Minerali Industriali draws up its first group-wide Sustainability Report

Minerali Industriali is working towards a series of goals and positive behaviours relating to economic, social and environmental responsibility. The Group’s clear commitment to all its stakeholders is documented in its Sustainability Report.

Minerali Industriali, an Italian company with a history dating back about a century, has about 650 employees and 13 production units in Italy, 4 in Europe, 1 in Asia, 3 in North Africa and 7 in Central and South America. Run by its two owner families together with 10 top managers, it has mining concessions extending over a total area of more than 3,500 hectares. In 2022, it produced more than 4 million tonnes of raw materials and posted revenues of approximately €200 million.

The company has been operating in the mining industry for more than a hundred years and is now making great strides towards its sustainable development goals by promoting positive actions and behaviours throughout the organisation.

As documented in the 2021 Sustainability Report (the first covering the entire group’s activities), the company acts as a role model in its business areas by meeting the highest quality standards and devoting the utmost attention to employees, safety and the environment.

As for its environmental responsibility, Minerali Industriali aims to protect biodiversity, combat climate change and regenerate the areas in which it operates by integrating 9 of the 17 SDGs into its sustainability strategy.

One of the group’s top priorities is to curb global warming through the use of renewable energy sources. It plans to expand its photovoltaic arrays with respect to the three installations already present at the sites in Bernate (Minerali Industriali), Florinas (Maffei Sarda Silicati) and Brusnengo (Sasil).

The group has set up an Energy Team that meets periodically with the aim of constantly monitoring energy consumption and improving energy performance. Its environmental policies also include a series of measures to regreen disused mining areas and promote the growth of native plant species.

The group has also made significant progress in terms of the circular economy, with a total of 52,868 tonnes of waste from glass and spent sand and 800 tonnes of waste from ceramic scrap sent for recycling in 2021, 100% of which was fed back into the production cycles of customers operating in various industrial sectors.

For the ceramic sector in particular, Minerali Industriali Engineering has designed ceramic scrap recovery plants capable of producing secondary raw materials of the same quality as standard raw materials while guaranteeing lower energy consumption during firing.

As for social responsibility, the group is devoting greater attention to its employees with a special focus on occupational safety and professional growth and advancement through continuous training. In 2021, it provided a total of around 5,600 hours of training, a 94% increase over 2020.

Upcoming goals include reducing the use of non-renewable energy sources by 15% and attaining energy certification for the Verbania site.