Hess Pumice Products, located in southeastern Idaho, near Malad City, is a mining operation and processing company specializing in the extraction and refining of high-quality pumice, which is a key component in numerous industrial and consumer-grade products. Hess Pumice, the largest private employer in Oneida county is family-owned and managed. Their Wright Creek Area mine, located 22 miles northwest of Malad, has a confirmed yield of millions of tons of available pumice.

Hess has a vast reserve of pumice—as high a quality as any available on earth. The company is dedicated to the highest standards of refinement, accuracy of grading, quality control, and supplying products at any specification, making them a world-class pumice supplier. In continual operation since 1958, Hess Pumice operates production facilities with the most current refining technology and machinery.
Hess Pumice Products was founded on good fortune, and nurtured by hard work and optimism. When founder Marion Hess’ construction business went bust, he took what equipment he had left, and with the encouragement of a nearby farmer, dug up an area where the farmer couldn’t get anything to grow. Marion ripped up a quantity of the white volcanic pumice rock, shipping it to a Salt Lake City company who used it in their lightweight concrete block products.

Marion’s son Marvin, a newly-graduated University of Utah engineer, discovered that the television industry was buying fine-grade pumice for use in polishing and finishing television screens. His father’s pumice deposit certainly fit that need.
In 1971 Marvin designed a small pilot plant inside a converted diesel shop and the process of refining a fine-ground pumice product began. After refining and tweaking their process and gradation capabilities, Hess became the market choice for the television glass industry, opening the door to global markets in the late 1980s. It was quickly evident that the pumice coming out of Malad City, Idaho was the best in the world, chosen by manufacturers worldwide.

A large production facility was constructed in 1986, and a second in 1996. Each plant possesses the latest tech and machinery, producing and packaging of some 300 pumice grades.

Hess Pumice quickly grew to dominate the world market for industrial abrasives, continuing to invest in innovative processing methods and capacity, while seeking new markets for their exceptional pure white pumice. With their stable source of supply and an exclusive focus on producing controlled industrial grades of pumice, Hess has the logistical expertise to ship pumice anywhere on the planet. Hess is the world’s leading supplier of highly refined pumice products.

Hess’ pumice is a key component in many industries: as a key component in cement and construction applications, as a replacement for the fracking sand critical to the oil and gas well fracturing process, and many other applications.