Vermont mining companies stay grounded

Vermont Business Magazine, Jan 1994 by Barna, Ed

The same eventful geological history that gave Vermont its uniquely beautiful terrain also left immense reserves of commercially important rocks and minerals which have become, literally, the solid foundation for several industries.

Granite, marble, slate and talc operations all have weathered the recession of the past few years, and things are looking up. There are reserves of asbestos, though safety concerns have slowed the flow of that mineral; the copper supply is good, which has prompted the interest of big western mining companies; because of environmental considerations, viable quantities of uranium remain in place; there is enough gold that tourists come to pan it; and sand and gravel operations are so common as to almost escape notice.

Often rooted in 19th century tradition, Vermont's quarries and mines have been affected by a variety of modern developments, including improved technology for everything from blasting and drilling to cutting and grinding. That aspect makes it unreliable to track the extraction sector's progress by employment figures, since productivity gains have come by replacing workers with machinery.

Marble has suffered as both a building stone and a monument stone because most varieties are affected by acid rain. Granite, which has risen in usage at the expense of marble, is now subject to intense foreign competition.

Meanwhile, there has been a continuing tendency, visible since the latter part of the 1800s, for smaller companies to aggregate into larger entities, or be acquired by even larger firms. It is difficult to document the impact of this pattern of ownership, because some of the international competitors are secretive about their operations, but it is clear that they have brought substantial capital investment to the state.

Meanwhile, several of the extraction industries have made no secret of their discontent with current state policies. They say Act 250 requirements needlessly hamper flexibility in meeting consumer demand; that regulators are insensitive to business needs, compared to federal officials of the US Bureau of Mines; and that policies meant to further economic growth show favoritism to more glamorous, high-tech industries and ignore the way the industry has become high-tech and sometimes needs state promotional help.

MARBLE

Vermont Marble was first quarried in 1785 in Dorset and first cut with more modern saws in Middlebury in 1805 (Eben Judd had the nation's first gang saw). Marble teamed up with the railroad industry after the Civil War to become an engine of prosperity through the Great Depression. After World War II, containerized shipping gave foreign competition more access to S markets, and the dwindling Vermont Marble Company, once the giant, was finally sold by the Proctor family to Swiss rival Pluess-Staufer AG (through Pluess-Staufer North American, Inc) in 1976.

The Rutland Herald reported anonymous sources close to the deal as saying the sale price was between $7 million and $10 million, paid to the Proctor family trusts and about 90 stockholders.

In February 1993, Pluess-Staufer closed Vermont Marble, which had shrunk to only 14 employees, and began selling off assets related to dimension stone, the term for construction-related marble. Pluess-Staufer cited the construction industry slurp as a major factor in the decision to close down that part of its Vermont operation, while building up the OMYA ground marble company's two processing plants in Pittsford.

While the demise of the 123-year-old company was viewed by some as a sad turn in the state's fortunes, OMYA geologist Donald Burns takes a different view. Pluess-Staufer had supported Vermont Marble as long as it could, he said, despite its losses, and had been able to slowly phase out its operations, thereby avoiding a crushing impact at the end.

Meanwhile, a much less publicized event took place in 1990 that could be taken as a sign of things to come: Pluess-Staufer entered into a partnership with Georgia Marble, Inc to build a calcium carbonate (ground marble) plant in Alabama to serve as a major source of filler and coating pigments for the paper industry. The deal brought together the world's largest producer of finely ground calcium carbonate and a new trend in the paper industry: a move toward acid-free paper.

Finely ground calcium carbonate is an extremely versatile industrial mineral, acting as an extender or filler in everything from plastic auto body parts to paint to cosmetic and food items. But John M Mitchell, the president of OMYA, said his company's recent and future expected growth stems from the paper market.

Acid paper deteriorates with time, so the Liberty of Congress has mandated the use of acid-free paper for its depository, Mitchell said. Publishers wishing to have their works recorded there are following suit and using the acid-free kind, in which calcium carbonate is the primary pigment, he said.

Mitchell declined to discuss OMYA's financial situation, but pointed out that the paper industry historically has grown at about 3 percent a year since 1776, leading to expectations that calcium carbonate sales may increase as well.