The invention provides high surface area talc compositions by a novel hybrid milling method or soaking method. The hybrid milling method comprises dry milling talc powder followed by mixing with water and wet milling to provide a nano-talc slurry with high surface area, also of the invention. The soaking method comprises dry milling talc powder followed by mixing with water and soaking to provide high surface area nano-talc slurry. The slurry may be dewatered and dried to provide dry nano-talc powder. The nano-talc powder provided by the invention is a novel hydrophilic talc composition. Further embodiments of the invention include organic solvent dispersed nano-talc slurries and methods for providing the same. These slurries can be used to provide polymer nano-talc composites in the form of coatings, sealing and gasketing materials, foams, extruded thermoplastic and thermoset sheets and films, thermoplastic pellets, thermoplastic and thermoset molded polymer composite articles. Another embodiment is a polyurethane nano-talc composite article derived from the organic solvent dispersed slurries.