Cuba's largest marble finisher expands export production

The production this year of around 20,000 marble slabs destined to exports could mean the return to foreign trade of the Manuel Hernández Osorio industrial combine, the largest Cuban rock processing facility, located in this eastern town.

The facility, which affiliated with to the Mármoles Oriente basic enterprise unit, is currently in the final stages of a thorough process of technological upgrading and has activated its two manufacturing lines and offers conditions to accept blocks of various types of this stone extracted in different parts of the country.

Director of this facility José Miguel Rodríguez told Granma International that they had so far processed some 4,000 square meters of Red Campiña marble, from Cienfuegos, and Siboney Gray, from the Isle of Youth. They are also waiting for the advance of mining development in the new local quarry of Roca Valle rock, to add it as an exportable item.

Three years after the lasts shipments abroad were made, the factory currently accumulates ready-made productions in order to respond immediately to the possible demand once the the Siboney exporting company, of the Ministry of Construction, has defined the possible destination markets.

Rodríguez pointed out that Crema Valle has historically been the most demanded among Cuban marbles, and that the current assortments -especially the 40-by-40-centimeter veneer slab- are destined for national investments in tourism, public health and other sectors. Hence, its incorporation into the line of exportable slabs will depend on the increase of extraction works in quarry.

Once the traditional mine was depressed, he explained, the recent opening of a new deposit will create the conditions to reach, by the end of the year, a potential monthly production of one thousand cubic meters of rock. The new deposit is currently at 30% of its potential, and the industrial combine only requires 850 square meters, which equals some160 blocks of 15 and 20 tons each.

The reinsertion of the Granma industrial combine in the export market, together with the search for alternatives to take advantage of the rocky residuals in the manufacture of construction materials are in accordance with agreements of the last governmental visit to the province that could be fulfilled in the short term; especially after the completion of investments planned both in the industry and the quarry.