Quarry Products

The 11th Best Communicator Awards were presented at the recent Marmomac, the international exhibition of stone design and technology, held in Verona, Italy.
During the event, stands became full-scale works of art and design to narrate the materials and technologies involved in the world of natural stone.
A jury selected the winners that stood out in expressing the values and business philosophy inspiring their work to the full through the originality of their stands.

Organised by Veronafiere and held

Pioneers of sustainable construction have been commended at the European phase of the LafargeHolcim Awards, with two UK winners revealed.
Now in its fifth cycle (2017-18), the awards have been designed to reward and recognise those projects that push boundaries in balancing environmental performance, social responsibility, and economic growth.
The Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners from each region will compete for the global LafargeHolcim Awards in 2018, with a prize fund of US$2 million allocated to the o

Indian cement consumption is estimated to grow from 265million tonnes in 2017 to 322 million tonnes in 2020, says a report by Nomura.

The surge in demand will be mainly driven by strong government focus on housing and infrastructure development.

Housing is the biggest driver of cement demand in India accounting for nearly some 65% of total cement consumption.

W Resources has selected Metso to build a high-capacity crushing plant for its La Parrilla Project in the south of Spain, aiming to increase its capacity while reducing the quantity of tungsten fines produced. “The new Metso crushing circuit is a critical component of the La Parrilla site and part of the increase to 2 million tonnes per annum of run-of-min,” says W Resources. “This will enable production of 2,500-2,700tonnes/year of tungsten concentrate.

History has been made in the UK building materials sector with the first jumbo train (34 wagons and 660m long) departing from Associated British Ports rail terminal in Cardiff and travelling to Acton in London. The landmark load of 2,300 tonnes of building materials will be used in the construction industry in the South East. Delivering the materials by rail will save the equivalent of over 80 truckloads on congested UK roads.

The Italian stone industry is continuing to grow on markets with exports increasing in the first half of 2017.
As Italy prepares to host the 52nd Marmomac in Verona from 27-30 September, it has also been revealed that the sale of rough blocks, semi-finished and finished materials totalled €969 million (+3.3%), while machinery and technology also performed well, posting €640 million (+26.3%) in H1.

CRH, the international Irish building materials group, has reached an agreement to acquire Ash Grove Cement Company (Ash Grove), a leading US cement manufacturer headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas, for US$3.5 billion. The proposed transaction is subject to Ash Grove shareholder and regulatory approvals and will be financed through existing financial resources. The transaction is expected to close around year end 2017.

Mineral Products Association (MPA) analysis has highlighted the massive differences in development and construction recovery since the recession between London and the rest of Great Britain. The key difference is not just North compared to South, but London compared with everywhere else.