Pottery stones are shipped out as materials for tableware and ceramics, etc. They make up the highest production volume at our mine and represent Tsuchihashi Mining’s products. Given their fire-resistance and characteristic transparent white color when fired as pottery or ceramics, they are an important material determining product quality.
The pottery stone ore shown in the earlier photograph is a particularly high-quality special-grade material among our pottery stones. Pottery stones are generally finely crushed, and used as the material for ceramics, bone china, and sanitary ware (toilets, sinks, etc.).
Ceramics materials are produced by a wet-classifying method called “elutriation,” which uses the difference in specific gravity. Our pottery stones are also made into materials for ceramics by elutriation. However, as we do not have facilities for elutriation and fine crushing, we usually outsource the production to a nearby crushing company when supplying elutriated ceramics materials.
Other applications of pottery stones include abrasive grains (powder used by grinding wheels for polishing metal surface, etc.) and cosmetics.
Products are shipped out from our mine in sizes of <= 10 mm obtained by roughly crushing the stones. They are shipped in bulk or by filling flexible containers using large trucks.
(Pottery stone, Special Grade) Material for Western style tableware (bone china), ceramics, etc.
(Pottery stone, Grade 1) Material for sanitary ware, Western style tableware, ceramics, insulators, etc.
(Pottery stone, Grades 2, 3) Material for ceramics, insulators, etc.