This article is about the mineral known as kaolin or kaolinite in Turkey, which is a type of clay soil obtained from granite rocks. This type of clay, generally referred to as pure clay, is white and soft. If we talk about its formation, granite softens underground over long periods of time due to various factors such as lava and fragmentation, and eventually transforms into a type of clay called kaolin, which is composed of the mineral feldspar. Its formation takes a long time. Nowadays, it is mainly used in ceramics and porcelain production. The famous Chinese porcelain is also made from this type of clay. It is also possible to see the use of kaolin in many other fields.

In this classification, it can be seen that the minerals are classified according to their mineralogical classification as follows:

• The first group is “kaolinitic clays.”
• The second group is “smectitic clays.”
• The last group is “illitic-mixed clays (illite kaolinite, smectite, and chlorite).”

According to reports from the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (DPT), so far, kaolins have been distinguished within the second group “Kaolin, ball clay, halloysite, and refractory clays.” The remaining refractory and ball clays, i.e., “clay” or “ceramic clays” formed in sedimentary beds, have been classified as “other clays and shales,” and other clays such as bentonite, fuller’s earth, and brick and tile soils have not been included in classifications and statistics. In this report, the numbers are given in accordance with the above classification, as the inconsistency between the “ceramic clays” and “kaolinite” classification has always prevented the provision of accurate reports and statistical information. The mineralogical classification table is given under the “clay raw materials” section. As can be seen from this table, kaolinite is a clay mineral that is 2-layered and equally sized. In the mineralogical classification of clays, there has not been a complete consensus in the terminology, and it has been debated for many years. Ross and Kerr used the name kaolin for a group of minerals (kaolinite, dickite, nacrite, and halloysite), while some authors used the kaolin group as a name for a rock composed of clay minerals in petrographic terms. The name “candite” was proposed by Brown for the kaolin group of clay minerals but was not accepted. In addition to this mineralogical classification of clays, the primary clay mineral in the mixtures referred to as kaolinitic clay by ceramic raw material suppliers is kaolinite.