A company

The history of Minova CarboTech GmbH commences at the end of the 19th Century with the foundation of the company Willich in Dortmund for the manufacture of “Insulated pipelines and containers with sheet metal jacketing“. During the following decades, the family-owned company grew into a size of more than 2000 employees world-wide.

Willich 1937

In the mid-eighties, the Willich Group decided to invest the knowledge it had gained in the insulation field in a new line of business, mining. The company Willich Berg- und Bautechnik GmbH was founded. Subsidiaries in Switzerland, Poland and South Africa, among others were developed, thereby laying the foundation for a successful business development in the nineties.

Willich 1982

In the mid-nineties, the Willich Group concentrated its activities in the core line of business, insulation. Willich Berg- und Bautechnik was sold to the British company Fosroc Mining, which supplied special building materials to the mining sector. Under the new name Willich Fosroc GmbH, the company assumed the operative responsibility for the European mining business within the Fosroc Mining Group and cared for large projects in international tunnel construction.

The second partner within the current company Minova CarboTech GmbH is CarboTech Berg- und Tunnelbausysteme GmbH, which has its roots in the company Bergbauforschung GmbH, the research organisation for the German hard coal mining, founded in 1958 and its subsidiary, Bergwerksverband GmbH.

Their business was transferred to the company CarboTech Gesellschaft für Berg- und Industrieprodukte GmbH in 1989. As a subsidiary of DMT Deutsche Montan Technologie GmbH, the successor mining research company, CarboTech founded subsidiaries and participations in various countries, including in Russia, the Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Australia, USA, South Africa and Chile in the ensuing years.

The merger

In 2000, the two companies formed the Joint Venture CarboTech Fosroc GmbH. It takes over all of the European subsidiaries and participations of CarboTech Berg- und Tunnelbausysteme GmbH and Willich Fosroc GmbH. At the beginning of 2004, the activities of the last Willich subsidiary, Willich D+I, a manufacturer of PU-hard foams for insulation are also taken over.

Minova CarboTech GmbH

In Mid-2002 BP which was at that time the owner of Fosroc Mining, sold the company to the British investment company Close Brothers Private Equity. Fosroc Mining was renamed as Minova.

In August 2004, Minova acquires the 50% share held by DMT in CarboTech Fosroc GmbH and holds 100% from then.

Under its new name, Minova CarboTech GmbH with registered office in Essen is in 2005 part of an internationally oriented company with its own subsidiaries, participations and representatives. It has a wide range of know-how in the fields of bolts, sealing, stabilisation, filling, coating, adhering and insulation and can profit from the synergies which a global company has to offer for the benefit of the customers.

In January 2007 Minova was sold to the Orica Group of companies. Orica is one of the top 50 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange with market capitalisation of approximately A$7 billion. The company has over 13,000 employees in approximately 50 countries and services customers in 98 different countries around the world.  Orica provides products and services to the mining, manufacturing and construction and consumer markets through four business groups. For more information visit www.orica.com.

... and its technical history

Work on the developing of reactive artificial resins was commenced at the mining research company "Bergbauforschung" in Essen, Germany in the late fifties. These were initially resin mortar cartridges on a polyester basis with which rock bolts were adhered into the drill hole. With its more than ten production sites around the world, the Minova Group today has more than a 60% share of the global market for adhesive cartridges.

In 1968, we filed the injecting of foaming polyurethane resins in coal or rocks for a patent. With this process it is possible to stabilise unstable areas, a measure without which a rational mechanical mining is inconceivable nowadays.

In 1979 this was supplemented by the so-called silicate resin on the basis of water glass/isocyanate as a non-foaming injection resin. Willich developed a high-foaming version, WilkitFoam, which formed the basis for an additional field of application in water sealing and cavity filling.

The use of polyurethane resins in German hard coal mining was firmly established by the beginning of the eighties. This technique was also introduced to foreign mines during the eighties: France, USA, Soviet Union, Poland, Australia and South Africa.

The first large project outside the mining sector was the construction of the Furka Tunnel in Switzerland in 1980/81, where we contributed to the solution of the problems caused by rocks. The emphasis which was placed on the use in the construction industry was increasingly the excellent properties of the polyurethane resins for the sealing of water inflows, e.g. during the construction work at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin in the nineties. We always pay special attention to the environmental compatibility of our injection resins which are tested in accordance with the latest test methods.

We were mainly able to extend the range of application of the stabilising injections by combining injection bolts such as Wiborex and Irma. Additional bolt types were included in the product range. In the meantime, Minova CarboTech has started to produce bolts itself; the subsidiary Geobolt manufactures hydraulically-braced friction bolts.

A new area of use was added in the eighties with sewer repair, a market which is nowadays characterised by new technical challenges and innovative solutions. Minova CarboTech is now able to offer numerous materials, mainly silicate resins for various rehabilitation methods.

1994 this was followed by flooring adhesives on a polyurethane basis, initially 2-component products followed by user-friendly single-component products. As the Minova systems do not contain any solvents, they are readily accepted by the market. In the meantime, our range of products includes adhesives for diverse uses.

In 2003 rigid foams were for the time being the last products in the PU-segment to establish themselves at Minova CarboTech. Light foams for insulation, packaging, floral foam, and much more are developed and produced here.

The product portfolio also includes phenolic foams, urea formaldehyde resins, methacrylate gels ...