Blog Post

World's Largest Kyanite Mine, world record at Willis Mountain, Virginia

May 22, 2024

Willis Mountain, Virginia, United States--With millions of tons of reserves, tens of thousands of tons of finished product inventory, and with the capacity to mine, purify, process, and package well over a hundred thousand tons every year, the Kyanite Mining Corporation at Willis Mt. in the Piedmont Province of Virginia, sets the world record for being the World's Largest Kyanite Mine, according to the WORLD RECORD ACADEMY.

"Willis Mountain is a monadnock rising from the rolling Piedmont hills of Buckingham County, Virginia, near the geographic center of the state," the Wikipedia says.

"It is composed of Kyanite-bearing quartz that weathers more slowly than the surrounding material. The Kyanite Mining Corporation of Dillwyn has mined Willis Mountain long enough to reduce significantly the profile of the mountain."

"The world’s largest kyanite mine (Kyanite Mining Corporation) at Willis Mt. in central Virginia is within the Piedmont region of the Appalachian Mountains," The Conference Exchange says.

"The kyanite is found within quartzites and schists, which are part of the metasedimentary Arvonia Fm. Aluminosilicate deposits occur throughout the Blue Ridge and Piedmont terranes of the Southern Appalachians, where they are suggested to be associated with sedimentary protoliths that were altered in high-sulphidation epithermal systems (Owens & Hollingsworth, 2018).

"However, none are suggested to be as rich in kyanite as the Willis Mt. deposit. This work presents a combined field, petrographic and mineral chemical analysis of samples to determine conditions of metamorphism and effects of protolith composition on formation of the kyanite."

"Kyanite Mining Corporation is the world’s largest and oldest producer and supplier of the industrial mineral kyanite and its calcined derivative, Mullite. It holds these distinctions for a reason," the official website says.

"The company has been family owned and operated since the 1940s and has remained laser focused on its core business ever since. With millions of tons of reserves, tens of thousands of tons of finished product inventory, and with the capacity to mine, purify, process, and package well over a hundred thousand tons every year, KMC stands ready to meet the needs of its global customer base well into the future.

"For decades, the Dixon family has proudly owned and operated Kyanite Mining Corporation, passing down their dedication to putting the needs of their customers first from generation to generation. Safety and efficiency are a top priority in our mining process, and we strive to consistently produce the highest quality Kyanite and Mullite."

"Kyanite Mining Corporation is built around two separate ore bodies and four separate processing facilities. These assets give the company the ability to produce close to 150,000 tons of highly purified Kyanite every year (and to turn roughly 25,000 tons of that into high quality Mullite) ," the official website says.

"The key to the operation is a state-of-the-art proprietary beneficiation process that takes as its feed a Kyanite-quartzite ore of widely varying grades/impurity loads. It then turns that material into a highly purified, consistent final product that refractory engineers the world over have come to rely on."

"The world’s largest kyanite mine is hosted within kyanite quartzite at Willis Mountain in the Piedmont Province of Virginia, and numerous smaller bodies occur throughout this region. Most occur in the Ordovician Chopawamsic or Milton terranes, which consist primarily of arc-derived metavolcanic rocks, volcanogenic metasedimentary rocks, and felsic plutonic rocks.

"Earlier investigators viewed these rocks as metamorphosed aluminous sandstones, but we report mineralogical and geochemical evidence that the protoliths were hydrothermally altered igneous rocks,"the GeoScienceWorld says.

"All rocks contain accessory rutile, white mica (locally green Cr muscovite), and locally abundant pyrite. Topaz, lazulite, and other rare minerals occur in some samples. Whole-rock analyses for 22 samples from nine separate localities show very low to negligible concentrations of K, Na, Ca, Mg, and many trace elements; and a strong depletion in Ga relative to Al."

"Kyanite Mining Corporation, the world’s largest and oldest producer of kyanite in the world and the world’s only supplier of Virginia Kyanite™ and Virginia Mullite™ stands ready to provide the raw materials America needs to help rebuild its infrastructure for a stronger future," the National Mining Association says.

"Family owned and operated in Dillwyn, Va., for more than 70 years, customers around the globe depend on Kyanite Mining Corp. for consistent, high quality products.

"Kyanite and mullite is used to manufacture a wide range of products of refractory materials. Refractory materials are those that are resistant to very high temperatures. As a result, more than half of the kyanite consumed is used in refractories to produce steel.

"In 2016, 90 percent of kyanite transformed into mullite was used by refractories. Today, kyanite is commonly used in many electronics – from electrical insulators to spark plugs. Kyanite Mining Corp. can produce more than 150,000 tons of commercial grade kyanite concentrate every year, which will be necessary in rebuilding our failing infrastructure and developing innovative, new projects."

"In Virginia, one firm with integrated mining and processing operations produced an estimated 90,000 tons of kyanite worth $33 million from two hard-rock open pit mines and synthetic mullite by calcining kyanite," the USGS Publications Warehouse says.

"Commercially produced synthetic mullite is made by sintering or fusing such feedstock materials as kyanite, kaolin, bauxite, or bauxitic kaolin. Natural mullite occurrences typically are rare and uneconomic to mine. Of the kyanite-mullite output, 90% was
estimated to have been used in refractories and 10% in other uses, including abrasive products, such as motor vehicle brake shoes and pads and grinding and cutting wheels; ceramic products, such as electrical insulating porcelains, sanitaryware, and whiteware; foundry products and precision casting molds; and other products.

"An estimated 60% to 65% of the refractory use was by the iron and steel industries, and the remainder was by industries
that manufacture chemicals, glass, nonferrous metals, and other materials."

"The kyanite quartzites of the Willis Mountain and East Ridge deposits in Buckingham County, Virginia hosts the world's largest kyanite mine and constitute the largest known reserves of kyanite," the VTechWorks says.

"The stratiform kyanite quartzite is overlain and underlain by quartz-muscovite schists which are in turn enveloped by biotite-amphibole gneiss of the Cambrian Chopawamsic formation, metamorphosed volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks. The entire package of rocks has been metamorphosed to amphibolite grade peak conditions of 6.5 kb and 600°C.

"The kyanite quartzite is very similar in bulk composition and accessory mineralogy to high-alumina rocks of probable hydrothermal origin in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, and to active stratiform hydrothermal alteration zones in Tatun, Taiwan and Otake, Japan."

Photos: Kyanite Mining Corporation, Facebook/Kyanite Mining Corporation