Industrial minerals are minerals or rocks that are important for technical processes and applications in industry. Unlike ores, which are converted into metals by smelting, industrial minerals can be used in their natural state or after minimal beneficiation.

Well-known industrial minerals that are mined and industrially used on a large scale in Switzerland today are:

• Rock salt
• Gypsum
• Special clays 

In Switzerland, rock salt is associated with evaporite horizons that were created at the time of the Triassic period around 230-240 million years ago. Today, salt deposits are exploited at Bex/VD as well as in Schweizerhalle/BL and Riburg/AG. About 30 percent of the extracted salt is used in industry and trade, 25 percent for road de-icing and roughly 15 percent as table salt.

The gypsum deposits are found – like the salt deposits – predominantly in the Triassic deposits of the Jura mountains and the Alps. Gypsum is currently being mined in Bex/VD, Granges/VS, Leissigen/BE and Kerns/OW. Gypsum is mainly used in the construction, but also in the ceramic and crafts industries. 

Other industrial minerals, which were earlier of importance and mined in Switzerland, are amongst others:

• Asbestos
• Talc
• Feldspar
• Barite
• Fluorite
• Quartz
• Mica
• Olivine