Displaying items by tag: Quarry

Germany: Spain-based Isigenere has installed a 739kW floating solar power plant on a lake at HeidelbergCement’s Dettelbach quarry in Bavaria. PV Magazine has reported that the 1900-panel solar power array, Bavaria’s largest, will power HeidelbergCement’s operations at the quarry.

UK: Breedon Group says that it has agreed to sell 14 sites to Tillicoultry Quarries for Euro13.5m. The sale includes a cement terminal and two quarries in Scotland, and 10 ready-mix plants and an asphalt plant in England. Breedon says it is making the divestment in order to meet the concerns of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) with regard to its takeover of part of Cemex UK’s ready-mix and aggregates operations. Once completed the group expects to be able to finalise its integration of the remaining assets acquired from Cemex into its existing business.

Chief executive officer (CEO) Pat Ward said, "We are very pleased with the outcome of this process and believe it is in the interests all stakeholders. It allows Breedon to realise fair value for the assets disposed of, which, together with the people employed in them, will be in good hands under new ownership by Tillicoultry Quarries."

Australia: Boral plans to increase raw limestone production at its Marulan South quarry in New South Wales to 4.0Mt/yr. Additionally, the company will increase aggregate extraction at the site to 1.0Mt/yr. The Goulburn Post reports that the new South Wales state government has agreed to the US$3.23m upgrade on condition that the building materials company upgrades and realigns a local access road to improve safety. Boral originally applied to expand the open cast mine in 2018.

Mexico: Cuautinchán city council granted permission for Cemex to resume cement production at its 7.2Mt/yr integrated Tepeaca plant in Cuautinchán following its suspension on 1 October 2020 for failure to pay city rates.

The Municipios Puebla newspaper has reported that Cuautinchán mayor José Pérez opposes the reopening, accusing Cemex of quarrying over 4.44km² in a remote area where its licence extends over a site of just 12.0km². He stated that Cemex has caused environmental deterioration and failed to comply with road upkeep requirements, adding, “It is not a company that has established co-responsibility against municipalities.”

India: A public hearing over Birla Corporation subsidiary Reliance Cement’s planned 3.9Mt/yr Mukutban cement plant in Yavatmal district, Maharashtra has raised objections against the company’s quarry plans. The Times of India newspaper has reported that the plant is due to source its limestone from a 7.6km² quarry in Korpana, Chandrapur district. Critics say that the company has failed to complete a wildlife management plan, and that the site of the mine lies on a 120km wildlife corridor between the Tipeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary and the Kawal Wildlife Sanctuary in neighbouring Telangana. Reliance Cement said that an environmental report had shown the presence of no scheduled species within 10km of the proposed site.

Maharashtra state wildlife board member and honorary wildlife warden Bandu Dhore said, “Although there is no forest area under the proposed mining site, it acts as a regular corridor as there is forest on either side within 1km. We are pursuing the matter with the forest department and would press it with higher officials to ensure that the precious corridor remains undisturbed. Protection of corridors is a must for conservation of wildlife and hence we are going to raise the demand of re-survey of the project site from the wildlife point of view.”

Japan: Sumitomo Osaka Cement has started using Michibiki, a Japanese satellite positioning system, as part of a demonstration project by its limestone mining operations to improve efficiency. At present the company uses so-called ‘internet of things’ technology such as yard inventory management by drone and rough stone quality management by heavy equipment, including loaders and dump trucks, equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) tablet terminals. The group operates eight limestone mines in Japan and it mines 20Mt/yr.

China: Anhui Conch subsidiary Anhui Haibo Intelligent Technology has announced the signing with Huawei of a contract of collaboration towards developing systems for using driverless vehicles in mineral extraction operations. General manager He Shenzhong said, “Huawei and Conch have joined forces to empower traditional industries with high-intelligence technology. The goal is to create a world-class unmanned open-pit mine project, transform the unmanned technology achievements of open-pit mines into actual productivity projects, and establish unmanned open-pit mines – a new benchmark for the development of traditional industries.”

Germany: Inclusive Development International, the Heinrich Böll Foundation and FoodFirst Information and Action Network (FIAN) Germany have filed a complaint with the German government about HeidelbergCement subsidiary Indocement’s planned Kendeng, East Java integrated cement plant and quarry, which they say may adversely impact 35,000 livelihoods in the agricultural region. FIAN Germany managing director Philipp Mimkes said, “The government must meet its human rights obligations and act immediately. The rights to food and water of the communities in Kendeng must be protected against threatened injuries by this HeidelbergCement subsidiary. The food security of thousands of local farmers is at stake.”

Algeria/Belarus: Belarus-based automobiles producer Belaz says that it has received an order for twelve dump trucks from Groupe des Ciments d'Algérie (GICA), Algeria’s leading cement producer with 13.5Mt/yr installed cement production capacity. Business World Magazine News has reported that the company will use the trucks for conveying raw materials in its Saoura quarry in Adrar Province. It previously bought twelve 60t-capacity Belaz-7555I trucks and nine front-loaders in mid-2020. The latest order is due for arrival in September 2020.

Belaz produces the 450t-capacity Belaz-75710, the largest-capacity dump truck in the world.

Australia: Adelaide Brighton has extended its lease over its Sellicks Hill quarry in South Australia until 2090. The Advertiser newspaper has reported that the signing of the lease, which secures the company’s local supply of limestone, “coincides with a rise in local cement consumption due to the government’s South Australia HomeBuilder building and renovation subsidy scheme,” according to the company. In August 2020 Adelaide Brighton signed supply contracts with BHP and OZ Minerals for infrastructure projects in the state.