American Coatings Show

Active Minerals International (AMI), the world’s largest supplier of high-quality gellant attapulgite for the coatings, adhesives, sealants, tape joint compound, oil well drilling, and other industries, has announced their latest capacity expansion is ready to start up at their Florida operations. This initiative, according to company President Dennis C. Parker, is aligned with increasing global demand in AMI’s major markets and new developments in international coatings markets.

AMI’s capacity expansion is designed to increase overall production of gel grade products by 40%. Equally important is that the mining operation, which won the highest reclamation awards from the Georgia Mining Association six years in a row, is well positioned to meet the global demand for high-quality gellant crude for several decades. Parker stated, “AMI has a proven record of reliable supply of attapulgite products for over 50 years and this is just one of many steps we’ve taken to ensure we continue to do so for the next 50.”

While Parker cites the rate of construction and infrastructure development in emerging economies as one factor increasing demand for attapulgite, he explains, “the strong interest in AMI products by international customers and distributors stems from the fact that coatings professionals, from formulators to chief financial officers, recognize the world has only a handful of foremost authorities in attapulgite technology; and most of them are here at Active Minerals.”

AMI’s Director of Technical Sales and Marketing, Jeffrey B. Carr, along with Parker, is among the individuals recognized as leading authorities in attapulgite. Carr describes additional factors driving demand.

“Min-U-Gel  attapulgite customers are a priority for Active Minerals. We bring the highest quality standards, customer service, and supply chain management practices to bear on customers’ behalf. Our Quincy, Florida attapulgite operation serves our customers with more than 120,000 square feet of storage for bagged product, allowing us to ship from inventory and maintain short lead times, even during the coatings market’s busy Spring season. In addition, being one of the top 100 exporters in the U.S. coupled with our strong logistic capabilities provides excellent service to our international customers.”

Min-U-Gel thixotropic thickener and suspension agents are produced in a unique manner that makes Active Minerals Internat ional’s gelling grade products 10% purer than competing grades of gelling clays. Through a robust ISO 9001 registered Quality Management System and adynamic continual improvement culture AMI has a well-proven track record of consistent quality and customer satisfaction.

“Coatings manufacturers prefer Min-U-Gel products for their ease of use, consistent quality, and superior economy,” said Carr. “Our Min-U-Gel 400 product functions well as a drop-in replacement to competitive products or as substitutes – in whole or in part –to other higher-cost rheology modifiers, like cellulosic fibers and other types of mineral thickeners.”

Active Minerals’ Min-U-Gel products ideally suspend and stabilize dispersed particles in liquids to provide these performance benefits:

•  Superior flow and leveling
•  Syneresis control
•  Thixotropic thickening with no loss of recovery (fade) under repeated or prolonged shear
• Reduced floating and flooding of organic pigments.