Three Springs Mine is a

talc Talc, or talcum, is a clay mineral, composed of hydrated magnesium silicate with the chemical formula Mg3Si4O10(OH)2. Talc in powdered form, often combined with corn starch, is used as baby powder. This mineral is used as a thickening agent a ...

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

located outside of

Three Springs, Western Australia Three Springs is a town located north of Perth, Western Australia on the Midlands Road, which until the opening of the Brand Highway in 1975 was the main road route from Perth to the state's north. The town is the seat of the Shire of Three S ...

. Owned and operated by the Imerys Group, a French-based company, the mine is the oldest and most productive talc mine in the southern hemisphere, and the second-most productive talc mine in the world, with recent annual production of 240,000

tonne The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton ( United State ...

s. Rio Tinto acquired the mine in 2001 from the

Western Mining Corporation Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US * Western, New York, a town in the US * Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia * Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that ...

for US$27.8 million.

References

External links

MINEDEX website: Three Springs Talc
Database of the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety Imerys Talc mines Surface mines in Australia Talc mines in Australia Mines in Western Australia Shire of Three Springs {{WesternAustralia-geo-stub