Ann: Agricultural Applications Research for Halloysite Nanotubes, page-19

Hi ADN’ers,I am grateful for all the positive and informative posts I read here daily. I have been in ADN and MEP since November 2020. It’s been a bit of ride and a mental test for myself over the past couple of months but I am holding with conviction now – especially after today’s announcement.

For some holders,today’s news might seem a bit like choosing vanilla in an ice cream shop with24 flavours but this could really be a sleeping giant.

Foodsecurity together with sustainable land use, water and soil management are verysignificant worldwide issues. Soils really are the foundation of all food production (hydroponics excluded) and soils on a worldwide scale are being degraded.

Issues suchas salinisation (salting), erosion (breakdown and loss of soils by water andwind), oxidation (loss of carbon and release of carbon dioxide into theatmosphere), acidification (decrease in pH limiting plant growth), runoff(increased water runoff due to compaction and declining soil structure), eutrophicationof waterways (nutrient rich waterways as a result of excess chemicalfertilisers being washed into creeks and streams and water bodies – blue/greenalgae etc) and now stratification barriers particularly with the nutrient phosphorus(one of the two big nutrients in eutrophication).

Like Pezzsaid, there is a farming move to reducing ploughing or tillage of the soil whichis positive for a whole number of reasons as per above. But when fertilisers like phosphorus (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are the three most common elements in agricultural/horticultural fertilisers) are added to soils transitioning from tillage to no tillage (or minimum tillage), a layering of nutrient can occur.

Soil typesworldwide are defined by the ratio of three particle sizes: sand, silt andclay. The ratio of these three particles in a soil defines the soil texture by names like loam, sandy clay, silt etc. It’s an international standard equally applied to agriculture, soil engineering and building and construction.

If sand wasa basketball clay would be a pea, silt somewhere in between. A particle of clay can’t be seen by the naked eye. It’s more like a microscopic plate shape rather than a grain and is the result of physical and chemical weathering of mineral rock material over millions of years. Clay in itself is very common and there are many different types and colours. One of the significant properties (and unique in comparison to sand and silt) that clay exhibits, is a negative or minus charge. So, it’s like a mini magnet. A microscopic high surface area magnet. So what? Many compounds and elements like water and major nutrients are positively charged. From an agricultural perspective, if there is not enough clay (or the right type) in a soil profile, then many nutrients can simply leach through and water is easily lost.

Kaolin is typeof clay. Like down rampers have ignorantly posted, it is very common. You can go and buy a cubic metre of the stuff from central Victoria for under $20. In this case, its application is limited for incorporation into road base and some very basic construction materials etc. You can buy another type of clay, sodium bentonite, used for lining dams, making kitty litter and used as agricultural feed binders, very cheaply too. My wife and I are avid gardeners and grow a lot of our own food. We live by the beach so use both kaolin and bentonite clays to improve the water holding capacity and nutrient holding capacity of our sandy soil.

Then thereare the rarer types of clays, more specifically the rarer and more valuablekaolins of this world. We know the uses: paper, coatings, ceramics (yes that includes toilets and basins), fillers etc. The world’s supply of this kaolin is limited, especially in the grades and quantities required by industry. Hence credible plays and suppliers like SUV and WAK etc.

Then there isone of the rarest types of clay minerals in the world, pure grade kaolin and halloysitekaolin in the form of perfect nano tubes. Please welcome ADN and MEP.

It doesappear that we have the largest and purest known supply in the world. The application and use of this unique mineral are immense. There are several proven high end, high demand applications like the specialised porcelain industry. Then there are many applications under development, several with world first, soon to be realised, potential (concrete, HPA, carbon capture etc).

Today’sannouncement is about another under development application, the science ofusing phosphorus and fertiliser more efficiently and remediating degraded agriculturalsoils. Just to put it in context, approximately 5 billion hectares of land are under some sort of agricultural production worldwide. This is a significant announcement.

Down rampersyou are on ignore. Hoping NNT develop a nanotube to stick you all in (after all our other applications have been exhausted).

Bostock33