How Greek marble has conquered the world markets

Her Eleni Botas

With a presence in China, Southeast Asia, the Gulf, America and Europe, Greece is the fourth largest exporter of marble and tiles in the world, sending 76% of its production to about 120 countries. The industry employs 6,500 people directly while the total contribution to employment reaches 18,000 employees. That translates to $ 1.5 billion in global demand for Greek marble.

The mining process

According to Iktinos, marble is exploited either superficially or underground. Underground mining makes it possible to optimize the development of deposits for which their surface exploitation can not be done either for reasons of environmental protection or for economic reasons.

In the countries of the European South, the development of underground marble holdings has a long history but also a dynamic presence. Italy has the most important and large holdings. Spain, Croatia and Portugal follow in turn. There are also significant farms in other European and American countries.

In Greece, underground mining in addition to mining, has timidly begun to be applied in marble quarries by the method of chambers and columns, in combination with surface mining. If one excludes the individual case of “Sakioti Lavriou” at the beginning of the 20th century, the underground mining of quarry minerals in the modern era began in the 90’s in the Quarry of Dionysos (Dionysovouni Attica) and then in the quarry of the same company in Volakas Drama.

This was followed by the companies dealing with Greek marble in Northern Greece, mainly in the region of Eastern Macedonia-Thrace, with the same method of “chambers and columns”, also in Volakas and Granite Drama, where the physical and mechanical properties of the rocks allow it. Today, in Greece there is a special interest in extending the implementation of the underground method to other marble quarries, in cases where the technical data allow it or it is imposed due to environmental issues related to the minimization of the environmental footprint. Indicatively, on the island of Thassos, where there are issues of coexistence with the great tourist development of the island as well as in the place in the area of ​​Kechrokampos Kavala where the highly commercial Nestos type marble is mined and the area has been included in an institutional environmental protection zone, the underground basement is the only rational solution for the development of the deposit.

Personnel training

Every employee who has not yet specialized in the subject in which he will work, on the first day goes through a training seminar given to him by the security technician of each shift. In this seminar he will be informed about the risks of the job and how he will be protected, about the internal regulations of the company, but also about the good and bad work practices. Then, together with the caretaker in whose department he will be charged, there is a guided tour of the area, presentation of jobs and acquaintance with his colleagues.

Every 6 months there are training seminars for the staff as well as specialized Seminars of Labor Departments.

Mining costs

According to Iktinos, the production cost for 2021 was 70 euros per ton of production and the total production was 105,000 tons of marble.

For 2022 the company estimates that the production cost will exceed 90 euros per ton due to the large increase in fuel and electricity.

Mining time

A total of 380,000 tons of ore were extracted from the Volakas quarry of Iktinos in the year 2021, from which 105,000 tons of marketable marble were produced. The average monthly production of the quarry was 8500 tons, the weekly was 2000 tons, while the daily was around 450 tons which corresponded to an average daily handling of 15 loads.

Processing – Stages of movement of bulk marbles

After the extraction of the marbles, they are processed in factories for cutting large marbles. Iktinos has 3 cutting-processing factories in Athens and Drama. A significant part of the mined bulk marbles is sold directly to third party factories in Greece and abroad.

In recent years, the company has been implementing an innovative technological method for rescuing problematic marbles, which are glued with resins and reused without any damage or loss. Specifically for the utilization of defective bulk marbles which show cracks and therefore can not be cut in the factories for production of slabs, a special reinforcement method is applied which includes drying in suitable thermal chambers, reinforcement with carbon fiber net and then pouring resin into chambers. pressure for the adhesive to enter the microcracks. In this way materials that would be discarded as sterile are utilized as commodities reducing production costs and the environmental footprint.

The processing of bulk marbles in cutting factories includes:

In the first phase cutting in a crate for the production of unglazed slabs.

This is followed by either the grinding of these plates and their packaging and their distribution in the markets,

Or their further processing that includes cutting and standardization in smaller dimensions (frame) where they are similarly polished, packaged and handled.

The following products are distributed from the processing plants:

Or in wholesale warehouses in Greece and abroad

Or directly to construction projects when it comes to special orders.

The handling of the extracted bulk marbles as well as the processed products (slabs & frames) is mostly done with closed type containers that are loaded either on trucks or on ships from the Ports of Thessaloniki and Piraeus.