A trip down memory lane – join us as we relive the history of allmineral

“It was, of course, a major thing”

Dr. Heribert Breuer (†), aged 69 at the time of the interview, founded allmineral 30 years ago. In this interview he looks back on the company’s history, discusses the world’s biggest jigging machine plant, coal in concrete on the Lower Rhine and what it is that distinguishes allmineral.
 
Interview: end 2019
 
Dr. Breuer, you left company management three years ago although you continue to work for allmineral as a consultant. Did you find it difficult to step more into the background?

No, I found it quite easy to let go. At the age of 66, it wasn’t difficult to take a back seat. I enjoy continuing to work in another role and incorporating my knowledge in technology and sales. It’s a good solution.

Over three decades allmineral has developed into one of the world’s market leaders in the processing of ore, coal, gravel and sand as well as secondary raw materials. What led to the founding of the company?

I was working as a division head at MAN Gutehoffnungshütte in Oberhausen. We were working for the coal industry for which we built processing machines and plants. One day a gravel plant operator from the Lower Rhine came to us and asked us whether our technology would also be suitable for washing gravel. The river courses along the Rhine have always shifted over million of years. Forests were flooded and covered with gravel and sand. Through pressure and heat, the wood was transformed into a type of coal. If the material isn’t washed the coal particles will break out on the surface later when gravel and sand  are processed to form concrete. You then get holes which look a little like washed-out brown noses. Of course, manufacturers want to avoid this sort of damage, and it is therefore necessary to separate these so-called organic impurities of gravel and sand.

Was is possible to transfer the technology used with coal?

Basically, yes. Although machine technology had to be adapted and this worked! The customer thought that the gravel industry was waiting for such a faultless solution. I looked around the market and it seemed as though the need for this was great, which resulted in a huge potential for a new field of business. However, for a company such as MAN that had worked on huge projects in plant construction worth millions of (at the time) German marks, the much smaller projects for processing gravel and sand weren’t really very lucrative.

So you went your separate ways?

Yes, our customer Klösters came up with the idea of establishing our own company with this technical expertise. But the business required a lot of capital. Klösters and a further partner therefore each assumed 37.5 per cent and I assumed 25 per cent in this company which we finally established in March 1988: allmineral Aufbereitungstechnik GmbH & Co. KG. We started out with ten employees in Duisburg whereby the core team was made up of former colleagues who we also took over from MAN.  We then began work, took on a few remaining jobs from MAN, and then started on the jobs in the gravel and sand industry.

Where did the company name allmineral come from?

One of the partners at the time was the company Ackermans which worked in various sectors and operated companies like the supermarket chain allkauf and allbeton for the concrete industry. That’s how we thought of allmineral which was also very fitting for our area of work. It’s easy to pronounce, not a mouthful and also easy to understand in other languages.
 

Did you set your sights on the international market from the start? 

Yes. Particularly for coal, with which we didn't want to stop working. New opportunities also opened up nationally in 1989, after the fall of the Wall. The building boom that followed led to great demand for good quality building materials in the new federal states. West European investors took over the factories in the sand and gravel industry and replaced the run-down old plants. We got many orders from the Magdeburg region as well as from Brandenburg and Leipzig - which are all along the River Elbe where there was a similar problem with impurities as along the Rhine. We initially built individual machines and then later entire plants. We had the expertise, bought the components such as the pumps, sifting machines and conveyors and designed the plant around the central element - our jig,  the alljig®, – ourselves.

Did new markets open up for you in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Wall?

Yes, it started already in 1990. We supplied a whole series of jigging machines and flotation plants to the Polish coal mining industry. Here we were able to use our experiences in coal processing, in particular with the alljig®. It separates the light coal from the heavy loads,  stones, to reduce the ash content of the coal to international standards. Our alljig® machines remain successful in operation worldwide as does the allflux® which we originally developed for the gravel and sand industry  but which we now also use for ore, coal and other raw materials.

allmineral has also been in business in the USA for a long time. How did you make contacts here, from the Lower Rhine?

It started at the end of the 1980s through the close cooperation with a local representative who knew the market really well. This eventually led to the founding of our own subsidiary in the USA. Besides the quality of the products, it is also the contacts of the representative which play a key role abroad. We also saw this in Poland and later in many other countries where we started operating and this led to us becoming more international also in this sector. We also had orders from the recycling industry for the removal of lightweight materials from building rubble and the cleaning of contaminated floors - a further business division which we are still working in today.

