Vermont mining companies stay grounded

Vermont Business Magazine, Jan 1994 by Barna, Ed

Tax appraisal figures from Pittsford, where OMYA's two grinding and drying plants are located, also indicate that the marble industry has caught a second wind. Town Treasurer Gordon DeLong said there is no one in the state with the expertise to truly appraise all of OMYA's equipment and inventory, so the town just works cooperatively with the company on assessments.

The figures that follow show first the appraised value, then the taxes raised. DeLong noted that reappraisals occurred in 1985 and 1989.

For 1983: OMYA was valued at $1,408,500 and $92,680 for real. estate; $2,832,500 and $186,380 for equipment; $494,540 and $32,540 for inventory; and the Vermont Power Division was appraised at $184,850 and $12,160.

For 1988: real estate, $11,520,580 and $248,866; equipment, $21,309,400 and $460,280; inventory, $1,100,650 and $23,774; power division, $773,037.

For 1993: real estate: $38,049,000; equipment, $30,124,300 and $363,454; inventory, $708,800 and $12,014; power division, $2,260,700 and $38,319.

While the Clarendon and Pittsford Railroad, a subsidiary of Vermont Railway, hauls the final product, two quarries in Middlebury and Brandon supply the crushed marble ores that go into it. The Middlebury operation is the center of gravity, with up to 85 gondola trucks per day making round trips, while the Smoke Rise quarry in Brandon is permitted for up to 25 trips.

Burns said the company plans to phase out Smoke Rise in 1995, and hopes to reopen a string of quarries about a half mile from the Pittsford plants as a single operation that would replace Brandon. Pittsford has already given approval to the project, which would be located in a remote, forested area between two noise-blocking ridges, and the company is now headed for the Act 250 process.

Like most other extraction industry executives, Mitchell is highly critical of the way a handful of neighbors can use the Act 250 process to obstruct operations at quarries that have been in operation for years.

While so-called dimension stone is a minor aspect of the marble scene today, it is by no means extinct. Some of the world's finest white marble comes from the former Vermont Marble quarry in Danby, purchased in 1993 by the Italian companies RED Graniti and Mazzucchelli Marmi.

Under the name Vermont Quarries Corporation, the Danby quarry in turn supplies Rutland Marble and Granite and Gawet Marble and Granite, two small (fewer than 50 employees) Rutland-area manufacturers of products like headstones, veneer, kitchen counter tops, bathroom tiles, and gift items. And marble goes in abundance to Italy, according to Vermont Quarries spokesman Livio Zucchini.

There is not the same problem with acid rain in Italy's Mediterranean climate, Zucchini said; in any case, the more finely-grained Danby marble is extremely resistant. Add the Italian national feeling for marble and there is a good market, he said, one that makes the quarry's buyers believe they did the right thing.

Similarly, Vermont Marble's Serpentine (Verde Antique) quarry in Rochester and a black marble quarry in the Champlain Islands have been sold to other operating companies.