TALC

Talc is the world's softest mineral. Although all talc ores are soft, platy, water repellent and chemically inert, no two talc's are quite the same. Talc is a vital part of everyday life. The magazines we read the polymers in our cars and houses, the paints we use and the tiles we walk on are just some of the products that talc enhances.
Talc is a hydrated magnesium sheet silicate with the chemical formula Mg3Si4O10 (OH) 2. The elementary sheet is composed of a layer of magnesium-oxygen/hydroxyl octahedral, sandwiched between two layers of silicon oxygen tetrahedral. The main or basal surfaces of this elementary sheet do not contain hydroxyl groups or active ions, which explains talc's hydrophobic and inertness.
Chemical specifications
ELEMENT
RESULT (%)
Category Concentration
Excellent
Extra
Normal
SiO2
62.16
62.7
62.51
MgO
31.54
30.94
30.34
AL 2 O 3
0.32
0.36
0.38
CaO
0.43
0.54
0.58
Fe 2 O 3
0.15
0.19
0.31
Na 2 O
0.082
0.101
0.069
K 2 O
0.03
0.04
0.04
L.O.I
4.81
4.81
5.02
P 2 O 5
0.054
0.044
0.057
H 2 O
0.24
0.180
0.23
Total
99.816
99.905
99.536
Brightness
96.6%
89.5%
85.1%