Raw materials for the ceramic industry in Murcia

The clay industry of the Murcia Region has never had a relevant industrial importance, with only around ten brick operations in the last few years. To day only only two brid factories are operative having certain size. The ext raordinary industrial development currently experienced by the Region has l eaded to the development of new initiatives which need institutional backin g. In this framework and under the sponsoring of the Council of Technologie s, Industry and Commerce of the Autonomic Community, the Spanish Geological Survey (ITGE) has carried out a general survey for raw materials for the c eramic industry in the region, mainly aimed to find clays for ceramic gres and glazed tiles, whose results are discussed in this paper. Murcia has a v ery complicated geology, being carbonated marine sediments the most importa nt lithologies. Due to it, it is difficult to find no-carbonated shales or clays to produce gres tiles. We have found six zones containing different c lay types, that reach a-few hundreds million tons of resources. With that c lays we have produce in the laboratory gres tiles and glazed tiles of comme rcial quality.