logo-loader

Fox Marble adds rare white marble quarry to Balkans portfolio

Published: 07:46 04 Jul 2013 BST

no_picture_pai

Fox Marble (LON:FOX) has added two more quarries to its list of sites in the Balkans, including one that contains the rare white sivec marble.

The marble group has signed a 20-year contract to operate the Prilep quarry in Macedonia. It contains white Sivec, with the quarry next door the only other source.

Fox Marble will receive 25% of gross revenue from the sale of block marble produced from Prilep. It will pay the costs of extraction, but not the costs of re-opening the quarry. Once production is established, Fox Marble said it intends to cut and polish blocks at the site.

White Sivec produced from the adjacent quarry currently sells for between €300 and €1320 per tonne, dependent on the grade. A cubic metre of white Sivec weighs 2.8 tonnes.

Fox Marble has also acquired the rights to the Malesheva quarry in Kosovo for twenty years with an option to extend for another twenty.

The quarry produces grey/white and cream marble, similar to crema marfil. The terms of the agreement will see Fox Marble pay the current local owner a 21% net royalty on sales of block marble.

Chris Gilbert, Fox Marble’s chief executive, said: "White Sivec is one of the most desirable marble types in the world today and we believe that demand for the marble will be strong. Our rights extend to 350 hectares across the stone body in this location and our long term tenure will amply reward our shareholders over time."

Fox Marble’s already has mining licences over five separate marble quarries and completed a maiden JORC resource indicating an in-situ valuation of approximately €16.5bn.

Caledonia Mining tackles 2023 challenges with optimism for 2024 as it...

Caledonia Mining Corporation PLC (AIM:CMCL, NYSE-A:CMCL) chief executive Mark Learmonth tells Proactive's Stephen Gunnion the company faced a challenging 2023, primarily due to poor production in the first half of the year at its core asset, the Blanket Mine in Zimbabwe, and an underperformance...

1 hour, 24 minutes ago