Middle Georgia Kaolin Mines Can Be Traced Across The Globe

SANDERSVILLE, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – If you’ve ever ordered a pizza, ever bought a case of beer, or purchased a box of cereal, you have directly supported a middle Georgia product.

If you have ever picked up a newspaper, or flipped through the pages of a magazine, your purchase is keeping middle Georgia in business.

In fact, anywhere you travel in the world, almost any product you have purchased that comes in a box, or has a smooth glossy finish on its page, you’re picking up a piece of middle Georgia earth in your hand.

It’s called kaolin, and we sit on top of the world’s largest supply.

The Thiele Kaolin Company, is the world leader when it comes to processing kaolin for what is known as Coated Board.  Coated Board is the cardboard box that so many of our food and shipping products are purchased in. 

Kaolin is extremely valuable, because it’s so unique in it’s chemical makeup.

“It actually only has two dimensions… an X and a Y. There’s no Z to the dimension,” Mining Engineer Gary Snow explains.

Having only two dimensions allow kaolin to lay perfectly flat, giving the product it’s applied to, that glossy, smooth finish.

Mined in what is called an ‘open pit mine’, kaolin is especially prevalent in Washington County. Dug out from several hundred feet down as a white chalky substance, kaolin is a by-product of granite.

It gets processed, cleaned, dried, and then shipped across the world to be used predominately by paper and box making companies.

Once the the land has been mined, The Thiele Kaolin Company then restores the land, by planting trees, grass, and leaving a pond.

“It (the pond) will be sloped down, and become a fishing pond. For recreation,” Snow says.

Snow has been working in mining nearly his entire life. According to him, Washington County will be busy for a very long time.

“We expect to be mining kaolin out to 300 years or so.”