Ground talc is a commercial product which commonly contains impurities of other minerals, including amphiboles, micas, serpentine, and carbonates. Soapstone and steatite are other common names for talcbearing rocks. Many of the most productive deposits of talc are formed by the metasomatic introduction of silica into carbonate rocks. Silica is mostly derived from adjacent siliceous sedimentary rocks. Important gangue minerals formed during metasomatism include chlorite, Fe oxides, tremolite, serpentine, diopside, and forsterite. Intrusive magmas locally appear to be heat and solution sources; elsewhere, evidence for their presence is lacking. Other deposits are derived from ultramafic rocks. These rocks are commonly, at least in part, converted to serpentinite during their emplacement as ophiolite fragments or during cooling as intrusive rocks. Later, low-temperature hydrothermal solutions have steatized part or all of the serpentinite bodies, producing either a body having zones of talccarbonate, pure talc, and chlorite blackwall or a soapstone containing talc, chlorite, actinolite, serpentine, carbonate, and Fe-oxide minerals. Ground talc is widely used in ceramics, paint, paper, plastics, and roofing. Other uses include textiles, rubber, lubricants, and cosmetics. Dimension-stone talc is used for building stone, stoves, carvings, and other products. Talc is extracted from both open-pit and underground mines. Some is dry-ground, other material undergoes complex beneficiation to produce a pure finely-ground product. There are few environmental problems of a chemical nature associated with talc mining, but dust mitigation is a necessity. Important talc mining districts, including both recent producers and historically important ones, are located in