25.30 ‑ Mineral substances not elsewhere specified or included.
(A) EARTH COLOURS, WHETHER OR NOT CALCINED OR MIXED TOGETHER; NATURAL MICACEOUS IRON OXIDES The colours classified here are usually naturally occurring clays mixed with white or coloured mineral substances, particularly iron oxide; because of their colouring properties, they are generally used as pigments. They include : (1) Ochres (yellow, brown, red, Spanish red, etc.). (2) Siennas (Italian sienna, yellow‑brown; and burnt sienna, orange‑brown, etc.). (3) Umbers (including burnt umber), which are brown or dark brown. (4) Black earths and natural vandyke brown (Cassel and Cologne earths). Soluble vandyke brown is a prepared pigment which falls in heading 32.06. (5) Verona earth and Cyprus earth (green). Calcination or the mixing together of various earth colours does not affect their classification. However, when mixed with other substances or presented as dispersions in water, oil, etc., they fall in Chapter 32. The heading excludes iron ores (heading 26.01) and earth colours containing 70 % or more by weight of combined iron evaluated as Fe2O3 (heading 28.21). However, micaceous iron oxides, used mainly as anti‑rust pigments are classified in this heading although they naturally contain more than 70 % by weight of combined iron. (B) MEERSCHAUM (WHETHER OR NOT IN POLISHED PIECES) AND AMBER; AGGLOMERATED MEERSCHAUM AND AGGLOMERATED AMBER, IN PLATES, RODS, STICKS OR SIMILAR FORMS, NOT WORKED AFTER MOULDING; JET (1) Natural meerschaum is a very light and porous hydrated silicate of magnesia, white, yellowish, grey or pink, found almost exclusively in Asia Minor. It is obtained in small pieces (the sides seldom exceed 30 cm). These pieces are submitted to a preliminary cleaning, scraping, wool polishing and drying (in the sun or in an oven), followed by further flannel and wax polishing, in order to improve their appearance and to establish their grade or quality. Agglomerated meerschaum is obtained by agglomerating shavings and other waste of natural meerschaum with binding agents (oils, alum, etc.) under the influence of heat. It falls here only when in plates, rods, sticks or similar forms, not worked after moulding. (2) Amber is a fossilised resin (also known as "succinite" or "Karabé"). It generally ranges in colour from yellow to deep orange. Care should be taken not to confuse amber or succinite with ambergris, a secretion of the whale, classified in heading 05.10. Agglomerated amber (or ambroid) is an opaque mineral substance formed by agglomerating amber waste. It falls in this heading only when in plates, rods, sticks or similar forms, not worked after moulding. (3) Jet is a compact variety of lignite. It is intensely black, easily carved and takes a high polish. Although employed in the manufacture of jewellery, it is not regarded as a precious stone for the purpose of the Nomenclature. (C) STRONTIANITE (WHETHER OR NOT CALCINED), OTHER THAN STRONTIUM OXIDE This group covers strontianite (natural strontium carbonates) and calcined strontianite, which consists mainly of impure strontium oxide. The heading excludes pure strontium oxide (heading 28.16). (D) MINERAL SUBSTANCES NOT ELSEWHERE SPECIFIED OR INCLUDED; BROKEN POTTERY This group covers, inter alia : (1) Natural arsenic sulphides. The two main varieties are : (¥¡) Realgar, which is an arsenic disulphide, bright red in colour, used in pyrotechnics. (¥¢) Orpiment, which is an arsenic trisulphide, bright yellow, used in paint‑making. Mispickel (arsenical pyrites or iron thioarsenide) is also included in this heading. (2) Alunite, also called alumstone because it is employed in the manufacture of alum. It is a stony substance, reddish‑grey or yellowish in colour, and stains the fingers. (3) Vermiculite, a mineral allied to mica and similar in colour but usually in the form of smaller flakes; also chlorites and perlite, minerals chemically related to vermiculite. These minerals expand when heated and then constitute heat‑insulating materials. In the expanded (or exfoliated) forms they are, however, classified in heading 68.06. (4) Lydite, a very hard, rough, fine‑textured and even‑grained, dark stone, not attacked by acids. Touchstones made of lydite (e.g., for testing precious metals) fall in heading 68.15. (5) Celestite (natural strontium sulphate); Iceland spar (or calcite) and aragonite, which are crystallised calcium carbonates; lepidolite (lithium mica) (fluosilicoaluminate of potassium and lithium) and amblygonite (aluminium phosphatelithium fluoride). (6) Garden earth, heath earth, marsh earth, marl, alluvium, leaf moulds and excavated soil and subsoil, which, although used in agriculture or in landscaping, are not included under Chapter 31 (Fertilisers) whether or not they contain in the natural state small quantities of nitrogen, phosphorus or potassium. However, the heading excludes excavated natural sands of all kinds (heading 25.05). (7) Pozzolana, santorin, trass and similar earths, sometimes called natural cements because they are used in cement manufacture. (8) Limestone (known as "lithographic stone" and used in the printing industry), in the crude state. (9) Broken pottery, broken pieces of brick and broken pieces of concrete. (10) Ores of the rare earth metals (e.g., bastnasite, xenotime, gadolinite), but not including monazites and other ores used solely or principally for the extraction of uranium or thorium (heading 26.12). (11) Opacifiers used in enamelling, obtained by the treatment (purification with hydrochloric acid and micronisation) of zircon sand. (12) Molybdenite "concentrates" obtained from molybdenum ores by certain physical treatments such as washing, grinding, flotation and by heat treatment (other than calcination) designed to drive off traces of oil and water, for non‑metallurgical uses (lubrication). (13) Nsutite, a manganese ore containing not less than 79 % by weight of manganese oxides, not used in the metallurgical industry for the extraction of manganese but in electric batteries. (14) Natural cryolite, obtained mainly from Greenland, snow-white, occasionally tinged with colour, shiny and almost transparent, used as a flux particularly in the electrolytic production of aluminium; natural chiolite, which, like cryolite, may be regarded as a sodium fluoroaluminate. The heading excludes chemically produced fluorides of similar composition to cryolite and chiolite (heading 28.26). The heading does not cover precious or semi‑precious stones of Chapter 71.
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