An Indian mining firm, Alisha Mining PLC, has established a marble processing plant in Burayu town at a cost of USD 2.5 million.
The company built the marble processing plant with a local businessman on a 20,000 sq.m. plot of land in Burayu town, Oromia Regional State, west of Addis Ababa. The
general manager of Alisha Mining, Ahan Shailesh Hingarh, told The Reporter that his company had imported latest marble cutting machine (Gangsaw) and polishing machines from India and China. The company has finalized the construction of the processing plant and installed all the machineries.
According to Hingarh, the marble processing plant embarked on production on February 3. The plant has a capacity to produce 360,000 sq.m. of polished marble per annum. The factory produces marble slabs with a size of 2.52m by 1.37m. “We are producing high quality marble slabs and have started storing it for potential customers. Once we start promoting the company we will have many customers and we do not want to run out of stock. We already have 2000 sq.m. of marble slab in stock,” Hingarh said.
Alisha Mining acquired a marble quarry in Benishangul Regional State, near Mendi town, 640km south-west of Addis Ababa two years ago. According to the general manager, the company invested an additional one million dollars on the marble quarry. The quarry is producing 2400-3500 cu.m. of marble blocks every month. The marble blocks are transported from the quarry in Mendi town to Burayu where they are cut into slabs and refined by a 16head polishing machine. “Our marble quarry is of high quality. So we are producing very high quality marble,” Hingarh said.
In addition to the marble slabs, the marble processing plant is producing marble floor tiles of different size. According to Ahan, his company started communicating with potential buyers both in Ethiopia and abroad. “We are producing high quality marble products which can be supplied to hotels, real estate and residential houses. The marble quality is so high that it resembles the materials that the Taj Mahal is made of. So buyers in India have shown interest to buy our products.”
Alisha hopes to generate annual revenue of six million dollars. It aims at channelling 60 percent of its product into the local market and selling the remaining 40 percent to the international market. Hingarh said buyers in Spain, India, Saudi Arabia and China have already shown interest. “We have started receiving orders,” he said.
The investment project has already employed 30 Ethiopian nationals and the management hopes to increase the number of employees to 100 after three months of operation.
The company has a future expansion plan. According to Hingarh, the company will import two additional Gangsaw machines. “We also have a plan to install machines through which wastage of marble can be used for raw materials for paint and we want to install machines which can make monument from marble which have a huge demand in Europe .”
“The government is very supportive. Officials of the Ministry of Mines are very helpful. The water and electric supply is very good. We did not face any problem. Everything has gone smoothly,” Hingarh said.
The general manager said that the parent company of Alisha has a plan to invest in the real estate business. It is already in the process of building a high rise building in Addis Ababa. The company acquired a plot of land in Wollo Sefer where it plans to build a 15-storey multipurpose building. “It is going to be a commercial center and apartment.”
According to Hingarh, the total investment in Alisha Mining has to be done by its shareholders and no debt has been taken from banks. Alisha Mining PLC was established two years ago here in Addis Ababa. Hingarh revealed that Alisha Mining has a keen interest to venture in coal and iron ore exploration and production investment projects.