Mining

Blackjack Clay Company offers the only "pure Texas" clay bodies. None of the clays used in Blackjack's process are from dried, bagged materials. Drying clay changes its ability to react to water thus reducing the clay's natural plasticity and workability. Blackjack uses only non-processed, crude clays for their throwing bodies. All of the clays used are mined within a 20-mile radius of the processing plant. Many of these clay deposits Blackjack owns and mines itself. Most of Blackjack's pits are an acre or less in size and not over 20 foot deep. These deposits are too small to be commercially viable for large operations like Kentucky-Tennessee Clay Company, which mainly serve the ceramic tile industries, but are more than adequate for the pottery industry. With a deep sense of environmental commitment, each mining campaign is planned on a mining and reclamation program. Mining approximately 6 weeks every 2 years, the clay is removed and stockpiled, the pit area is then back-filled with overburden (removed prior to the clay retrieval) and the walls sloped. What remains at the end of each mining campaign are not huge muddy pits or ugly holes in the earth, but enlarged cattle ponds which, with subsequent mining will grow into lake areas increasing the value of the land.