Silica (SiO2) is found in hundreds of products and industries, from simple sand to space shuttle heat shields tiles.
The principal supplier AAFFG/AAC has vast deposits of raw silica ore of top grade hardness and purity suitable for uses which have the most stringent requirements.
- It is nearly 100% pure
- It is extremely hard quartz
- It is so easily available and
- It is so large
Initial production will fund entry into series of increasingly higher margin Silica-based products. Products range, for example, in order from simplest/cheapest to more complex/expensive:
- Decorative silica stone and roadbed base rock
- Fractioning sand (“frac sand”)- Frac sand slurry is used to fracture subterranean rock in oil and natural gas wells to revive production
- Fumed silica
- Optical fiber cable
- Silica aerogel
- Silicon is a silica alloy used in the making of computer chips and solar panels.
Uses of Silica include:
- Production of window glass, drinking glass and beverage bottles.
- Optical fibers for telecommunications
- Analytical instruments – UV spectrophotometer cells, military fire control devices, retied substrates, interferometer plates.
- A primary raw material for many white ware ceramics such as earthenware, stoneware and porcelain as well as industrial Portland cement
- An additive in the production of foods, pharmaceuticals and healthy supplements, where it is used primarily as a smoothing agent (think peanut butter) and as a flow agent in powdered products and in pill manufacture.
Further Uses of Silica:
- As a raw material for aerogel in the stardust space craft
- In the extraction of DNA & RNA due to its ability to bind to the nucleic acids under the presence of chaotropes
- As a defoamer component
- In toothpaste
- As a refractory in fiber from as a high temperature thermal protection fabric.
More Uses of Silica:
- In cosmetics, it is useful for its light diffusing properties and natural absorbency.
- Colloidal silica is used as a wine and juice fining agent