Laviosa Chimica Mineraria SpA are a specialist bentonite producer with mines around the world and process facilities in Italy.  Their expertise, which has been gathered over 70 years, is augmented by constant improvements and innovations driven by their reseach and development department. Laviosa, unlike companies more focussed on geosynthetics, are capable of tailoring their bentonite products to suit particularly challenging environments.

Laviosa's Geosynthetic Clay Liners or GCL are manufactured using natural sodium bentonite powder sandwiched between two geotextiles.  The manufacturing process includes needling of the top non-woven geotextile so that fibres are driven through the bentonite powder and locked in the carrier geotextile on the base.  This process produces geotextiles with high peel strength and shear resistance.  The strengths of geotextiles used in the manufacturing can be varied to allow for higher tensile strengths for steeper slope applications.

Using natural clays for linings can be unreliable and their consistency uncertain, they are also difficult to place on steep slopes. This is not the case with Laviosa's GCL which while only 6mm thick, has the hydraulic conductivity equivalency of 1m depth of compacted clay. The added benefits are the speed of installation; better long-term integrity and self-sealing puncture resistance.  Being thinner they also take up less space in any landfill or tailings pond so increasing the potential capacity of the facility.

Laviosa GCLs are commonly used as secondary containment below HDPE liners in landfills and tailings dams and are produced under very strict QC guidelines.

GeoPro_GCL.pdf