Limestone deposits developed in Czatkowice, Poland
The first phase of work on a limestone mine at Czatkowice, belonging to the Polish energy company Tauron, has been completed, enabling mining from a new limestone deposit.
The works were carried out on 8.5 hectare of woodland.
The new deposits, located on some 50 hectares of land, will extend the life of the mine until 2060
New international aggregates conference series launched
Boosting your company’s top and bottom lines is the focus of complementary keynote presentations at two European aggregates conferences being launched later this year.
The first will take place on June 27 the Radisson Blu Hotel at Manchester Airport, with the second scheduled for Brussels on November 17.
The headline themes are future productivity and profitability; manufactured sand; equipment technology; land management best practice; and big data and the aggregates industry.
Speakers are current
Kolberg-Pioneer honoured with Founder’s Award
Kolberg-Pioneer (KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens) has been recognised for outstanding performance with the prestigious Astec Industries Founder’s Award for 2015.
The award was established in 2014 to annually recognise the top-performing individual subsidiary of Astec Industries.
Kolberg-Pioneer is one of three Astec Industries companies that make up KPI-JCI and Astec Mobile Screens.
“Kolberg-Pioneer, Inc. is very pleased to receive the Astec Industries Founder’s Award this year,” said President J
LafargeHolcim receives revised CCI divestment order
LafargeHolcim has received a revised order from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for the divestment of its interest in Lafarge India, including three cement plants and two grinding stations with a total capacity of around 11 million tonnes/year.
Beat Hess set to become new Chairman of LafargeHolcim’s Board of Directors
Beat Hess is being backed to become the new Chairman of LafargeHolcim’s Board of Directors after current Chairman Wolfgang Reitzle informed the Board that he will not stand for re-election at the Company’s May 2016 Annual General Meeting.
A company statement issued today said the Board regrets this decision while acknowledging Reitzle’s wish to pursue other business activities that will require his fullest attention, in particular the Chairmanship of the Linde Supervisory Board.
Reitzle was instrumen
VIDEO: Introduction to Trimble InsightHQ - The Connected Quarry
3599 Trimble has produced a video to highlight the many benefits of its cutting-edge InsightHQ quarry management portal for web browsers and mobile devices. The video explains how the portal gives users near real time productivity, availability and performance dashboards and reports for extraction, processing and load-out.
Crucially, the wealth of easily digestible information at your fingertips through InsightHQ enables users to respond immediately to issues, optimise productivity, availability and performance.
Philippines’ cement sales in Q4 2015 rose 16.6%
Cement sales in the Philippines in the fourth-quarter of 2015 stood at 6.08 million tonnes, a climb by 16.6% from 5.21 million tonnes a year ago.
Cement sales reached 24.36 million tonnes in 2015, a rise of 14.3%.
This is on the back of new housing demand, better weather conditions and higher infrastructure spending by the government.
Philippine cement companies anticipate that in 2016, sales will record double-digit growth.
India’s R-Infra to sell cement business to Birla Corp for INR 48bn
In India, Birla Corp will buy the cement business of Reliance Infrastructure (R-Infra) for INR 48 billion (€652.78 million/US$707.03 million).
R-Infra will use proceeds from the sale to pare its debt, and it aims to be a debt-free company on completion of the deal by March 2017.
Under the deal, Birla Corp will acquire the units of Reliance Cement at Kundangting, MP and Maihar. The deal values Reliance Cement at US$140 (€129.26) per tonne, as it has an installed capacity of almost 5.1 million tonnes/ye
India: LafargeHolcim's 11 million tonne/year capacity to be sold
LafargeHolcim's entire 11 million tonne per annum annual capacity in India is being sold, it is reported.
The latest development comes after the Switzerland-based cement company's deal with Birla Corporation (BCL) to sell 5.1 million tonne/year capacity in the country hit a roadblock.
As announced on 4 February 2016, LafargeHolcim and BCL were no longer in talks for the sale of the Sonadih and Jojobera cement plants in eastern India.
Lafarge India’s decision to cancel the deal, however, has not be
Lafarge plants in Charente and Le Havre, France, to close
LafargeHolcim is reported as announcing that cement production at the Lafarge plants in the French town of La Couronne in Charente and in Le Havre is to close.
In La Couronne, 90 job cuts are to take place in the short term, and only 27 members of staff out of 117 will be kept on.
