Oriental Trimex eyes Gujarat for mining

Firm will enter capital market.

Delhi-based Oriental Trimex Limited, a marble and granite processing and designing company, has said it was scouting for sites in Gujarat for granite and marble mining. The company is setting up new marble processing units at Kolkata and Bangalore and a granite processing unit at Balasore in Orissa.

Oriental had also recently announced its plans to enter the capital market with an initial public offering of 10 crore shares of which 6 lakh will be reserved for shareholders. At a price band of Rs 40-48 per equity share, the issue opens February 8 and closes February 14.

Speaking about the company's plans, managing director, Rajesh Punia, said, "We are planning to expand our marble processing unit at

Greater Noida from 12,600 metric tonne (mt) to 25,200 mt, and will be setting up two more such units each at Kolkata and Bangalore with a capacity of 12,600 mt."

This apart, the company has applied for acquisition of land at ten more places in Orissa, which have a combined mineable capacity of Rs 452 crore. "But in west, we see Gujarat as a potential region and the quarries are still unexplored here. We are conducting surveys in northern Gujarat and might apply for land acquisition in the coming years," he said.

The company's two granite quarries in Orissa are situated at Rairangpur and Behrampur, spread over 6.90 acres and 38.1 acres respectively. According to Punia, the granite mines are still very much unexplored even though India accounts for 20 per cent of world reserves in granite.

The granite exports last year were to the tune of Rs 300 crore, while those of marble stood at Rs 350 crore.

"The marble and granite that we explore and process are of export quality and available at a very few places like Orissa and Gujarat. The granite and marble available in Rajasthan do not have that quality. Hence, we are eyeing Gujarat now after setting up our units in Orissa. Once all these units begin functioning, we expect our exports to rise by at least 20 percent," said Punia.

The company is also setting up its retail outlets at New Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai. Till December 15, 2006, Oriental Trimex registered a turnover of Rs 58 crore and a profit of Rs 2.76 crore.