Karibib marble works

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Karibib marble works

logo
legal form Pty Ltd.
founding 1903
resolution 2013
Seat Karibib , Namibia
management Franz Wittreich
Branch Mining
Website www.marmorwerke.com.na/ ( Memento from May 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive )

Marble quarrying in Karibib (bird's eye view 2017)
21 ° 51′37.00 ″ S  015 ° 57′17 ″ E
Karibib marble (2018)
22 ° 06′16.00 ″ S  015 ° 48′48 ″ E

The Marble Works Karibib was a Namibian mining company based in the small town of Karibib in Namibia . It existed from 1903 to 2013. The company was taken over by the Chinese Mingjie Group .

They were the leading producer of Karibib marble in several types, from brightly colored, white to pure deep black, partly banded and lively textured marble . The company also mines granite .

The marble is internationally known and has been delivered worldwide. The main customers were Germany, Italy, China, Japan, South Africa, Spain and Argentina. Marble and granite blocks weighing up to around 30 tons are exported. The granite is extracted from the Namib Pearl Mine and Tropical Sun Mine , which are 60 km northwest of Usakos. Marble comes from various quarries, the white from the White Rhino Mine near Karibib. Today the company is the largest manufacturer and exporter of marbles and granites in Namibia.

Company history

The marble works were founded in 1903 as the German African Marble Society . The marble was quarried in two quarries that had a connection to the railway line in Karibib, which was built in 1900. The marble deposits, which were considered to be one of the largest in the world at the time, were regarded as an economic area of ​​hope for the German colonies. Shortly before the First World War , 120 tons were prepared for shipment to Hamburg . After the First World War, the quarries were taken over by the British South African Company until they went bankrupt during the Great Depression in the late 1920s. The commercial operation for the sale of monuments and gravestones was initially continued on a small scale by a German stonemason.

After several changes of ownership, in 1950 the company was taken over by a stonemason of German origin who made several technical innovations to increase efficiency, such as the establishment of a band saw and the construction of a power station. The mining had largely come to a standstill in the 1970s, only dolomite fragments were produced. After the company was taken over by the Wittreich family in 1982, the mining and processing of natural stone blocks was resumed. In 1987, the family founded Namagra , another marble quarrying company.

Since the 1930s, the company has resided in the former Karibib provisions office , which was built in 1911 and is a listed building .

Deposits and types of natural stone

The Karibib marble is a dolomitic marble from the Neoproterozoic (665 ± 34 million years) and belongs to the Swakop group (Damara sequence) , deposits of the Damara geosyncline on the southern edge of the Congo craton . By Subduktionsabläufe came the rise of magmas and folding, which resulted in the emergence of the Damara Fold Mountains . New igneous rocks (including granite) and metamorphic rocks (including marbles) formed.

The marble quarries are located three kilometers northwest of Karibib, north of Nonidas and 10 kilometers east of Swakopmund . Much of the Company's medium to coarse-grained granites are mined near the Spitzkoppe .

Depending on their mineral composition and texture, the following types of natural stone are sold and exported by the Karibib marble works, most of which come from their own quarries:

  • Marble types : Okatij Rose Marble, Namibian Rose Marble, Namib Jade Marble, Namibian Harlequin Marble, Desert Green Marble, Namibian Green Marble, Esserando, Copra Black Marble, White Rhino Marble, Karibib White Marble
  • Aragonite : Namib Aragonite
  • Granite types : Ubib Granite, Güldenrot Granite, Namibian Pearl Granite, Tropical Sun Granite, Kalahari Sand Granite
  • Granodiorite : Goas White
  • Dolerite : Omenje Black

Buildings with Karibib marble

Well-known buildings with marble from the Karibib marble works (selection):

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Karibib . namibia-info.net.
  2. a b c The History of Marmorwerke Karibib ( Memento from April 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ). marmorwerke.com.na.
  3. ^ Negotiations of the German Colonial Congress. Volume 1, 1902, p. 89 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ^ Federal Institute for Soil Research, Preussische Geologische Landesanstalt, Reichsamt für Bodenforschung: Geologisches Jahrbuch , Volume 25, 1907, p. 395 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  5. Zeitschrift für Kolonialpolitik, Kolonialrecht und Kolonialwirtschaft , Volume 12, Verlag Wilhelm Süsserott, 1910, p. 74 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  6. Emil Zimmermann (ed.): Our colonies . Ullstein & Company, 1912, pp. 193, 230 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  7. ^ Reichskolonialamt (Ed.): The German Protected Areas in Africa and the South Seas: Official Annual Reports , Volume 3, Verlag ES Mittler, 1913, p. 131 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
    Association of German Miners: Glückauf. Volume 49, Issue 1, 1913, p. 368 ( limited preview in Google Book Search)
  8. a b Karibib In: Allgemeine Zeitung. August 20, 2008, accessed January 28, 2013.
  9. Olaf Otto Dillmann: The marble of the Karibib Formation (Damara sequence) near Karibib (Namibia) , on www.geodienst.de, accessed January 21, 2012.
  10. Sandy Peischl: Overview of the development of Gondwana and the position of Namibia integrated into it. at geo.tu-freiberg.de, accessed May 20, 2013.
  11. ^ Geological Survey of Namibia: Namibian Dimension Stone. Ministry of Mines and Energy, 2006, ( trade names and geology of natural stones from Namibia ), accessed on January 28, 2013.
  12. Flamingo - Business Industry - A different kind of rock art. ( Memento of November 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Travel News Namibia, date unknown, accessed on January 25, 2013.