Document ga74bBgM6N5dknDbM59EVjZwG

CAM-7 AN ANALYSIS OF OUR TALC COMPETITORS 1111 Johns-Manville DESERTALC UNITED SIERRA DIVISION OF CYPRUS MINES CORPORATION I. HISTORY USD is considered one of the largest talc producers in the wortd having mining, manufacturing, and distribution facilities In the United States, Europe, Mexico and other areas. Cyprus Mines Corporation acquired the Sierra Talc Company In 1964 and the Southwestern Talc Company in 1985. As an independent producing company, Sierra Talc was one of the largest domestic suppliers in the industry. Sierra Talc Company was headquartered In South Pasadena, California. and was a leader in the Industry in research and technical development. They developed a broad line of products specialized for industry consumption with emphasis on ultra-fine or micronized products. Desert Minerals has been fortunate in acquiring much experience and knowledge In our association with Individuals such as Joe 81sworth, Dick Lamar, and Norman Scheffel who all were former employees of the Sferra Talc Company. This experience coupled with the superiority of our basiC crude resources has been a fortunate combination which is now even further amplified with the resources of JohnsManville Corporation. II. GEOGRAPHY USD has its headquarters and research facilities at Trenton, New Jersey, from which all activities are directed in talc as well as other non-metallic mineral products. USD mines and mills talc In California, Montana. and Texas. Domestic manufacturing facilities are located at Los Angeles, Keeler and "Olancha, california; Three Forks, Montana; anti Grand "island, Nebr~ka. European business Is operated through a subsidiary CMC-Slerra Corporation operating a facility at Ghent. Belgium. based on crude talc shipped from the United States and Australia. III. 1IIIIItleI USD has historically purchased the bulk of their California talc from Grantham Mines, securing from them a uniform source of high-brightness, crude ore. USC has not publicized this fact; rather, they have promoted the Image that they mine California talc from several active mines in the Death Valley area of California. The two principal USD mines that have been publicized are the Panamint and Ibex deposits which are somewhat similar to Grantham tales In being tremolltic, but are not quite as high brfghtness as Grantham. USD has historically built a rather broad range of prOducts on the Grantham talc utilizing the high-brightness and uniformity features. The Montana operations of USD are open pit from either the' Yellowstone or Beaver head Mines. Yellowstone talc must be hand sorted to produce a commercial grade free from impurities of a steatHe type talc. USC Mistron Vapor is based on Yellowstone talc from Montana. Texas talc. as supplied by the Southwestern Talc Corporation, Is also open pit. Texas talc is grey to nearly black in color due to organic impurities which make the ground products relatiVely undesirable for paints and coatings, but ceramic products fired at high temperatures are suitable because the tales are white firing. IV. MANUFACTURltlG USD processing plants are strategically located for the resources. Steatite and cosmetic grade tales are processed at Keeler, California, on the west side of Death Valley. The Los Angeles oPeration processes primarily paint tales shipped from Grantham and the Southern Death Valley ~ea. Montana tales are processed at Three Forks, Montana A fourth mill located at Grand Island, Nebraska. was located at this point to proces' tales from either Montana or California enroute to the eastern markets. The' Grand Island location offers no advantage to processing California tales other than It .being a junction point for processing both California and Montana source materials. Basic processing of crude talc at all USD locations is the same as our 'processing with the additional facilities of fluid energy mHllng for the production of the ultra-flne Mistron Vapor and Mistron Frost products. 1 v. MARKETING USD products service all the Industries with which DESERTALCS and CYCLON 'ZED products afe serviced - ceramics. paint. plastics. paper. rubber. cosmetics. etcetera. USD markets their products partially on a direct basis and partially through distributors. The direct sales organization is industry oriented with specialists traveling nationally out of Trenton and some sales offices In the Northeastern United States. Thompson-Hayward is the distributor in the Central and Southeastern states. Van Waters and Rogers is the distributor in the West and Northwestern states. Table' is a data sheet defining the major USC products by Important properties. Due to product and specification changes, all of the known products are not listed. Any old or new product numbers or designations that you encounter competitively that are not listed should be evaluated for current recommendations. In general, the Flbrene products are Raymond Mill grinds utilized