| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Industrial Metals & Minerals |
| Founded | Lommel, Limburg |
| Headquarters | Antwerp, Belgium |
| Key people |
Kevin F. Crawford, CEO |
| Website | http://www.sibelco.com |
Sibelco has over 245 production units worldwide and is the disputed market leader in the extraction, production and distribution of the main industrial minerals: quartz, cristobalite, nepheline syenite, plastic clay and olivine. Furthermore the Sibelco group produces almost all other industrial minerals: barite, bentonite, calcite, dolomite, hydromagnesite, kaolin, feldspar, wollastonite, talc and huntite.
The company extracts and refines various types of sand and minerals. These mainly relate to top quality silica sands for industry. Today, Sibelco is the global market leader in this sector with production sites all over the world.
SCR-Sibelco was founded in 1872 by Stanislas Emsens, and is one of the oldest companies in Flanders today. The administrative headquarters of Sibelco Belgium are situated in Antwerpen.
Sibelco is owned by the Belgian family, the Emsens, one of Belgium's richest families.[1]
In Flanders, silica sand is found in two regions: Maasmechelen and the region of Dessel-Mol-Lommel. Sibelco concentrated its operating offices here. The development of Sibelco remains closely linked to the Flemish quarries and their top quality silica sand. The companies Sigrano and Lieben Minerals are active in Heerlen and Maastricht. These Dutch sites are operationally part of Sibelco Belgium. The group is directed from its corporate headquarters in Antwerp, where Sibelco also has a large storage facility. Ships leave the port and transport quartz sand all over the world.
Contents |
Formation of Sablières et Carrières Réunies (SCR) in order to extract the silica sand layers in Mol for industrial applications.
At the end of the 19th century, hundreds of hectares were acquired in the vicinity of Mol-Rauw with large quantities of silica sand. Amongst others the company was dedicated to the exploitation thereof. In 1896 the sand quarry of Stevensvennen opened, the first automated sand quarry.
Of the many sand extractors, only three remain: SCR, Anciennes Sablières Stanislas Emsens and De Nieuwe Zandgroeven in Mol.
SCR takes over the shares of Anciennes Sablières Stanislas Emsens. The basis is laid for the common technological and later also geographical expansion.
Together with Belgian experts, an American company builds a unique hydro-classification installation. It was later marketed worldwide as Type SCR. The company constructs its first cutting-edge laboratory in the thirties.
After World War II priority is given to the development of new technologies. In 1955, SCR opens a factory in Dessel for drying and milling silica sand: Sibelco. The factory is a model for similar projects of the Sibelco-group in the rest of the world.
In Maasmechelen a new sand extraction zone is exploited. The layer is 12 million years old and the sand can be made exceptionally pure through a cutting-edge technological process.
Sibelco has its own transshipment installation in the port of Antwerp. Silica sand is transported worldwide. In the sixties, Sibelco experiences a European expansion and works together with various foreign companies. Sites are established in France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
The first silica sand production in the Netherlands dates from the fifties. Expansions follow in 1972 with the takeover of Sigrano, Heerlen. This subsidiary is now part of the operations of Sibelco Belgium.
SCR-Sibelco gains a permanent foothold on the American continent. In 1970 the American company Unimin is established. Three years later it is the largest North American producer of silica sand. A collaboration cannot be far off for SCR-Sibelco. Henceforth Unimin constitutes a part of SCR-Sibelco.
A new processing plant in Lommel makes it possible to upgrade humus-rich silica sands from the vicinity. They are mainly intended for the glass industry (flat glass).
The Nieuwe Zandgroeven in Mol, in the meantime an independent subsidiary for a few years, is integrated. The British WBB Minerals now also becomes part of the Sibelco-group. The company has a leading position as a supplier of clay and related products
Lieben Minerals becomes a part of Sibelco Belgium. Together with the production office in Maasmechelen, the Dutch sites Sigrano and Lieben Minerals produce top quality quartz products, amongst other suitable for the crystal industry.
Further globalisation. Sibelco now has sites in Europe, America, Australia and Asia. As from 2000, Sibelco has a permanent foothold in Australia and acquisitions follow in China, South Korea, Brazil, India. In 2005 a new factory is opened in Russia
The beginning of a new extraction in Maasmechelen and the construction of a new sand upgrading plant in the Mechelse Heide Zuid quarry.