Composition and method for the pelletisation of gilsonite

A composition for pelletised natural asphalt comprises between 90% and 99% by weight of natural asphalt and between approximately 1% and 10% by weight of one or more tree by-products selected from lignin, lignosulphonate, tall oil or tall oil pitch. A method for forming the pellets comprises the steps of providing natural asphalt powder to feed a mesh filtering system to produce a filtered powder, blending/mixing the filtered powder with other ingredients (such as adhesion agents or polymers), and water, and one or more tree by product(s) selected from lignin, lignosulphonate, tall oil or tall oil pitch to produce a blended mixture, providing the blended mixture to an agglomeration/pelletising chamber and providing the pellets to a drying/baking oven to remove the water. Preferred natural asphalts include Gilsonite, uintahite, asphalutm, Trinidad asphalt, rock asphalt, glance pitch, manjak or grahamite.