Rozmin s.r.o. is a closely held Slovak mining company which controls the massive Gemerska Poloma talc deposit with an estimated 150 million ton carbonate reserve in eastern Slovakia.The talc deposit Gemerska Poloma, named after the village where it was discovered in Eastern Slovakia, is one of the largest talc deposits worldwide.

The carbonate type deposit and resulting purity of the valuable mineral enhances the efficiency of the benefication process and allows a higher purity to be attained in the final project.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of McCallan Oil & Gas (UK) Ltd., EuroGas Austria GmbH, owns a 33% interest of Rozmin s.r.o.. EuroGas intends to bring the Germerska Poloma deposit into commercial production.

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The ore body was explored during the period 1987 - 1997 using various geological and geophysical methods. During this period a total of 41 drill holes with a total length of 25.043 metres were drilled. Talc zones were encountered in 18 of these drill holes representing a total core length of 2.059 m.

Rozmin s.r.o. was founded in 1997 to develop a huge talc deposit in Gemerska Poloma, Slovakia. The name Rozmin stands for Roznava - Minerals. It refers to the district center and former free mining town Roznava with it's long mining history and richness of minerals and ores.

Project development
1988 - 1994 CSSR goverment exploration
1994 - 1995 reconnaissance by western partners
1995 - 1997 feasibility study under western control
1997 - 1998 Rozmin company formation, legal items

Results of investigation and future outlooks
In 1999 a further 6 drill holes were drilled that were investigated and sampled by HSR and BTA. (The results of these holes were not incorporated into the geological model that had been developed.)

The ore body intersected by the drill holes was found to have an E-W dimension of 2.700 m and a north-south dimension of at least 820 m. The ore body is located on average some 350 m beneath the surface.

The so-called west zone has dimensions of 850 m in E-W direction and approx. 820 m in N-S direction. The thicknesses of the mineralised zones lies between 2 m und 375 m.

With this perspective Rozmin will soon be established as a reliable producer of high quality (HQ) talc. The main partners and clients served by Rozmin will be the paper industry and producers of paints and plastics. The optimal location of the deposit in the center of middle Europe and the early EC membership of Poland, Czech, Hungary and Slovakia will speed up the marketing position of Rozmin.

Rozmin s.r.o. finished an extensive and detailed drilling and exploration campaign at the huge talc deposit of Gemerska Poloma. The geological reserves there were calculated with 28 million tons of common talc and 1.6 million tons of high quality talc. This grants a mine life exceeding at least 20 years. Right now the mine and plant development will start. The regular production is planed to middle of 2009. In the following years the production will rise up to 100.000 tpy and will consist mainly of white pure talc.

What is Talc ?
Talc is one of the most valuable industrial minerals. It is widely used in industry as a filler in plastics, for the automobile industry, in paper production and in the production of paints and lacquers as well as in the cosmetic and pharmaceutical industry.

Growth prospects best outside largest end-uses
By far the largest markets for talc worldwide lie in paper and ceramics, each of which accounts for some 30% of total consumption of talc minerals. However, talc faces increasing competition in both markets, as precipitated and ground calcium carbonate take increasing market share for paper fillers and the refractories industry adopts higher-performance mag-carbon and dolomite-carbon products in place of pyrophillite. The result is that the main areas of growth for talc in the next few years are likely to lie outside these two end-uses.

Growth in talc consumption in plastics is forecast at over 3% py through 2006 in line with increased use of polypropylene, especially for the automotive market where lightweight and recyclability are important factors. Development of very fine compacted, sub-micron talcs will enhance the properties imparted to plastics and raise the value of talc sales to the plastics industry. Growth in talc consumption in paints is estimated at over 2%py in North America and Western Europe, and at 4-7%py in industrialising Asian and Latin American countries, as per capita consumption of paint rises. On the supply side, world production of talc fell by around 10% from 1996 to 2002, primarily due to lower output from China and the USA, which in 2002 accounted for 40% and 13% of the world total respectively. Six countries - China, the USA, India, Finland, France and Brazil - together accounted for around 80% of total world output in 2002.