My personal zeolite story
Our father has always regaled us with stories about the power of zeolite: for calves, for open udders, for diseased hooves in cattle. We heard of pig farmers who visited him on Sundays to thank him because the neighbors were no longer bothered by the smell of manure, because they could now have a snack next to the manure pit, and because the alfalfa had five cuts (which meant that the alfalfa could be harvested five times instead of four). His stories have always fascinated me, and it was wonderful to hear Dad's heart's journey , to witness how our father worked harder than ever, found deep meaning in it, and was happy, and still is today.
Now I'm immersed in this field myself, working with the soil, animals, and plants, surrounded by natural rocks. This fascination has rubbed off on me, and it's a great joy for me to witness the joy our clients experience and to be able to advise them.
How do you recognize good quality zeolite?
1. Where does the raw material come from? And how is zeolite mined?
There aren't many zeolite mining sites. In fact, there are none in Austria, and there are no zeolite deposits in Germany either. The first thing to know is that different mining sites have different zeolite compositions. This means that zeolite from Turkey, Romania, Poland, Ukraine, Norway, Cuba, Slovakia, etc., has different mineral compositions.
Over the past few years, my father and brother have carefully examined all the raw materials (except those from Cuba), analyzed them, and monitored the mining methods. For STEINKRAFT zeolite, we clearly opted for the raw material from Kosice in eastern Slovakia.
There are several reasons that are crucial for us:
Criteria for STEINKRAFT zeolite: composition and mining method
- the composition of the mineral,
- the high silicon content,
- the high clinoptilolite content and
- the proportion of heavy metals, which – and this is important – is in the green range.
At this mining site, raw material extraction is selective and carried out by an Austrian company; and the extraction is done by scraping, not blasting! We like that. This means that the raw material is not contaminated by blasting, thus preventing cross-contamination. During mining, high quality standards that comply with Austrian standards are maintained at the mining site.
Caution with zeolite
You should be especially alert if zeolite offers do not disclose the source or are described vaguely. The Carpathians, for example, are a long mountain range that stretches across several countries. There are several deposits here with very different qualities. Decide for yourself whether you want zeolite from Poland, Romania, Ukraine, or Turkey, or select a zeolite that meets the qualities described above. Prof. Dr. Hecht, the international zeolite expert, recommends the mining area in Kosice, eastern Slovakia.
2. The grinding method for zeolite is particularly important - MUST be tribomechanical
Conventional grinding processes are carried out using ball mills. I recently took a closer look at one such mill. Giant spherical shapes made of different metals grind the minerals. They are rubbed against each other until the raw material reaches the desired fineness. Such balls have to work for quite a long time to achieve a fineness of 50 microns. These balls (sometimes also discs) must be replaced regularly because of the high level of metal abrasion that occurs.
And where does this abrasion go during grinding? Zeolite attracts metal, so the abrasion is absorbed by the zeolite and contaminated. At the same time, the internal crystal lattices are crushed during this grinding process. The effectiveness of the zeolite is thus minimized.
My brother always explains it with a Maltesers ball: If you ground them, the inner cavities would ultimately be crushed and thus sealed. We don't have any of that with our STEINKRAFT products thanks to our special TRIBOMECHANICAL air pulverization (Air2Air): the crystal lattices are preserved, opened up even more, the effectiveness is increased, and the zeolite is pulverized finely and without abrasion.
CONCLUSION: Non-blasted zeolite tribomechanically micronized produces products of high purity with even higher basic energy (Bovis) - and a very good feeling.
