It was a great day at RCSE and a wonderful way to begin the 2nd Quarter with a new member induction - Marianne Ganem-Poppell! Along with Marianne's induction, RCSE welcomed many guests at our meeting and had a very interesting presentation on dirt! Before our speaker began, President Laura Lane reminded members to please return their Thanksgiving Cards once they were complete. After all Rotary business items were discussed, Laura Lane introduced Steven Moore (manager of Dry Bulk Operations at Colonial Terminal, Inc) who spoke to us about kaolin clay.
Kaolin clay is a fine particle size clay that is mined along the Georgia Fall Line which starts around Macon where the state geography becomes more hilly. It goes into all porcelain and does not absorb water which is why it is good for ceramics. Paper coating is the primary use of kaolin clay. Any paper product with a glossy coating (magazine cover, 12 pack of coke) has kaolin in it. Georgia is the only state in the United States that has kaolin clay. It was first mined in Georgia in the 1940's and unfortunately, there is only about another 50 years of mining before the supply is gone.
Steven works for Colonial Group which was founded in 1921 and is now comprised of 8 companies. One of the companies is Colonial Terminal which acts as a storage and handling facility for customers. 30% of Colonial Terminal's business is the handling of kaolin clay. The kaolin comes from middle Georgia in rail cars and then Colonial Terminals will bag and put it in containers. It is then shipped all around the world to places like Japan, Korea, China and Europe. Brazil started mining kaolin clay in the early 2000's and that has taken a portion of the Georgia kaolin clay market. Kaolin clay's biggest competition is calcium carbonate.