Resumen de Organik Madencilik to open Turkey's first vermiculite mine

Industrial Minerals

• A JV between Turkey's Yildrim Group and Greek miner S&B, Organik is planning to produce vermiculite from the Karakoc deposit in central Turkey and is intending to tap into markets where shortages have seen the mineral substituted for perlite in the past.

  The joint venture (JV) plans to develop the Karakoc vermiculite deposit in Sivas, which was discovered by Turkey's Government Exploration Co. in the 1990s. The state body completed initial geological and technical surveys of the site, which covers an area of 440 ha (4.4km[superscript]2 ) and is thought to hold a reserve of around 2.75m tonnes high quality and 2.475m tonnes low quality vermiculite.

  Under the terms of the original agreement with S&B, it was decided that Organik would sell Karakoc vermiculite directly to customers. However, since Imerys bought the Greek company, deals are now likely to be concluded through Imerys' sales network. "This will be better," says Yildrin, "because it will give us more access to customers."