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EUBA Members
Industry Overview

EUBA brings together the main EU players in the bentonite sector, for a total annual production of more than 3 million tonnes.

CETCO Europe Ltd., formed in 1995, is one of the CETCO family of companies wholly owned by AMCOL International Corporation. There are European production facilities in England and Poland processing bentonite to manufacture products for construction, civil engineering, landfill and drilling markets. Bentonite products are also supplied for wastewater and produced water treatment. Further information may be obtained from the website http://www.cetco.com or by contacting customer.services@cetco.co.uk.

Website: http://www.damolin.dk. DAMOLIN A/S is a highly specialized and flexible company producing, since its establishment in 1942, cat litter, absorbents for oil and chemicals, powder and granulate products for a number of industrial purposes. Moler is found on the islands of Mors and Furs in Denmark whereas bentonite is found locally in Denmark and imported. The annual production of the two plants amounts to about 125,000 tons, 80 percent of this is exported. DAMOLIN A/S has two sister companies: DAMOLIN GmbH (www.damolin.de) and Franz Bertram GmbH (www.franz-bertram.de).

Laviosa Chimica Mineraria (www.laviosa.it), established in 1933, has its core business in bentonite. Its headquarters and facilities are situated at Livorno and Sardinia (Villaspeciosa, CA). Main markets are: foundry, cat litter, coatings, detergency, environment, civil engineering, ceramics, oenology, paper, for an annual production of about 220 000 tons. The processes are ISO 9001 certified.

Oil-Dri is a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of products for consumer, industrial and automotive, agricultural, sports fields and fluids purification markets. Oil-Dri's products provide solutions for living -- innovative solutions that help its customers make the world cleaner, safer and healthier, whether they are protecting crops, purifying food products, raising livestock, caring for pets or making work and play environments safe.

The company was founded in 1941 as a distributor of clay floor absorbents. Oil-Dri's product line has been diversified by leveraging the qualities of its extensive mineral reserves with an innovative research and development program.

Oil-Dri controls over 500 million tons of quality mineral reserves in the United States including attapulgite, montmorillonite and diatomite. Oil-Dri is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and operates an extensive R&D program from its laboratory campus in Vernon Hills, Illinois. In addition, the company has seven manufacturing facilities in North America and a plant in the United Kingdom. Further information may be obtained from their website (http://www.oildri.com).

Rockwood Additives Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rockwood Specialties Group Inc. headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey, USA. (www.rocksp.com).
Formerly owned by Laporte Industries Ltd until 2000, the business was sold to KKR, a leading US private equity firm along with other major businesses. The Widnes site in the UK from 1980 onwards has specialised in chemical processing of bentonites into speciality products used in the food, personal care, surface coating, catalyst, building and paper industries. Today, the three major product groups made at Rockwood Additives Widnes are Fulacolor, an acid activated clay for the carbonless copy paper industry, Fulcat, a range of clays used as catalysts, and Laponite, a synthetic hectorite used in many diverse applications (www.laponite.com). The Rockwood Additives group also processes bentonites into organoclays at the Southern Clay Products site in Texas, USA (www.scprod.com) and also at Rockwood Additives GmbH in Germany.

S&B Industrial Minerals S.A. (http://www.S.andB.gr) is a leading producer of Bentonite, Perlite and Bauxite in Europe, with a significant presence in the global market of industrial minerals. S&B, with headquarters in Athens, Greece, was founded in 1934. The company owns and operates mines in Greece, Germany, Georgia (CIS), Hungary, Turkey, Italy and China and serves its customers through a wide network of processing and distribution facilities (via affiliates and subsidiaries) in Europe, North America and Asia. IKO Minerals (www.ikominerals.com) in Germany, a subsidiary of Silver & Baryte, is a leading supplier of bentonite products for the foundry, civil engineering, paper, wine clarification and waste water treatment.

website: www.steetleybentonite.com. The company is owned by Tolsa SA since 1996, following transfer from Redland plc. Its activities include the production of UK Fuller's Earth (calcium bentonite) and the packing/processing of imported bentonites, sepiolite, moler, for a total annual production of approximately 200,000 tonnes.
Steetley's Head Office is based in Retford, Nottinghamshire, England. The production sites include Woburn Sands (Bedfordshire), Middlesbrough (Teesside), and Flixborough (Lincolnshire).
The main markets served are absorbents (pet litter, floor absorbents), paper, foundry, civil engineering, drilling, environmental control, agriculture, horticulture.

Website: www.sud-chemie.com.
Süd-Chemie is an innovative and international company for speciality chemicals. The Group owns more than sixty production and sales companies throughout the world, employing some 5,000 staff from varying regions and cultural backgrounds to develop, produce and market high-quality products and services in close proximity to their specific markets and customers.
In the field of Adsorbents and Additives, Süd-Chemie is synonymous with acknowledged competence and long years of experience. In the Catalysts sector, it is able to develop a suitable catalyst for the industrial application of any chemical reaction in its international laboratories, and produce these in facilities accross the world -- ensuring the required activity, selectivity and life span needed by its customers. The company has also opened up new fields of activity in the growth market of environmental technology, and its catalysts for fuel cells and air purification represent a significant contribution to future power supplies.
All-round services and orientation to customer needs are a key factor adding to Süd-Chemie's success.

Website: http://www.tolsa.com. Grupo TOLSA was founded in November 1957. The company produces sepiolite, bentonite, attapulgite and phosphates for a yearly production of 803.624 MT. The company's headquarters are based in Madrid were sepiolite and bentonite are produced. Other production sites include Torrejón el Rubio, Cáceres (attapulgite), Flixborough and Middlesbrough (bentonite processing), Allou - Kagne, Senegal (attapulgite processing), Lam-Lam, Senegal (phosphates processing).
The activities and product applications are clumping and no clumping cat litters, technological additives for animal feed, suspending, thixotropic and rheological additives for construction, asphalts, paints, agrochemicals, carriers for chemicals, floor spillage absorbents, waste treatment absorbents, foundry, paper, etc.