Minerals Technologies Inc. (MTI) is a technology-driven specialty minerals company that develops, produces, and markets a broad range of mineral and mineral-based products, related systems and services.
The company serves globally a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including household and personal care, paper and packaging, food and pharmaceutical, automotive, construction, steel and foundry, environmental, and infrastructure.
Segments
The company operates through two segments:...
Minerals Technologies Inc. (MTI) is a technology-driven specialty minerals company that develops, produces, and markets a broad range of mineral and mineral-based products, related systems and services.
The company serves globally a wide range of consumer and industrial markets, including household and personal care, paper and packaging, food and pharmaceutical, automotive, construction, steel and foundry, environmental, and infrastructure.
Segments
The company operates through two segments: Consumer & Specialties and Engineered Solutions.
The Consumer & Specialties segment serves consumer end markets directly with mineral-to-market finished products and also provides specialty mineral-based solutions and technologies that are an essential component of the company’s customers’ finished products.
The Engineered Solutions segment serves industrial end markets with engineered systems, mineral blends, and technologies that are designed to improve the company’s customers’ manufacturing processes and projects.
The company is focused on executing its growth strategy of expanding the company’s business into faster-growing markets and geographies and strengthening its leadership positions in existing markets. In addition, the company maintains a research and development focus by accelerating the development of advanced new products and technologies to satisfy the changing customer requirements and creating market opportunities.
Consumer & Specialties segment
The Consumer & Specialties segment provides technologically enhanced products to consumer-driven end markets, including mineral-to-market household products, as well as specialty additives that become functional components in a variety of consumer and industrial goods. This segment includes two product lines: Household & Personal Care and Specialty Additives.
Household & Personal Care Products and Markets
The Household & Personal Care product line delivers mineral-to-market products to a variety of consumer-oriented markets, including pet litter, personal care, fabric care, edible oil and other fluid purification, animal health, and agricultural. The core technology used in this product line is called, Functional Additives, which is the use of unique minerals and additives to deliver functionality to its products and its customers’ products. The principal products of this product line are marketed under various registered trade names, including PREMIUM CHOICE, VitaLife, Sivocat, SIVO, RAFINOL and ENERSOL.
The company’s cat litter products include sodium bentonite-based scoopable (clumping), traditional and alternative cat litters sold to grocery and drug stores, mass merchandisers, wholesale clubs and pet specialty stores throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. The company’s scoopable products’ clump-forming capability traps urine, thereby reducing waste by allowing for easy removal of only the odor-producing elements from the litter box. The company is a provider of private-label cat litter to retail partners, as well as a provider of bulk cat litter to national brands and other private label packaging companies. The company’s internal transportation group provides logistics services and is a key component of its capability in supplying customers on a national basis. The company has completed acquisitions of several cat litter manufacturers over the past 5 years in both the European and North American markets.
The company also manufactures personal care ingredients for cosmetic anti-aging formulations and advanced delivery system technologies for sustained release of retinoid and other actives in cosmetic, OTC and prescription formulations. It also produces mineral ingredients providing improved feel and viscosity control in cosmetic formulations. The company has been a market leader in retinol-based delivery systems and supplies liquid retinoid products. Products range from ingredient sales to fully formulated finished goods.
The company supplies fabric care products and additives consisting of high-grade, agglomerated bentonite and other mineral additives that perform as softening agents in certain powdered-detergent formulations or act as carriers for colorants, surfactants, and fragrances. These fabric care products are formulated to adapt to the company’s customers’ changing technical requirements.
In addition, the company produces several other bentonites and leonardite-based proprietary solutions for consumer and industrial applications, such as:
Natural bentonite feed additives to improve animals’ digestive health through gastrointestinal binding of mycotoxins.
Filtration media for edible oil, renewable fuels, and beverages where the company’s unique mineral reserves and differentiated process targets removal of specific contaminants.
Agricultural products to improve plant harvests, plant health and soil that enhance crop yield.
Advanced performance additives, including organoclays, used in flame retardants, plastic packaging, rubber mold release, paints, coatings and ink manufacturing processes.
Specialty Additives Products and Markets
The Specialty Additives product line delivers mineral additives to a variety of consumer and industrial end markets, including paper and packaging, food and pharmaceutical, sealants and adhesives, paints and coatings, and plastics. The core technology used in this product line is called, ‘Crystal Engineering’, which involves proprietary processes to synthesize crystal type, size, and morphology to achieve specific functionality.
The company manufactures customized Precipitated Calcium Carbonate (PCC) and Ground Calcium Carbonate (GCC) products using proprietary processes for the paper, paperboard and fiber-based packaging industry. Each product is designed to provide optimum balance of paper properties including brightness, opacity, bulk, strength, and improved printability. The majority of this product line's sales are to papermakers from satellite plants.
The company’s research and development and technical service staff focuses on expanding sales from its existing and potential new satellite plants, as well as developing new technologies for new applications. These technologies include, among others, OPACARB PCC, a family of products for paper coating, its FulFill family of products, a system of high-filler technologies that offers papermakers a variety of efficient, flexible solutions which decrease dependency on natural fibers, and NewYield and ENVIROFIL waste stream process technologies, innovative technologies that convert paper and pulp mill waste streams into functional pigments for filling paper and paperboard.
