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Lafarge to start fracking waste water trial 23 April 2014
Canada: The Nova Scotia government has said that hydraulic fracturing waste water is going to be shipped to a Lafarge Canada cement plant in Brookfield for use in cement production. Environment Minister Randy Delorey presented details of the pilot project at a community meeting in Truro.
Atlantic Industrial Services will ship 2Ml of waste water from holding ponds in Debert to Brookfield over a three week period. The water will be used as coolant in the kiln and evaporated at 700°C. Lafarge will test its equipment for residual inorganic materials before and after using the water.
Pakistan: A US$130m contract for the construction of Pakistan's first dirty cargo terminal, Pakistan International Bulk Terminal (PIBT), at Port Qasim has been awarded to China Harbour Works.
The total cost of the PIBT will be US$250m, which will include the cost of equipment. In the first phase the terminal will have the capacity to handle 12Mt/yr of imported coal, 5Mt/yr of cement and 2Mt/yr of clinker. In the second phase the PIBT will expand its capacity of imported coal to 20Mt/yr to meet the growing energy demand of the country.
China Harbour Works will start civil work on the terminal within a month and complete it within two years. Coal imports to Pakistan are expected to grow given that most of the new power plants under construction are coal based and many old plants are also being converted to use coal.
US: Gebr. Pfeiffer Inc., the US subsidiary of Germany's Gebr. Pfeiffer SE, has been contracted to supply a new raw material vertical roller mill for the Holcim (US) Hagerstown plant as part of a wider renovation project. The order was placed through KHD Humboldt Wedag, which is the engineering and equipment supplier for the Hagerstown plant modernisation. KHD has been contracted to modify the existing production line to increase the plant's potential production rate to approximately 2400t/day and to comply with the new NESHAP environmental regulations.
KHD's scope of supply begins with modifying the raw material feed system and continues through to the clinker handling system and storage hall. As part of the solution, a new raw material grinding mill, the MPS 3750 B, along with all related engineering services will be supplied by Gebr. Pfeiffer, Inc. The raw material grinding mill includes a rotary air lock with drive, MPS 3750 B mill, an SLS 3150 B high efficiency classifier and includes Gebr. Pfeiffer's patented 'Lift and Swing' technology.
Commissioning for this project is planned for mid-2016.
Savannah Cement to invest US$200m in clinker production 22 April 2014
Kenya: Savannah Cement plans to invest US$200m to develop a clinker plant. Currently, most of the major cement companies in Kenya rely on imported clinker.
Savannah Cement board chairman Benson Ndeta announced that the company, which currently has a production capacity of more than 1.5Mt/yr of cement, will develop the clinker plant to boost its market share. Ndeta said that the firm hopes to be a major competitor in the regional market in the supply of cement to Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan after satisfying its local market with cement.
Probe against Lafarge 22 April 2014
Bangladesh/India: The Indian compliance adviser/ombudsman (CAO) is assessing a complaint that was filed in January 2014 against Lafarge Surma Cement's land acquisition and limestone quarrying operation close to the villages of Shella and Tynger in Meghalaya state.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), an arm of the World Bank, partly financed a project with Lafarge Surma Cement for the construction and operation of an integrated cement plant in Bangladesh, which is very close to the border with Meghalaya, India from where the limestone is obtained.
"The complaint raises concerns about the legitimacy of the land acquisition and the process used for the project's limestone quarrying operation close to the villages of Shella and Tynger in Meghalaya," said the CAO. The complainants said that the Khasi indigenous people have been deprived of their land, their livelihood has been impacted and their customary land rights and systems have not been respected.