There are very few commercially developed olivine sources worldwide, and in Europe the main producers are located in Norway, Italy, Turkey, Greece, and Spain (dunite).

Leading olivine producer Nuova Cives is located at Vidracco, a municipality in the Metropolitan City of Turin, in the Italian region of Piedmont, located about 40km north of Turin (and about 132km south-west of the MagForum 2023 venue at Baveno).

The company is family owned and has been active for >60 years in exploitation, processing and trading a wide range of olivine products.

The olivine is extracted by drilling and blasting from deposits in Piedmont with different mineralogical compositions and different chemical and physical characteristics. Magnesite is also hosted within Nuova Cives’ concessions.

“Bric Carlevà” Mine: mining concession covers 125 hectares and exploitable resource of >300m tonnes

“Finero” Mine: >150 hectares and reserves of >250m tonnes olivine

The plant in Vidracco conducts primary and secondary crushing, separation of waste materials, enrichment, tertiary and quaternary crushing, screening, and classification.

An article published in Ingegneria dell’Ambiente (Environmental Engineering) in 2020 indicated that some 5m cubic metres of olivine is mined each year. The production capacity of the primary plant was reported at 300-350 tph, while the production capacity of the plant of selection and final grinding was 100-150 tph.

Although total plant capacity has been estimated at 600,000 tpa olivine, actual production in 2020 was reported as around 250-300,000 tpa olivine, ranging from aggregates, sands to micronized sizes.

Markets served by Nuova Cives include:

• steel mills companies (EBT/OBT filler, ingot casting)
• iron & steel industry
• foundries
• refractories
• waterproofing membranes
• industrial sandblasting
• fluid bed furnaces
• filtration and water clarification
• ceramics
• paints and mastics
• abrasive products
• industrial floors
• blocking sand