CORPORATE HISTORY

TRADITION AND INNOVATION

Already at a young age, Max Schmidt was fascinated by mining and ceramic raw materials. Over the years he developed the vision to establish his own mining company. Turning his vision into reality, Max Schmidt founded the "Silbergrube" feldspar mine in Waidhaus in 1938 which has been family-run for four generations. Today his great-grandchildren, who are proud of their heritage, manage the business with passion and commitment.

During the first 20 years, the feldspar was extracted underground only down to a depth of 60 m. Since 1979, the raw material has been quarried exclusively via open pit mining. New deposits are regularly being developed to assure both efficient and selective mining as well as sorting perfectly tailored to customer requirements. Covering some 90,000 square meters, the quarry produces around 30,000 tonnes of feldspar each year which is further treated in our in-house processing facility.

Driven by curiosity, innovative ideas, new business fields and an acumen for future-oriented products, Max Schmidt "Silbergrube" has evolved over the decades from being a traditional mining company to an internationally operating production, trading and service business. The steady growth of "Silbergrube" led to the expansion of the grinding and separator facilities in 1990 to double the output. In 1992, the range of services was extended by a new granulation plant which was complemented by another granulation facility in 2017 to increase the capacity.

Today, operations cover all areas and levels of complexity of processing raw materials which are used mainly in the ceramic industry but also in other sectors, such as the building industry. Max Schmidt "Silbergrube" is trend-setting in the customer-specific development and production of hard material components and chamotte mixtures. Our main service offering also includes contract processing of external materials.