Abstract: Kaolin is an important non-metallic mineral resource with good application properties such as adsorption, plasticity and stability. It is widely used for material preparation fields such as papermaking, ceramics, rubber, refractory material and so on. However the quality of kaolin produced in China is relatively low. High-quality kaolin usually relies on imports. It is crucial to optimize and innovate the kaolin purification process. The purification processes of kaolin, such as gravity separation, magnetic separation, flotation, leaching, chemical bleaching, roasting, and the application progress of kaolin, modified kaolin and nano-kaolin have been systematically introduced in this paper.