 097 34 915 22 369 22 263 22 299
of asbestos etc.
Articles of asbestos cement etc. 62 456 40 326 26 792 22 972 16 848 15 266 12 322 8 710 8 918 6 638
asphalt, natural
united Kingdom summary 2000–2004
Commodity 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Tonnes £ thousand
asphalt, natural
Imports 286 364 268 207 232 887 194 759 94 670 22 430 22 788 24 911 19 322 7 958
Exports 148 037 170 150 116 317 79 604 160 781 14 626 16 394 12 042 7 690 15 683
ball clay
Ball clays are fine-grained, highly plastic sedimentary clays, which fire to a light or near white colour. They are used mainly in
the manufacture of ceramic whiteware (sanitaryware, floor and wall tiles, and tableware) and also refractories, and are valued for
their key properties of plasticity, which makes them easy to mould, their unfired strength and the fact that when fired they have
a light colour. Ball clays exhibit highly variable compositions and consist of a mixture of predominantly three minerals; kaolinite,
mica and quartz. The clay mineral kaolinite is the key component.
Ball clay sales were a record 1 068 654 tonnes in 2000, but have been on a gradual decline since and were an estimated 950 000
tonnes in 2005. The UK is a leading world producer and exporter of high quality ball clay. In 2004, 805 359 tonnes (83 per cent)
of sales were destined for export, including 634 836 tonnes to the EU.
Ball clay has a restricted occurrence in the UK and resources are confined to three small areas all in the south-west region of
England: the Bovey and Petrockstowe basins in Devon and the Wareham Basin in Dorset. The Bovey Basin is the most important,
both in terms of total sales (68 per cent in 2004) and, more importantly, the diversity and quality of the clays that are produced.
The Wareham and Petrockstowe basins accounted for 19 per cent and 13 per cent of total sales, respectively in 2004.
The two UK producers of ball clay are WBB Minerals the world’s leading producer of high-quality ball clays, and Imerys Minerals
Ltd. WBB is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SCR Sibelco SA, a privately-owned Belgian mineral company, and operates solely in
Devon. Imerys Minerals is a subsidiary of the Imerys Group of France and has had workings in all three basins. However, the
company ceased production in the Petrockstowe Basin at the end of 2004, because of the high costs of extraction.