INDUSTRIAL MINERALS — Granigroupe ready to sell holdings to Pender Capital — Quebec operations join B.C. quarries

Privately held Granigroupe has reached a preliminary agreement with Pender Capital (PNL-A) to sell its industrial-minerals holdings, including 15 building-stone quarries.

Quebec-based Granigroupe, which counts the Nara quarry west of Quebec City and the Polychrome quarry near La Baie among its properties, is the largest building stone producer in Canada. Facing stone from its quarries has been used on the Battery Park World Trade Center in New York, The National Gallery in Ottawa, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Granigroupe stone has also been shipped to Europe and Asia.

Pender has lately hit the dimensional stone acquisition trail. It recently concluded a joint-venture agreement with Granigroupe subsidiary Granicor to produce a dimensional-quality anorthosite — to be marketed under the name “green granite” — at the Greenleaf quarry, near La Baie.

Pender subsidiary Garibaldi Granite currently operates three quarries and is now negotiating a joint venture with Pender to develop granite resources near Squamish, B.C. Garibaldi has a contract to supply its white granite to a new hotel development in Whistler, B.C.

Granite dimensional stone — a term that includes most crystalline rocks whatever their actual composition — accounts for about $200 million of total revenues among Canadian industrial minerals. Of that, about $40 million is derived from exports to the United States. Other export markets include Europe and Asia, which are supplied by quarries on Canada’s east and west coasts, respectively.