INDUSTRIAL MINERALS: Canadian zeolite could be answer to Japanese radiation

VANCOUVER – Canadian Mining Company (CMC) has received a request from the Japanese trade commissioner requesting samples of clinoptilolite zeolite from the company’s deposits near Princeton, BC.

Japanese companies are interested in importing zeolite from Canada for use in the decontamination of soils in the regions affected when the March 11, 2011, earthquake damaged the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. When clinoptilolite zeolite was released into the ocean near the outflow of the damaged plant, it adsorbed cesium-137, preventing the dispersion of radiation into the ocean.

CMC said that clinoptilolite zeolite has been used to clean up after many major radioactive disasters around the world including the Three Mile Island meltdown in Pennsylvania in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986 where over 500,000 tonnes of the mineral was dropped by helicopter on the plant site in the Ukraine as well as being introduced into the feed of dairy cows in the region to remove cesium-137 from the milk they produced.

Visit www.CanadianMining.ca to learn more about applications for zeolite.