Bontrup screws up granite imports
Graniet Import Benelux is significantly expanding the mining of high-quality crushed stone in the coming years. From the Bremanger Quarry in Norway on which the company has usage rights for the next decades, it now extracts about 4.5 million tons of granite per year. In the coming years, distribution will be scaled up to 10 million tons per year.
Granite Import Benelux is part of the Amsterdam family business Bontrup, which has grown into a major player in the port of Amsterdam with seven cargo ships and a granite terminal in Australia Harbour. Granite from the Norwegian quarry is also sold by Bontrup in Germany, Belgium and England, where, as in the Netherlands, it is processed in the production of zoab (whisper quiet asphalt); we also see Bontrup crushed stone lying under railroad tracks. In addition to Bontrup, Boskalis and Van Oord now transport and process granite from the Bremanger Quarry. The crushed stone taken from Van Oord is used as a component in the foundations of offshore wind turbines.
Twenty years
The history of the origins of the East Brabant family business Bontrup reads like an exciting boys' book, to which many chapters will be added in the coming years. In that series, the development of the Norwegian quarry may safely be called a highlight, when you consider that the company has been silently working for twenty years, in cooperation with the Norwegian government and the landowner, to develop a quarry that generates its own energy through its transportation methods and is filled with water at the end of its life to then serve as a power plant.
Unique method
During the development of the Bremanger Quarry, careful thought was given to the consumption of energy associated with granite mining. From the quiver of founder Franz Bontrup (81) came the idea of using gravity to drain down the large chunks of granite mined at the crest of the rock. This raw material is thrown into a specially drilled shaft, to be crushed dozens of meters deeper in two stages by crushers to the desired size. Via conveyor belts, this crushed rock then ends up in two formats at the level that ships mooring at the floating jetty can load the raw material; approximately 85,000 tons per ship.
Growth ambition
Although Bontrup can continue mining high-quality granite at Bremanger Quarry for the next few decades, the family-owned company led by Bram and Peter Bontrup is already looking ahead. Which is reflected, among other things, in the expansion to another second granite mine in Norway that is a stone's throw from the site where millions more tons of granite will roll down the conveyor belt in the coming years.
Read the complete article on Bontrup in Ways to Sea here.
