Most whites in a glaze — zircon, and the titanium minerals ilmenite and rutile — come from one thing: coastal sand. Same dunes, same mines, split apart in the same plant. This is where they come from, how they’re pulled out of the ground, and what that costs — beyond the carbon number that never counts it.
About the images. None of the footage here shows the actual mines. The real images of these sites belong to companies and agencies, and the rights are closed or out of reach — so I’ve built this from my own workshop and from freely-licensed material instead. If you want to see the real machinery on the real sites, it’s worth looking yourself. Search terms that work:, heavy mineral sands mining, Grande Côte Operations Senegal, Richards Bay Minerals dune mining, Jacinth-Ambrosia Iluka.
Sources
▪ USGS & World Bank — production and trade data
▪ Zircon Industry Association & World Nuclear Association — zircon, monazite, thorium, radioactivity
▪ Iluka Resources, Rio Tinto / Richards Bay Minerals, Grande Côte Operations (Eramet) — mine sites
▪ Research on Senegal’s Niayes — coastal farmland & desertification
▪ Amnesty International, Mail & Guardian, Daily Maverick, EJAtlas — Xolobeni & the Amadiba Crisis Committee
▪ The Shore Break (dir. Riley Grunenwald) — Wild Coast community resistance
Figures are approximate global averages. A starting point, not a verdict.
a month agohotdropmia
Pretty much everything we use we only have access to because there is an industrial process behind it as the sole driver of production.
a month agosprigginawesomestudios
And people waste glaze and throw away their reclaim without thinking what it takes to get those materials to them
2 months agof20maggio
Credo che sia proprio come dici tu, come per ogni sfruttamento di risorsa che serve all’industria, anche quella della ceramica. Il fatto è che si devono trovare delle alternative, ognuno nel proprio paese, nella propria regione e nel territorio circostante. Io non saprei da dove cominciare, se qualcuno mi vuole illuminare, sono in Italia, Roma.
2 months agoamyscotiapottery
This is great information 👏. I'm curious about the other uses of these materials as well. Where does the majority of the minerals get used in industry?
2 months agomagali.pvilela
Merci de partager toutes ce informations ! Est-ce qu’il existe des fournisseurs éthiques et transparents sur la provenance des matériaux, et sur les ingrédients ?
2 months agodeanjacob525
The mobile phone parts are the worst in destroying the environment. But we have no choice.
2 months agogruni.ceramica
I wonder why, when you talk about international mining companies, you are using a footage from Oradea, Romania (or, anyway, that region)? I really don’t think there is any connection but I would be 😮 if there is. Also, look into cobalt mining, kids work in the mines
2 months agoceramicsbyjuno
Wonderful, even my cozy hobby is destroying the planet. Can I just have safe peace? 😭
More posts