The company owns, operates and maintains all of its satellite facilities and owns or licenses the related technology. Generally, the company and its paper mill customers enter into long-term evergreen agreements, initially ten to fifteen years in length, pursuant to which the company supplies substantially all of the customer’s requirements. The company is generally permitted to sell to third-parties products produced at a satellite plant in excess of the host paper mill’s requirements.
The company estimates that the paper packaging market is approximately three times the size of the printing and writing paper market. The company offers mineral solutions for filler and coating applications in both the containerboard and cartonboard packaging.
The company also produces and sells a full range of specialized PCC products on a merchant basis for non-paper applications, including surface-treated and untreated grades of PCC to the polymer industry for use in automotive and construction applications, and to the adhesives and printing inks industries. The company’s PCC is also used by the pharmaceutical industries as a source of calcium, as a buffering agent in tablets, food applications, and as a mild abrasive in toothpaste.
In addition, the company mines and processes GCC products at its reserves in the eastern and western parts of the United States. GCC is used and sold in the construction, automotive and consumer markets in addition to packaging applications. The company’s high-quality limestone and dolomitic limestone are defined primarily by the chemistry and color characteristics of the ore bodies. Ore samples are analyzed by x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and other techniques to determine purity and more generally by Hunter brightness measurement to determine dry brightness and the Hunter yellowness (b) value. The company serves multiple markets from each of its operations, each of which has different requirements relating to a combination of chemical and physical properties.
Engineered solutions segment
The Engineered Solutions segment provides advanced process technologies and solutions that are designed to improve its customers’ manufacturing processes and projects. This segment includes two product lines: High-Temperature Technologies and Environmental & Infrastructure.
High-Temperature Technologies Products and Markets
The High-Temperature Technologies product line delivers mineral-based blends, technologies, and systems to the foundry, steel, glass, aluminum and other high-temperature processing industries. The core technology used in this product line is called, ‘Engineered Blends’, which is the development of tailored blends of specific minerals and additives to enhance customer processes and product performance.
These products help the company’s customers in the foundry and casting industry to improve productivity by reducing scrap from metalcasting defects and poor surface quality. The ADDITROL blends also improve the efficiency and recycling of sand blends in mold sand systems by lowering clay consumption and improve air quality by reducing volatile organic compound emissions. The company’s mine to mold operational capability has resulted in providing a consistent high-quality product, technical support and reliable on-time delivery service valued by its customers.
The company also offers a broad range of monolithic and pre-cast refractory products and related systems and services for the steel industry.
The company’s proprietary application equipment is used to apply refractory materials to the walls of steel-making furnaces and other high temperature vessels to maintain and extend their useful life. MINSCAN refractory application machines allow for remote-controlled application of its refractory products in steel-making furnaces, as well as in steel ladles. This helps the steel-making industry to achieve their employee safety goals and increase productivity. These application systems and the technologically advanced refractory materials developed in the company’s research laboratories have been well accepted by the company’s customers. These solutions allow steel makers to improve their performance through, among other things, the application of monolithic refractories to furnace linings while the furnace is at operating temperature, thereby eliminating the need for furnace cool-down periods and steel-production interruption.
The company sells the following refractory products:
Gunnable monolithic refractory products and application systems to users of basic oxygen furnaces and electric arc furnaces for application on furnace walls to prolong the life of furnace linings.
Monolithic refractory materials and pre-cast refractory shapes for iron and steel ladles, vacuum degassers, continuous casting tundishes, blast furnaces and reheating furnaces.
Refractory shapes and linings to the glass, cement, aluminum, petrochemicals, power generation and other non-steel industries.
Refractory product sales are often supported by the company-supplied proprietary application equipment, laser measurement systems and on-site technical service support. The company’s technical service staff and application equipment assist customers to achieve desired productivity objectives. The company’s technicians are also able to conduct laser measurement of refractory wear, sometimes in conjunction with robotic application tools, to improve refractory performance at many customer locations. The company also produces a number of other technologically advanced products for the steel industry, including calcium metal, metallurgical wire products and a number of metal treatment specialty products.
The company also produces a specialized line of carbon composites and pyrolitic graphite sold under the PYROID trademark, primarily to the aerospace and electronics industries.
Environmental & Infrastructure Products and Markets
The Environmental & Infrastructure product line provides environmental, construction and remediation solutions. These include geosynthetic clay lining systems, vapor intrusion mitigation products, sub surface waterproofing systems, green roofs, wastewater remediation and drinking water purification technologies, as well as drilling products for both the construction/infrastructure markets, as well as the oil and gas exploration and production industries. The core technology used in this product line is called, ‘Particle Surface Modification’, which is the modification of the outer layer of its minerals through chemistry.
