Perlite and vermiculate make an interesting pair of naturally occurring minerals with similar, but not identical, properties and multiple applications. These applications include construction (further segmented to various construction branches, like insulation, ultra- and lightweight concretes and aggregates, screed, roofing systems, asbestos alternative, etc), horticulture, animal feed, fire protection, as well as numerous, constantly growing and often high-tech, industrial applications (like analogues of organic polymer systems or a new generation of specialized flexible films, papers, coatings, additives for various industries). Construction, especially production of lightweight aggregates, is the main end-market for expanded perlite and vermiculate, and it will remain as a main application area in short- and mid-term perspective.
Global vermiculite and perlite demand is expected to grow by 3.5-4.3% a year. In near future, Asia Pacific will show the highest consumption growth rates.
Perlite and vermiculate can be and are mined in many countries, but the geography of economically viable production is fairly restricted. In general, contrary to the common concept of being widespread, three quarters of the worldwide supply of industrial minerals and rocks is derived from five or fewer countries. For vermiculate and perlite, the percentages of world production from five and fewer countries account for almost 100% and 99%, respectively. The United States is one of the world’s largest producers and consumers of crude perlite and expanded perlite, with New Mexico being the most important perlite-producing state. Other countries that produce large amounts of crude and expanded perlite include Turkey, Greece, China, Iran, Philippines, and Mexico.
Perlite: structure of the global production by country, 2014
Major vermiculite mines are located in South Africa (the Palabora complex), China, Brazil (Brasil Minerios owns the world’s largest working deposit with a production capacity to be boosted to 200,000 tons per year by 2016), Russia, and the United States (the states of Virginia and South Carolina).
Vermiculite: structure of the global production by country, 2014
Advanced properties (good insulation, inertness, low density, and fire resistance) coupled with good availability and ecological friendliness of perlite and vermiculate safeguard their competitive edge and fairly bright future despite possible fluctuations in end-use markets and general economic conditions in specific countries. Future climate change scenarios and dwindling water resources open up excellent prospects for the use of vermiculite as a water-retaining substrate and insulator material efficient in energy consumption and prevention of heat loss in buildings, which will drive the demand for vermiculate in hydroponic systems and green roofing. It is important to understand that the above-mentioned prospects pertain to the global market for perlite and vermiculate regarded as a whole. The prospects of specific national markets and players dealing with perlite and vermiculite are more uncertain, varied and fragmented. The national markets will depend on multiple factors, like the distribution of deposits, their economic size, availability of vermiculite/perlite expansion facilities and other factors which determine the viability of the mineral resource sector. This implies large intraregional specifics. For example, in the USA the economics of perlite and vermiculate were historically largely different. The US perlite market has originated as non-oligopolistic, in contrast to the US vermiculite market, which has formed as highly monopolistic and vertically integrated market. Later, the US vermiculite market was greatly affected by health issues of workers who mined vermiculite at the Rainy Creek deposit near Libby, Montana due to the association of the local vermiculite ores with asbestiform minerals. This resulted in the increase in the US vermiculite imports from South Africa, China and Brazil.
More information on the perlite and vermiculite markets can be found in the comprehensive research report “Perlite and Vermiculite: 2015 World Market Review and Forecast”.