2010 Annual Report - S&B

Market-to-mine is S&B’s approachto bringing its Purpose to life.Market-to-mineThe deep understanding of how ourproducts can be applied in variousindustrial processes and add valueaccording to customers’ needs (the“market”), is the key, in developing andtransforming natural resources (the “mine”),into value creating industrial solutions.Our commercial teams continuously buildknowledge on the various processes in theproduction of a multitude of end products.They possess the skills needed, to identifyproblems, design and propose solutionsthrough our product offering, that addnew value to an existing product and/ormanufacturing customer process.MarketBeing close to our customers allowsus to understand in detail,what they produce and how. Ideasof how our products can improvethe performance of a customer’sproduction process are drawn upby our commercial teams or requestedby our customers themselves.Concurrently, our “out ofthe box” thinking brings to ourR&D teams, conceptions of whatwe wish to propose to our customersfor bringing additional valueand efficiency to their process.The feasibility and validity of theseconceptions are put to the test.Depending on the outcome of thisevaluation and also on whether ornot our current product portfoliocan provide the solution, the necessaryactions are considered allthe way from process redesign tonew reserve identification.We aim to be the preferred supplier to over1,500 customers by offering customizedsolutions to various industrial applications.MineAll the current and potential marketneeds are accumulated andtranslated into reserve requirements.Our mining and processingexperts will validate that the qualityof the product can be availableconsistently in depth of time. Theforecasted quantities will be incorporatedin our medium and longterm plans. With the assistance ofour engineers and our R&D department,the necessary processingwill be designed in order to tailorthe product to the desired specificationsfor the customer’s use. Potentialcapital investments will beinvestigated and evaluated if necessary.The new value adding customizedsolution will find its wayback to the market.20 S&B Industrial Minerals S.A.