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Researchers at Inonu University in Malatya, an eastern Anatolian city in Türkiye, have processed potassium feldspar ore into raw materials for the fertilizer, aluminum, and abrasives sectors without producing waste. Potassium feldspar is a mineral used mainly in glass and ceramic production.
The project, named POTASSIAL, is formally titled “Zero-Waste Utilization of Feldspathic Ores: Green and Sustainable Resource Use for Strategic Raw Materials.”
The European Union Horizon 2020 ERA-MIN3 2021 call accepted it, and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK) and Inonu University’s Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit supported it. The project has now been completed.
Inonu University Department of Mining Engineering faculty member Prof. Murat Erdemoglu coordinated the work.
Partners include Firat University, Mugla Sitki Kocman University, the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Sweden’s Lulea University of Technology, Britain’s Element Six Inc. and Türkiye’s ETI Aluminyum.
Erdemoglu said separating valuable components from feldspar, a non-metallic industrial mineral, leaves a significant amount of waste.
About 700 kilograms of waste remain from every ton of ore, he said. Glass and ceramic products that reach the end of their service life are sent to waste sites.
Malatya holds potassium feldspar reserves, and the team began the study four years ago to find uses for the ore in other industries.
Until now, Erdemoglu says the mineral has served only as an additive in glass and ceramics.
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