Litigation (Details)	12 Months Ended						12 Months Ended	3 Months Ended	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2014 USD ($) Load Contract	Dec. 31, 2014 BRL	Dec. 31, 2014 Administrative Consent Order for Contamination Associated with Historic Use of PCBs [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2014 Administrative Consent Order for Installation of Groundwater Contamination System [Member] USD ($)	Dec. 31, 2014 AMCOL International Corporation [Member] Case	Dec. 31, 2009 AMCOL International Corporation [Member]	Dec. 31, 2014 Silica Cases [Member] Case	Dec. 31, 2014 Asbestos Cases [Member] Case	Dec. 31, 2014 Asbestos Cases [Member] Case
Loss Contingencies [Line Items]
Number of pending cases					30		102	13	13
Number of cases dismissed to date							1,394		39
Number of new cases								2
Ownership interest (in hundredths)	19.00%	19.00%				20.00%
Number of contracts entered	2	2
Number of ship loads	60	60
Default arbitration awards	$ 70,000,000
Damages sought		34,000,000
Proposed Civil Penalties	163,632
Site Contingency [Line Items]
Location of plant			Canaan, Connecticut	Adams, Massachusetts plant
Estimated accrued remediation cost			2,300,000	400,000
Estimated cost of wastewater treatment upgrades, lower range				6,000,000
Estimated cost of wastewater treatment upgrades, upper range				$ 8,000,000