An industrial non-ionic triblock copolymer surfactant Pluronic L-61 consisting of polyethylene oxide and polypropylene oxide parts was used to recover artificial clay of saponite from its aqueous solutions. Concentration of the clay was evaluated from the content of element Si determined by inductively coupled plasma spectroscopy. It was found that cooling after phase separation of solutions of nonionic surfactant significantly enhances the clay sorption in comparison with the conventional cloud point extraction technique. Recovery ratio of clay increases with lowering of the cooling temperature. Recovery of clay comes from the sorption of clay, which seems to go into inside of surfactant phase. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.