In 2005, U.S. was the top producer of bentonite with almost one-third world share followed by China and Greece, reports the British Geological Survey.
The absorbent clay was given the name bentonite by Wilbur C. Knight in 1898—after the Cretaceous Benton Shale near Rock River, Wyoming. Other modern discoveries include montmorillonite discovered in 1847 in Montmorillon in the Vienne prefecture of France, in Poitou-Charentes, South of the Loire Valley.
Most high-grade natural sodium bentonite is produced from the western United States in an area between the Black Hills of South Dakota and the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming. Mixed sodium/calcium bentonite is mined in Greece, Australia, India, Russia and the Ukraine. In the United States, calcium bentonite is primarily mined in Mississippi and Alabama. Other major locations producing calcium bentonite include Germany, Greece, Turkey, India and China.
It should be noted that in some countries like the UK and US, calcium bentonite is known as fuller's earth, a term which is also used to refer to attapulgite, a mineralogically distinct clay mineral but exhibiting similar properties
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