Methods for preparing and compositions including untreated and surface-treated alkaline earth metal carbonates

A method for processing alkaline earth metal carbonate, the method comprising:

• introducing alkaline earth metal carbonate into a stirred media mill;
• dry grinding the alkaline earth metal carbonate in the stirred media mill to produce an alkaline earth metal carbonate particulate;
• introducing one or more of carboxylic acid or carboxylic acid salt into the stirred media mill, the dry grinding comprising dry grinding the alkaline earth metal carbonate and the one or more of carboxylic acid or carboxylic acid salt in an integrated dry grinding and surface-treating process in the stirred media mill to produce a surface-treated alkaline earth metal carbonate particulate;
• air classifying, following the integrated dry grinding and surface-treating process, the surface-treated alkaline earth metal carbonate particulate to obtain a coarse product of the surface-treated alkaline earth metal carbonate particulate and a fine product of the surface-treated alkaline earth metal carbonate particulate;
• and
• introducing the fine product into a cyclone to obtain a steepened fine product having a median particle size d50 ranging from about 0.5 microns to about 5 microns and a span ranging from about 1 to about 2.5, and a steepened coarse product having a median particle size d50 ranging from about 1.2 microns to about 7 microns and a span ranging from about 1 to about 3.0.