France’s Vicat posts 2015 turnover of €2.46bn
French group Vicat has posted a turnover of €575 million in the fourth-quarter of 2015, stable compared to the previous year, but down by 1.6% on a constant change and currency basis. Operating turnover was up by 1.1% on a nominal basis and down by 0.4% on an organic basis, with cement activity seeing a 4.6% decline on an organic basis.
The concrete and aggregates activities saw organic revenue grow by 5.3% (+9.2% nominally), while revenue from other activity was up by 3.1% (5.1% nominally).
Its Frenc
CDEnviro increases production capacity by a third
CDEnviro has announced has increased its product assembly space by 32% to allow for the production of 60 additional machines/year.
The company designs and manufactures a range of waste reduction and recycling equipment for application in the sewage, waste water, waste management and utility industries.
The expansion has been funded by CDEnviro following an upturn in the global waste and recycling industry.
It says it is responding to an increase in demand around the world for the range of classifying eq
Cemex announce encouraging 2015 sales rises
Mexican building materials giant Cemex has revealed that its sales increased 2% year-on-year during the fourth quarter of 2015 to US$3.4 billion, and by 5% for the full year 2015 to US$14.1 billion versus full year 2014. Both rises were based on a like-for-like basis and adjusting for currency fluctuations.
UK mineral extraction contributes £235bn to British economy, MPA report states
A key new report shows how critical the UK mineral extraction industry, particularly the non-energy sector, is to the British economy.
Prepared by Mineral Products Association (MPA) on behalf of the CBI Minerals Group, The UK Mineral Extraction Industry found that when including products manufacture and direct markets, mineral extraction contributes €310.2 billion (£235 billion) in value added to the UK economy - 16% of its overall total.
By looking at historical and current production patterns this r
Public consultation on Notts UK Minerals Local Plan
A six-week public consultation has been launched by Nottinghamshire County Council in the UK over plans to explore potential new gravel quarry sites in the county.
Councillors last month approved their Minerals Local Plan, a blueprint for quarrying in the county until 2030.
Sand and gravel sites at Barnby Moor, Botany Bay, Coddington, Flash Farm and Shelford have been put forward.
The Minerals Local Plan – which also recommends extensions to 14 existing quarries - will be submitted to the governme
LafargeHolcim considers revised divestment of interest in Lafarge India
LafargeHolcim says it is considering a revised divestment of its interest in Lafarge India, which has an annual cement capacity of around 11 million tonnes. The divestment would require the approval of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) as an alternate remedy for the merger of the Group’s legacy companies.
The Group is no longer in discussion with Birla Corporation Limited (BCL) for the sale of the Jojobera and Sonadih cement plants in Eastern India. The BCL proposal involved the divestment of 5.1
New gypsum plant opens in Baku, Azerbaijan
The Matanat-A company has opened a new gypsum plant, Yeni Agdag, with a capacity of 400,000tonnes/year in the Qaradag district of Baku, Azerbaijan. The National Entrepreneurship Support Fund has issued a subsidised loan of AZN 1.50 million (€849,612/US$920,215) for construction of the facility. A half of the output will be exported to Russia, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Iran.
The company further plans to build another four plants worth AZN 150 million.
France: new MD of Cerib
Gilles Bernardeau has been appointed as the new managing director of French concrete research centre Cerib, replacing Marc Lebrun.
Standard & Poor's ratifies Cemex rating
Credit risk rating agency Standard & Poors (S&P) has ratified Mexican cement company Cemex’s global credit rating at 'B+' with a positive outlook. S&P stated that Cemex had increased cash flow generation, consolidated a solid financial performance and improved credit indicators. S&P also confirmed the company's national long-term and short-term debt ratings at 'mxBBB' and 'mxA-2'. The agency estimated that Cemex had capacity to continue improving its financial indicators during 2016.
Pakistan: Kohat Cement 54% earnings increase for first-half fiscal 2016
Pakistan-based Kohat Cement (KOHC) has registered a 54% increase in its year-on-year earnings to PKR 2.1 billion (€18.49 million/US$20.02 million) for the first half of fiscal 2016 from PKR 1.4 billion.
On a quarterly basis, earnings growth was driven by an 18% increase in sales revenue.
Overall, the higher margins are attributed to the increase in domestic demand, lower tax rate, and significant decline in power and fuel costs.