Bentonite Crystal

Bentonite is best known for its uses in oil, gas and water well drilling, environmental and civil engineering applications, clumping cat litter, foundry sand and is known as a “mineral with a thousand uses”. It is used in the construction of dams, canals, reservoirs, landfills and as a sealing material in the construction and rehabilitation of dikes and levees. bentonite expands when wet, absorbing as much as several times its dry mass in water.

Because of its excellent colloidal properties, it is often used in drilling mud for oil and gas wells and boreholes for geotechnical and environmental investigations. The property of swelling also makes bentonite useful as a sealant, since it provides a self-sealing, low permeability barrier. It is used to line the base of landfills for example.