VESCO, one of the global leaders in the production and supply of ceramic raw materials, has commenced extraction from a clay quarry at Encarnita deposit located in the Berge municipality, Teruel province, Spain. VESCO clays have been an important ingredient of Spanish ceramic tile formulations for years. With Spain accounting for over 25% of the group’s total sales in 2022, the country became a priority site for launching raw material production in the EU.
Europe is the third largest clay market. By putting this quarry in operation, the Group made its first step towards boosting the supply of regionally sourced ceramic clays to EU manufacturers. This will facilitate expanding the range of customized product solutions while minimizing logistics risks to ensure a reliable customer supply. VESCO is committed to further exploration of opportunities for growing its product portfolio and plans to invest in expanding production capacities in the EU.
The output from Encarnita will be primarily intended for the local market of Spanish ceramic tile manufacturers. The targeted annual capacity of the new quarry is 100 metric tons of ceramic clay. Spain is one of the largest manufacturers of ceramic tiles in Europe.
VESCO is eager to evolve as a reliable partner offering innovative solutions for the ceramic industry development. Recently, the Group has also opened an R&D hub to serve the partners of the VESCO worldwide. It operates based on a modern research laboratory launched in 2022 in Andora (Teruel, Spain) as part of VESCO Clays Spain. The hub focuses on prospecting, qualitative raw materials analysis, and pioneering new formulations for ceramic manufacturers.
Aiming at geographical diversification, VESCO looks for mining opportunities across all high-potential markets and regularly invests in ceramic clay extraction. VESCO is an actively developing venture open to partnership and cooperation to expand its production network.