List of countries by bentonite production


Bentonite is an absorbent aluminium phyllosilicate generally impure clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite. There are a few types of bentonites and their names depend on the dominant elements, such as potassium, sodium, calcium, and aluminium. As noted in several places in the geologic literature, there are some nomenclatorial problems with the classification of bentonite clays.
Bentonite usually forms from weathering of volcanic ash, most often in the presence of water. However, the term bentonite, as well as a similar clay called tonstein, have been used for clay beds of uncertain origin. For industrial purposes, two main classes of bentonite exist: sodium bentonite and calcium bentonite.
In stratigraphy and tephrochronology, completely devitrified ash-fall beds are commonly referred to as K-bentonites when the dominant clay species is illite. Other common clay species, and sometimes dominant, are montmorillinite and kaolinite. Kaolinite dominated clays are commonly referred to as tonsteins and are typically associated with coal.

List of producing countries

This is a list of countries by bentonite in 2006 mostly based on accessed in June 2008.
Rank by
sovereign state		Country/RegionBentonite production
World 14,600,000-
1 United States 4,620,000
2 China 3,200,000
3 Greece 1,100,000
4 India 1,081,000
4 Turkey 600,000
5 Russia 500,000
6 Italy 470,000
7 Mexico 435,273
8 Brazil 419,214
9 Germany 363,998
10 Argentina 256,165
11 Czech Republic 220,000
12 Iran 186,323
13 Spain 160,000
14 Cyprus 150,620
15 Australia 135,000
16 Bulgaria 134,500
17 Slovakia 95,700
18 Poland 93,880
19 South Korea 61,137
20 Azerbaijan 40,600
21 South Africa 32,878
22 Algeria 27,110
23 Ukraine 25,000
24 Bosnia and Herzegovina 24,050
25 Macedonia 20,353
26 Romania 20,229
27 Pakistan20,000
28 Vietnam 20,000
29 Denmark 19,011
30 Croatia 16,410
31 Uzbekistan 15,000
32 Peru 14,590
33 Colombia 8,500
34 Hungary 6,635
35 Egypt 6,300
36 Nicaragua 6,300
37 Indonesia 5,000
38 Georgia 4,487
39 Philippines 3,600
40 New Zealand 3,028
41 Thailand 1,200
42 Burma 800
43 Armenia 720
44 Mozambique 610