Since the end of the 1990s allmineral has also been using its technology in the processing of iron ore.  What led to this?

As we were getting fewer orders from the gravel and sand sector due a saturation of the market we increasingly developed techniques for the processing of other raw materials such as iron ore. We received an enquiry from Australia concerning an assessment followed with a new delivery of jigging machines for the separation of low-grade stone from high quality ore. This was the entry into a new market. Further important steps included the establishment of a subsidiary for distribution in South Africa in 1997 and the opening of a construction office with production control in Breslau, Poland. 

allmineral also set new standards at the turn of the century with dry jigging machines. What advantages do they offer?

The demand for this came from the USA: in open-pit coal mining at the time, there was always a waste mixture left over after the removal of the boundary layers and this mixture also still contains, besides the stone mass, a lot of coal. We had to extract the residual coal from this. We therefore developed the air jigging machine allair® which works without water which is easier from a technical viewpoint.  With a pulsating flow of air, the machine separates light from heavy materials. A further benefit is that you don't get any slurry which needs to be disposed of.

So the process is more environmentally friendly?

Yes, and also more cost efficient. But there are also disadvantages as the machine extracts a few per cent less coal than one which works with water. After we started operation of the first air jig in 2002 demand was great: in the USA and Colombia as well as in, amongst other countries, Spain where we equipped the world’s biggest dry processing plant for coal with twelve allair® machines. Then there was also India. Here we had a licence agreement with a partner who built and distributed our machines for the Indian market according to our designs and with our support.  And this was a success from the start. Through this contact we were then asked what else we do. It was then that the methods using water for coal and ore processing were discussed which went on to be very successful in India.

Was it a gamble to hand over your designs?

No, because we had a very trustworthy partner with whom we had worked on many orders. Later, in 2009, we launched a joint venture with allmineral Asia for the joint marketing of our products as well as those of our Indian partner. At the same time, business also developed really well in South Africa and, in 2006, we received a huge order for iron ore processing. With an output of 4,000 tons per hour and 24 alljig® machines, it still remains, to the present day, the world’s biggest jigging machine plant. It was, of course, a major thing!

This must have been an engineer’s dream?

Yes! When you start operating a plant like this there is also a certain degree of responsibility associated with it. If the plant hadn't worked out, it would have been a major bad investment. But it all went well, thank goodness. The plant is still operating reliably using our technology.

What were the pioneering developments at allmineral in the past ten years?

We continued to be very successful worldwide. Our technologies were in great demand particularly in India and Australia and we had big orders for iron ore processing which were later followed by worldwide orders for manganese and chrome ore processing. A change came in 2011 with the sale of allmineral to the Schmidt Kranz Group from Velbert and its subsidiary, the company HAZEMAG from Dülmen.

What were the reasons for this?

My partners were significantly older than me and wanted to retire. We decided on the Schmidt Kranz Group with HAZEMAG as, on the one hand, we wanted to continue working in the same way as before. On the other hand, it also gave us the opportunity to operate together, as a group, and successfully take on bigger projects. We gradually grew to become part of the group. And this also showed that this was the right step.

Did it take away some of your responsibility as head of the company?

No, as head of the company, you always continue to have responsibility for the actual business. You ultimately have to ensure that the company is able to operate.

What distinguishes allmineral today?

What is important to me is that we, with our foreign subsidiaries and regional partners, have developed into the allmineral family, so to speak, over the years. We work closely together which creates considerable trust and this is most certainly also acknowledged in the market.  And, if this type of work is also accompanied by success, as was often the case, it is also an acknowledgement of our work. I always enjoyed the autonomy and independence in decisions and this continues to distinguish the company.
 
Profile

Dr.- Ing. Heribert Breuer was managing director of allmineral from 1988 to 2016. During this time the plant manufacturer from Düsseldorf established himself worldwide as a specialist for the processing of ore, coal, gravel and sand as well as other primary and secondary raw materials. allmineral rapidly established its international market position, expanded into new markets and set new standards with efficient and highly productive plants and machines.
 
Dr.- Ing. Heribert Breuer passed away in February 2020 and will always be remembered by his industry and company allmineral itself.