Alleghany's headquarters is located in leased office space of approximately 16,000 square feet at 375 Park Avenue in New York City.
RSUI leases approximately 115,000 square feet of office space in Atlanta, Georgia for its headquarters and approximately 34,000 square feet of office space in Sherman Oaks, California. Capitol Transamerica leases approximately 50,000 square feet of office space in Madison, Wisconsin for its and Platte River's headquarters. Darwin leases approximately 12,500 square feet of office space in Farmington, Connecticut for its headquarters.
Lompoc, CA. Celite's largest mine in terms of tonnage produced is located at 2500 Miguelito Road, Lompoc, California on property immediately adjacent to the City of Lompoc, California, and accessed via public roads and highways. The mine, which is an open-pit mine, celebrated its 100th anniversary of production in 1993 and has been in continuous operation for more than 60 years. The Lompoc property consists of approximately 8,700 acres, of which 5,000 acres are owned and 3,700 acres consist of property on which Celite has leased mineral rights from non-governmental third parties. All of the mining and mining operations are currently conducted on 2,500 acres of the owned property, with 2,500 acres of such property undeveloped. With respect to the mineral rights leases, such leases are long-term (in excess of ten years) provided that Celite pays annual minimum holding royalties and are not material to the current mining operations of Celite.
Celite extracted, through surface mining, a total of approximately 297,000 tons of diatomaceous earth from the Lompoc property in 2004 and, on average, has extracted a total of approximately 300,000 tons of diatomaceous earth from the Lompoc property each year for the past three years, or approximately 46.0 percent of World Minerals' total diatomaceous earth production. This diatomaceous earth is processed at the Lompoc production facility which has approximately 1.0 million square feet of space, has a rated capacity in excess of 200,000 tons annually and currently supplies more than 25 different grades of diatomite products to the filtration and filler markets. The facility also houses World Minerals' research and development, and health, safety and environmental
departments and Celite's quality control laboratories. The plant and equipment are maintained by a full-time maintenance department and operate on regular replacement and repair cycles. The power sources used by the mining operations are natural gas and electricity.
Celite believes that its proven and probable recoverable ore reserves of diatomaceous earth at the Lompoc property are approximately 8.6 million tons, of which approximately 72.0 percent consists of bright diatomite and approximately 28.0 percent consists of organically dark diatomite, which contains higher sulfur content than bright diatomite, based on estimates by the mining and exploration personnel employed by Celite. The Lompoc property's annual utilization of dark ore diatomite is capped at approximately 20.0 percent using current plant equipment due to air emission standards. Exploration programs have identified a potential 6.0 million tons of bright reserves in addition to the 8.6 million of proven and probable reserves of diatomaceous earth, at the Lompoc property.
Quincy, Washington. Celite's second largest mine in terms of tonnage produced is located at 16419 Road 10.5 Northwest in Quincy, Washington and is accessed via public roads and highways. The mine, plant and equipment were acquired in 1991 from Witco Corporation for a purchase price of $10.0 million. The mine, which is an open-pit mine, has been in continuous operation for more than 50 years. The Quincy property consists of approximately 3,500 acres, 500 acres of which are owned and 3,000 acres of which consist of six separate parcels with respect to which Celite has leased mineral rights from non-governmental third parties. Approximately 85.0 percent of the current mining operations occur on the leased parcels. The remaining terms of the active mineral rights leases vary from two to fifteen years provided that Celite pays annual minimum holding royalties and production royalties, where applicable. Celite has no reason to believe that such leases will not be renewed on commercially reasonable terms.
Guadalajara, Mexico. Celite's third largest mine in terms of tonnage produced is located at Almeria, S.A. de C.V., Jose A. Torres 400, General Andres Figueroa, KM 55 Carretera Guadalajara-CD Guzman, Jalisco, Mexico C.P. 44910 approximately 45 kilometers south of Guadalajara, Mexico and is accessed via public roads and highways. The mine, which is an open-pit mine, has been in continuous operation for more than 40 years. The Guadalajara mining activity is conducted on approximately 12,500 acres of government granted mineral concessions. The active concessions continue for a period of at least 20 years, provided Celite continues mining above minimum required production amounts, makes annual payments of concession taxes, meets certain environmental conditions and provides required extraction reports. The processing facility is located on approximately 110 acres of company owned property.
Celite believes that its proven and probable recoverable reserves of diatomaceous earth at the Guadalajara property are approximately 5.7 million tons, based on estimates by the mining and exploration personnel employed by Celite.
No Agua, New Mexico. Harborlite's largest mine in terms of tonnage produced is located on U.S. Highway 285 in No Agua, New Mexico and is accessed via public roads and highways. The mine, which is an open-pit mine, has been in continuous operation for more than 40 years. The No Agua property consists of approximately 1,579 acres of property owned by Harborlite, of which approximately 350 acres are developed.
Harborlite believes that its proven and probable reserves of perlite at the Dikili property are approximately 4.5 million tons. Recoverable reserve estimates are 25.0 percent lower due to loss of product during mining and plant operations, based on estimates by the mining and exploration personnel employed by Harborlite.
Harborlite believes that its proven and probable recoverable reserves of perlite at the Superior property are approximately 3.1 million tons, based on estimates by the mining and exploration personnel employed by Harborlite.
The information required by this Item 8 is incorporated by reference from pages 56 through 78 of Alleghany's Annual Report to Stockholders for the year 2004, filed as Exhibit 13 hereto.