While common plastic clays are found in most countries, true “ball clays” are quite rare, and some of the best deposits occur in three locations in the South West of England. Ball clays are very fine grained, plastic materials and are a vital ingredient in the production of a wide range of ceramic products.

British ball clay is derived from the sub-tropical weathering and decomposition of rocks such as shale, sandstone, granite and chalk some 40-50 million years ago. It is a secondary, sedimentary material, formed from parent rock in one location and transported by water to another before deposition.

ECC International is the only ball clay producer operating in all three locations in England: North and South Devon and Dorset.

As with kaolin, we mix together feed clays from several different sources to form the optimum blend. Experienced technicians can pinpoint with great accuracy different types of ball clay within each pit.

All component clays are transported to a central processing plant where they are shredded and mixed. Some blends are extremely complex and contain a number of sub-blends which are again mixed to ensure complete consistency. The final blend is then stored separately and tested again prior to despatch.

We have been producing high quality ball clays for over 30 years and in that time have developed a detailed understanding of customers’ requirements.

ECC International offers over 30 standard ball clay blends, each categorised in one of five groups according to its properties:-

• Hycast clays have excellent fluid properties and are particularly intended for sanitaryware production.
• Hywite, a group of clays with high fired brightness, for tableware and other applications where fixed colour is important.
• Hymod clays have a high modulus of rupture and are excellent for tiles.
• Hyplas is a range of strong, plastic siliceous clays used in tiles, tableware and sanitaryware.
• Hypure clays are fully refined, spray dried materials, suitable for special applications where a high degree of purity is required.