The company’s geosynthetic clay lining systems are marketed under the RESISTEX and BENTOMAT trade names principally for lining and capping landfills, mine waste disposal sites, industrial waste storage sites, such as bauxite residue and coal ash waste. The company also provides associated geosynthetic materials for these applications, including geotextiles and drainage geocomposites. The vapor intrusion mitigation applications include specialized technologies to prevent gas vapor intrusion in new building construction. Products offered include Liquid Boot, a spray applied vapor barrier system that works as a stand alone or in conjunction with various membrane systems to provide best in class performance.
Additionally, the company offers a wide variety of both active and passive waterproofing and greenroof technologies for use in protecting structures from groundwater intrusion. The company’s products include VOLTEX a waterproofing composite, which comprises two polypropylene geotextiles needle punched around a sodium bentonite core. Similarly, ULTRASEAL waterproofing membrane is an advanced membrane product built around unique active polymer core; and its COREFLEX waterproofing membrane is an award-winning active polymer core and heat welded PVC membrane for protection of critical infrastructure. The newest offering it has in this space is its VINTEGRA waterproofing membrane, a product that takes its proven active polymer core and layers it between an ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) membrane that provides the highest level of both gas and water vapor protection. The VINTEGRA membrane is available as both an active and passive system. In addition to these membrane products, the company also provide a variety of sealants and other accessories required to create a functional waterproofing system. The end-users of these products are specialty subcontractors trained by the company in the proper installation of all its products.
The company is also well known in the environmental remediation industry providing technologies that address a variety of complex and aggressive contaminants in soil, groundwater, and marine sediment. These products are marketed under the ORGANOCLAY trademark. The reactive capping technologies and solutions containing ORGANOCLAY compositions are used to effectively contain residual contamination and to reduce costs associated with ex-situ remedies. Products offered include its REACTIVE CORE-MAT composite geotextile, an in-situ sediment capping material and its QUIKSOLID polymer, a super absorbent media. The company also specializes in treating soil, groundwater, landfill leachate, surface waters and drinking water sources contaminated with Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) with the company’s FLUORO-SORB absorbent.
Drilling Products are used in environmental and geotechnical drilling applications, horizontal directional drilling, mineral exploration and foundation construction, as well as in oil and gas well drilling. Bentonite imparts thickening and suspension properties that facilitate the transport of rock cuttings to the surface during the drilling process. It also contributes to a drilling fluid’s ability to lubricate the drill bit and coat the underground formations to prevent hole collapse and drill-bit seizing. The company’s primary trademark for this application is the trade name PREMIUM GEL.
Additionally, within this product line, the company provides offshore filtration and well testing services to improve the production, cost, compliance, and environmental impact of activities performed globally in the oil and gas industry.
Marketing and Sales
The company relies principally on its worldwide direct sales force to market its products. The direct sales force is augmented by technical service teams that are familiar with the industries to which the company markets its products, and by several regional distributors. The company’s sales force works closely with its technical service staff to solve technical and other issues faced by the company’s customers.
In the Consumer & Specialties segment, the company’s commercial sales team sells its private-label cat litter to retail partners, as well as to national brands and other private label packaging companies. In addition, the company’s sales team and technical services staff assist paper producers in ongoing evaluations of the use of PCC for paper coating and filling applications, as well as PCC and GCC use in the packaging, automotive, construction and household goods markets.
In the Engineered Solutions segment, the company relies on industry-specialized technically oriented salespersons. These sales teams provide expertise to educate the company’s customers on the bentonite blend properties and to aid them in producing castings efficiently. Certain other products are distributed through networks of distributors and representatives, who warehouse specific products at strategic locations. In addition, the company’s technical service personnel advise on the use of refractory materials, and in many cases pursuant to service agreements, apply the refractory materials to the customers’ furnaces and other vessels.
The company works closely with its customers to ensure that their requirements are satisfied, and it often trains and supports customer personnel in the use of its products. The company oversees domestic marketing and sales activities principally from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Hoffman Estates, Illinois, and from regional sales offices located elsewhere in the United States. The company’s international marketing and sales efforts are directed from regional centers located in India, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Turkey, Japan and China. Its worldwide network of sales personnel and manufacturing sites facilitates continued international expansion.
Seasonality
Some of the company products in the Engineered Solutions segment, within the Environmental & Infrastructure product line are impacted by weather and soil conditions. Many of the products cannot be applied in wet or winter weather conditions, and as such, sales and profits tend to be greater during the period from April through October. Sales in its Specialty Additives product line, within Consumer & Specialties segment, are subject to similar seasonal patterns. In addition, the oil and gas production facilities are subject to natural disasters, such as hurricanes, which could lead to lower sales in the June to November months within this product line.
Research and Development
For the year ended December 31, 2024, the company spent approximately $23.0 million on research and development.
Patents and Trademarks
The company owns or has the right to use approximately 240 patents and approximately 1,810 trademarks related to its business. The company’s patents expire between 2025 and 2041.
Environmental, Health and Safety Matters and Government Regulation
The company is subject to certain requirements under the Clean Air Act.
History
Minerals Technologies Inc. was founded in 1968. The company was incorporated in 1968.
