Flamingo - Business Industry - A different kind of rock art
Text and photos by Marita van Rooyen
If you’ve ever roamed around listlessly at Frankfurt Inter-national Airport, waiting for your next flight, you might have noticed the shiny marble tiles that clad the busy hallways. You might even have stopped for a second and admired your reflection in one of the tiles. But were you actually aware that these shiny blocks of marble originate from a town bordering the oldest desert in the world? Or that the tile that boasts your shiny reflection came from a marble factory that’s been making Namibia proud since before the First World War.
Examples of products from the Karibib Marble Works can be seen all over the world. Marble and granite were used not only in Frankfurt, but also in the Parliament buildings in Cape Town. The Cape Town Waterfront, National Bank of Tanzania, Bank of England and a state-of-the-art hotel in Tokyo also showcase some impressive-looking stones from Karibib. Closer to home, the Polynational War Memorial, or Heroes’ Acre, just outside Windhoek is not only unique because it is a state-of-the-art national symbol and first of its kind in Namibia, but also because all the concrete structures have been clad by white marble and black granite from Karibib.
To date, this was the biggest project undertaken by the Karibib Marble Works. Other local projects include the Bank of Namibia and the workers’ houses for the newly built statehouse. The Oshakati High Court, Swakopmund Heritage Monument, and the GIPF Building in Swakopmund showcase more ‘rock-art’ products from the Karibib Marble Works. Then there’s the life-size bull in Kaokoland that was made on request for a successful Ovahimba farmer. Not bad for a town that started out as nothing more than a waterhole.
In its early years, the town of Karibib was nothing but an unnamed waterhole frequented by the Herero people and their herds of cattle. While no bustling city today, it does have unique features that draw visitors and investors to the town. One of these is the Karibib Marble Works.
Situated just off the main B2 road that leads through Karibib, the Marble Works has been in production since 1903. Although renowned for its high-quality marble – considered to be the hardest in the world – the Marble Works factory also produces a large number of granite products. About 1 000 tonnes of marble are quarried every month and approximately 12 000 tonnes of marble are sold from the factory every year. This is quite impressive for a mine that started out in the dark years before the First World War with nothing more than two quarries that were linked to Karibib by rail.
At the Karibib Marble Works – the place where marble and granite are transformed into a different kind of rock art – opportunities for creating exciting geological souvenirs are endless. “We can make you anything your heart desires. The smallest item we produce is an ashtray, or a letter opener. And we even do personalised projects for people. Anything from trophies, gravestones, tiles or even a life-size bull (for that very fortunate Ovahimba man) can be made according to customer demand,” says Franz Wittreich, CEO and owner of the Marble Works.
The white marble found at Karibib not only re-presents a remarkable starting product for the stone industry, but also has a very interesting geological history. After flooding of large parts of the submerged Abbabis high area (an ancient mainland found in the region), shallow sea regions were formed on its fringes. Deposits of large amounts of lime mud, consisting of fine calcite, occurred here. These sedimentation deposits took place under such favourable conditions that later a very pure limestone was formed by pressure of the overlying layers, which became thicker and thicker. This limestone was then altered by the Damara mountain building event and transformed into the snow-white marble that is found here today. Grey marble, which also occurs, gives evidence of changes in the deposition conditions within the shelf seas.
The history of the marble mines makes for an interesting story and owner Franz Wittreich is a proud marble and granite producer. Originally a master stonemason and stone technician from Germany, he came to Namibia after seeing an advertisement for production manager at the marble quarry in Karibib. “In 1971 I was the youngest stonemason in Germany. I came to Namibia in 1982 with a mission and today I feel like Namibia is my country. My son was born here, my daughter is happy, my wife is satisfied, and I am content.”
In 1985, three years after Franz took over the company, he purchased a block saw, which at the time was the largest in Africa. From then onwards the company stopped the import of foreign products and only processed Namibian marble and granite at the Marble Works. Over the years, generators, diamond-wire saws, drilling rigs, front-end loaders and other top-of-the-range machinery was added. These days, the Karibib Marble Works is the biggest manufacturer and exporter of Namibian granite and marble products in the country. They export all over the world, to countries such as China, Italy, America and even Thailand.
At present, the Marble Works consists of two granite mines (Namib Pearl and Tropical Sun) and one marble mine (White Rhino). www.marmorwerke.com.na
