Granitic Pegmatites: Storehouses of Industrial Minerals

Granitic pegmatites are mined for feldspar, quartz, mica, lithium aluminosilicate minerals, and kaolin. These industrial minerals have a myriad of uses, some as mundane as glasses, porcelains, and bulk fillers, and others that are critical to the most advanced electronic devices. The chemical fractionation that produces pegmatites refines these industrial minerals to a purity that is not achieved in other geologic environments. The high chemical purity of their constituents and the fact that they contain nearly 100% of minable rock make large granitic pegmatites some of the most valuable sources of industrial minerals.