Asphaltite (also called Gilsonite) is used in more than 160 products, primarily dark-colored printing inks and paints, oil well drilling muds and cements, asphalt modifiers, foundry sand additives, and a wide variety of chemical products.
Asphaltite is mined much like any other mineral and sold essentially in its native state.
Asphaltite for use in asphalt is currently sold all over the world as an asphalt modifier in the form of a dry bulk solid granular powder.
Just a few countries are known to produce asphaltite, including the US (Utah), and more recently Colombia and Iran.
AM’s target market is asphaltite-modified asphalt producers. Such asphalt provides:
more stability
less deformation
lower sensitivity to temperature
resistance to water stripping
increased load-bearing capacity.
Asphaltite currently sells for around US$400 per ton, 10 times more than coal.