Omya COMITAL was established in 1946 and its headquarters is located in Ermesinde, Municipality of Valongo, in the Region of Porto, Portugal.
This way, in association with the French group AGS/BMP since 1989, Omya Comital has carried on since the beginning a research and development programme of new products and processes in order to satisfy the ongoing and growing demands of a market each time wider and competitive.
Since the beginning of its activity, the company has assured an important source of raw-material, maintaining currently the original centres of mining of talc, barite and calcium carbonate, located in Bragança and Ansião.
In what concerns the production centres, initially only in Ermesinde, it was in 1992 that in result of a partnership strategy with the customers, the company proceeded with the assembly of a new production unit, in Soure, that aim at supplying one of the biggest national portent of the Paper Industry, Soporcel. This partnership lasted until 1995.
In 2000 the company started the process of internationalization in South America, opening in URUGUAI a production unit of slurry for coated paper.
In 2001, Omya Comital joins the world bigger producer of Calcium Carbonate – Omya Group.
The two production centres were kept until the end of 2002; by this time the unit of Ermesinde is deactivated. The urge of restructuring, the opportunity of reaching an agreement with the Town Hall of Valongo regarding the landscape rehabilitation of the region and the acquisition of part of the company’s capital by Omya Group were the crucial conditions that allow this decisive step.
So since the beginning of 2003, the company has its production activities exclusively in Soure, in a completely restructured and remodelled unit with the most advanced technological processes of systems, control and automation of production.
Also in 2003 due to a strategy of continuous improvement in the quality level of the raw-material, a new model unit of mining and transformation of talc was inaugurated in Bragança, in the Natural Park of Montesinho. This unit was designed so that it could be fully integrated with the landscape surrounding and also respectful of the environment.
In an international level, a new industrial unit in Chile is started.
Regarding Quality, it is carried on the transition to the standard NP EN ISO 9001:2000.
In 2004 the new headquarters is built in Ermesinde where the general management, the administrative services and sales are concentrated.
In this same year Omya COMITAL expands its activity to Distribution, representing exclusively in Portugal from that moment on several companies producers of resins, pigments, fillers and additives.
In the Quality area and namely regarding the compliance with the Directive for the Construction Products, Omya Comital obtains for its aggregates, the Production Control Certificate in the Plant according to the standards EN 12620:2002, EN 13139:2002, EN 13043:2002.
In 2006 due to the full integration in the Omya Group the name of the company once Comital-Companhia Mineira de Talcos changed to Omya COMITAL, MINERAIS E ESPECIALIDADES SA.
In the same year, the Integrated Management System was expanded to the production units of ANSIÃO and SOEIRA and also to the Distribution activity.
On the 1 October, 2007 due to the merger process with Unikristal Minerais, the company enlarges its products portfolio and starts to produce precipitated calcium carbonate for the Paper Industry.
In 2008 the expansion of our production unit in Setúbal started in order to fulfil the new demands of the Paper Industry.
