Rio Tinto | Minerals and Metals for the world

Meet our Smart Minerals
It's a hi-tech life, and all our whizziest gizmos need some very clever materials to make them whiz. Graham Ellicott tunes in.

The text message from my itinerant son is as garbled as usual. "R U there? Im gonna B L8, C U @ 8.30 :-)".

Oxymoronic as it may sound, an improbable intelligence (and we're not talking of my son's IQ) is in action here. It is, believe it or not, the intelligence of minerals. In terms of strict definitions it may be pushing out the boundaries a bit, but the hard fact is that industrial minerals can be used to provide intelligent solutions for the needs of our everyday lives.

If you did get a text message on your mobile phone (using the UK terminology) today then the chances are that it is one of the newer slim lightweight models. Your ability to read the message will have been enhanced by the use of borates in the display.

The production of ultra thin liquid crystal displays (LCDs) uses borates. The same technology can also be used to modify the structure of glass to make it resistant to heat and chemical attack. Zirconium compounds manufactured from the industrial mineral zircon sand are also present in your mobile in the filters that help enhance the quality of the audio signal.



Meet our Smart Minerals It's a hi-tech life, and all our whizziest gizmos need some very clever materials to make them whiz. Graham Ellicott tunes in. The text message from my itinerant son is as garbled as usual. "R U there? Im gonna B L8, C U @ 8.30 :-)". Oxymoronic as it may sound, an improbable intelligence (and we're not talking of my son's IQ) is in action here. It is, believe it or not, the intelligence of minerals. In terms of strict definitions it may be pushing out the boundaries a bit, but the hard fact is that industrial minerals can be used to provide intelligent solutions for the needs of our everyday lives. If you did get a text message on your mobile phone (using the UK terminology) today then the chances are that it is one of the newer slim lightweight models. Your ability to read the message will have been enhanced by the use of borates in the display. The production of ultra thin liquid crystal displays (LCDs) uses borates. The same technology can also be used to modify the structure of glass to make it resistant to heat and chemical attack. Zirconium compounds manufactured from the industrial mineral zircon sand are also present in your mobile in the filters that help enhance the quality of the audio signal.
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Review is published by Rio Tinto, 6 St James' Square, London SW1Y 4LD, England Telephone +44 (0)20 7930 2399 Editor: Cherry DeGeer