by the paint and plastiCS Industries. The Mlstrons are ultra-fine or micronized products requiring additional processing after the Raymond Mill production. Our DESERTALC MIKRO and CYCLONIZED product series are comparable to the Mistran series. Other speciality grades are often designated by the crude source or special names definitive for the Industrial consumption. Your DESERTALC Competition Data Sheet provides our recommendations for general usage. PFIZER, INC. I. HISTORY The talc operations are assigned to.the MPM (Minerals, Pigments and Metals Division) and consist of the consolidated operations from several acquisitions. The basic r;o::.f!iut. ;,. -:c.:~ was initiated by the .acquisltlon of C. K. WiDiams & Company In 1963. Prior to that, C. K. Williams had acquired the 'Kennedy Minerals Company of Los Angeles. Kennedy Minerals had operat~ a minerai processing plant in Los Angeles for several years and was involved with Louise Grantham as described In the DESERTALC BUSiness section of this Handbook by mining at Warm Springs under contract starting In 1943. Kennedy Minerals marketed tales under the name of Kentalc. Rbre M, and Warm Springs Talc. Kennedy. Minerals operation In Los Angeles consisted essentially of Raymond Mill production from which he supplied his products at 200 mesh to the ceramic Industry and at 325 mesh to the p~int Industry. The acquisition by C. K. WIlliams and subsequently by Pfizer of course did not Include the Grantham Mine at Warm Springs Canyon, but it did include two other smaller operating mines in Death Valley called the EClipse and the Death Valley Mines. PfIzer operated these mines on a small scale and initiated the conversion of the Kennedy Minerals' names to a number system with the coined names Talcran. Then in 1966. Pfizer made an additional acquisitIon which implanted the MPM DiVision more firmly Into the talc business. this acquisition was that of Southern CalifOrnia Minerals Company with a mill In Los Angeles and a mill at Dunn, califOrnia. It Is this Dunn Mill that was placed , fnto operation In 1963 by SCMC that Is now owned by Johns-Manville for expansion of the Desert Minerals product line. this acquisltJon also Included the purchase of the Tri-State Minerals Company and the Fine Pigments Corporation with plants and mines at Barretta and Dillon, Montana. These Montana operations constituted a joint venture between Southern California Minerals Company and Whittaker, Clark & Daniels. SCMC operated the mines and production facilities and WCD exclusively marketed the finished products east of the Rocky Mountain states. It was through WCO's efforts that WCD 399 SF (Super FIne) became established In the Eastern paint industry as the preferred micronized talc. Many other grades of Montana and California tales were marketed by WCD undera complex nu'mberfng system. weD has continued to market selected products under a contract with Pfizer sl~ the acquisition - notably WeD 399 SF. Pfizer, thus, supplemented their Initial acquisition with addit10nal California mines In the Death Valley area under such names as Apex, Acme, Monarch and Superior. In Montana. the Treasure and Regal Mines continue to supply. PfIzer has amplified the product line accordingly with additional trad~marks Gercron (ceramiC ,tales) and Microtalc (micronlzed) along with a complex numbering sYstem. PfIzer's actlvHles In the nonmetallic minerai business ~e supplemented with Eastern and Western sources of calcium carbonates, barytes. and others. 2 TABLE.! TYPICAL GRADES & PROPERTIES OF TALCS PRODUCED & MARKETED BY UNITED STATES DIVISION OF CYPRESS MINES CORFORAT.lON Grado Panamint 98 Particular Typo Acid Solubes " oa CaO Platy-Acicular Scr n Flnene .. " Thru Hagman F loono.5 F Ibrene C-300 Acicular-Platy 3.6 98-98.5/325 2-2.5 Fibrene C-400 Acicular-Platy 3.6 99.2-99.6/325 2-3 F Ibrene C-500 Acicular-Platy 3.8 99.699.9/325 3-4 Trinity Super Platy 2.0 95-97/ 325 1-2 Trinity Superfine Platy 2.0 99.2-99.6/325 2-3 Supreme 200 Platy 0.5-1.5 95-97/325 0-1. Supreme 325 Platy 0.5-1 .5 99.2-99.81325 2.3" Supreme USP Platy 0.5 99.2-99.6/325 2.3" Mlstran 139 Acicular-Platy 3.6 100/ 325 4-5 Mistran 128 Acicular-Platy 3.6 100/ 325 4.5-6.5 Mlstran T-076 Acicular-Platy 3.6 100/ 325 5-6 Mistran HGO-75 Platy 0.5-1.5 100/325 5-5.5 MI stran HG0-55 Platy 0.5-1 .5 100/325 5.5-8 Mistron Frost Acicular-Plat y 3.6 100/325 5.5-6 Mistron Vapor Platy 0.5-1.0 100/325 5.5-6.5 Mistron Monomix Platy 0.5-1.5 100/325 6-7 011 Absorption Spatula Ib./ IOO lb. Apparent Density Loos. Ib./F,' Color Photovolt Gr n F IIt.r 27-28 27- 29 28-30 24-26" 28-39" 25-28" 27-29" 27-29 " 35-37 38-40 42-44 50-52 55-60 46-50 55-80 55-60 23-24 22-23 19-21 25-26 23-24 26-27 21-22 21-22 14-16" 12-14" 10-12" 12-14" 10-1?" 8-10" 6-8" 6-8" 93 93 93 90" 90" 90" 90" 90" 94 95 96 92 92 97 89 89 Above properties taken from the latest USD publ ished specifications except where asterisks shown results are from our own laboratory tests. 9