Displaying items by tag: Raw Materials

US: Dragon Products reportedly plans to lay off six employees at its Thomaston, Maine, cement plant later in 2024, in the plant’s on-going transition from cement production to distribution only. This will reduce the plant’s total employees to 20, down by 76% from 85 at the start of the year. Local press has reported that rising operating costs, including for energy and transport, led to the move.

The Thomaston plant continues to process ‘residual’ raw materials and has begun implementation of its new distribution strategy, taking delivery of 30,000t of bagged cement via the port of Searsport. A second delivery is scheduled for October 2024.

Australia: Zeolite, kaolin and metakaolin producer Zeotech has appointed James Marsh as its new CEO, effective from 9 September 2024. Current CEO Scott Burkhart will then transition to chief operating officer. The appointment is intended to support Zeotech’s entry into large-scale production of high reactivity metakaolin for use in cement and concrete.

Marsh is a director of Australian Kaolin. He previously worked as executive director sales and marketing at Andromeda Metals, after holding managerial roles at multiple minerals companies. He has a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and Physics from the University of the West of England, UK.

Managing Director Peter Zardo said "James' technical experience in the industrial mineral and cement industries, especially metakaolin, will be pivotal in accelerating Zeotech's goal of becoming a significant supplier of premium supplementary cementitious materials. Queensland-based leadership is critical to achieving the Company's objectives as we ramp up work programmes and industry engagement, and James will play an essential hands-on role in executing Zeotech's strategy."

James Marsh said "I'm excited to join Zeotech at a crucial stage of the company's strategy, where I can utilise my experience and connections to make it a significant player in decarbonising the construction industry."

Philippines: Holcim Philippines will invest US$6.5m to upgrade its La Union plant and increase the use of alternative fuels and raw materials to 40%. The project will be implemented by Sinoma CBMIPH Construction and will be completed by late 2025, reports the Manila Bulletin.

Nicolas George, Holcim Philippines president and CEO, said the investment aims to reduce CO₂ emissions, promote recycling, support local waste management and provide income for northern Luzon farmers, who will supply biomass residues as alternative fuels.

General manager Zeng Youbing of Sinoma CBMIPH Construction said “This marks the third collaboration between Sinoma CBMIPH and Holcim Philippines since 2021. We are honoured to contribute to Holcim Philippines' decarbonisation and sustainability goals.”

France: NeoCem plans to build a €50m clay calcination plant at Saint-Maximin, Picardy. The company recently raised €23m in investments in its Series A funding round. The Le Journal des Enterprises newspaper has reported that the Saint-Maximin plant will enter operation in 2025, and will subsequently grow to 200,000t/yr in capacity. NeoCem aims to employ 100 people by 2030.

Head of industrial deployment Guillaume Luu said “To be used in concrete, limestone must be heated for several hours at 1400°C. Our clay-based binder generates CO₂ emissions of 120kg/t, compared to almost 1000kg/t of limestone binder, and our technology can transform all types of clays available. The idea is not to open new quarries, but to give a second life to materials already on the surface." He continued “The up-cycling of clays and their transformation into a low-carbon binder addresses several challenges for the construction sector. On the one hand, the reuse of clay waste, and on the other hand, the decarbonisation of the building materials sector.”

Spain: Holcim España’s Viver quarries have received an Environmental Impact Declaration (EID) to expand from 13.5 to 37.5 hectares. This expansion will enable the company to extract 300,000t/yr of limestone to supply its Sagunto cement plant. The EID will allow the company to continue to operate the quarry until 2054.

UAE: Emirates Steel Arkan has concluded a partnership for the deployment of Finland-based Magsort’s technology in steel slag processing at its Al Ain cement plant. ZAWYA News has reported that the partners expect the technology to help reduce the plant’s limestone and fuel consumption. This will reduce its CO₂ emissions by 15%.

Emirates Steel Arkan CEO Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi said "Green solutions such as this will help decarbonise the sector's value chain."

Chile: Freehill Mining has won a US$181,000 order to supply raw materials to Cementos Melón's Coquimbo cement plant. Despatches, from the Yerbas Buenas metals mine, will take place in mid-March to mid-May 2024. Freehill Mining said that its local subsidiary is already in talks with Cementos Melón over a possible longer-term supply contract. Freehill Mining says that it processes the materials at a plant at its Yerbas Buenas site.

Freehill Mining’s non-executive chair Ben Jarvis said “This purchase order with Melón marks the first step of a major scale-up of activities at Yerbas Buenas. For the past six months, our focus has been to establish confidence with our customers so they regard Freehill as a dependable supplier. Now that we have achieved this, we are ramping up supply and thus increasing revenue. Whilst the value of this purchase order is pleasing, we are confident that much larger orders will materialise very soon.” He added “We anticipate having our larger plant operational at Yerbas Buenas by the end of this month.”

Uzbekistan: The government has reduced the tax on limestone for use as a raw material in cement production. Uzbekistan Newsline has reported that the tax rate has dropped by 73% to US$0.48/t.

Sri Lanka: Switzerland-based SpectraFlow Analytics has received an order for a SpectraFlow Airslide analyser and raw mix proportioning software from Siam City Cement (Lanka). The equipment will analyse the composition of material exiting the raw materials mill at Siam City Cement (Lanka)’s Puttalam cement plant. The supplier says that this will help to increase kiln feed quality, lowering the chances of refractory problems and other causes of kiln stoppages.

SpectraFlow Analytics said “The ever increasing demand in cost savings and at the same time improving product quality led Siam City Cement (Lanka) to invest in the most advanced raw mill optimisation package available on the market.”

Nigeria: BUA Cement recorded sales of US$423m throughout the first nine months of 2023, up by 27% year-on-year from US$333m in the first nine months of 2022. Growth in the group’s cost of sales outstripped revenues growth, at 31%, to US$236m. Energy costs rose by 27% year-on-year, while raw materials costs rose by 47% year-on-year. BUA Cement’s profit grew by 2.8% to US$96.4m, from US$93.9m.