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Safety is a top priority for the European Aggregates Association (UEPG), aiming for working together on continuous improvement of Occupational Health and Safety across Europe, establishing a health and safety culture that focuses on the prevention of accidents.

Standardisation and centralisation: these are the two main descriptions of an emerging picture of efficient management of plant fleets, writes Jon Masters. He spoke to Simon Purchon of Babcock International Group about his division’s plans. Maintenance regimes are standardised and managed across a single centralised system, for the principal aim of meeting required availability of equipment at less cost. This is a simplified description of how Babcock International Group is serving the global mining and co

There is no doubt the harsh European weather in the first quarter of the year hit many companies hard. This, coupled with the weak market conditions, is seen in the first quarter figures from major companies in the aggregates, cement and concrete sectors.

Terex Finlay will be exhibiting at the inaugural bauma Africa exhibition with Bell Equipment, its new distributor in Southern Africa.

Four Terex Finlay models will be exhibited at the keenly awaited show, including the new I-100 impact crusher that was officially launched at bauma 2013 in Munich, Germany.

“We look forward to attending the first bauma Africa show. It will allow us to reconnect with existing customers, and to meet new customers, together with our distributor Bell Equipment,” said Nigel

Mexican building materials company Cemex has spent €1.12 billion working on 1,000 social schemes in 12 countries.

The firm has schemes like ‘Patrimonio Hoy’ (Property Now), a housing microfinance programme helping low income households build their own homes. Cemex has social schemes running in countries including Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Haiti, Colombia and Mexico, and soon in Jamaica too. Schemes have been implemented in Spain and Israel. The Czech Republic will follow.

Danish based company FLSmidth, which supplies the minerals and cement industries globally, has released its interim results for Q2 2013.

The group, which supplies everything from engineering, single machines and complete processing plants, to maintenance, support services and operation of processing, says revenues increased 14% in the quarter, while the total order intake declined by 22%.

During the last three months FLSmidth has undergone a health check of its strategy, and the conculsion is “clear.”

A contract to supply aggregate for the under-construction A1 motorway in Poland has been awarded to Polish aggregate company DSS that is currently in administration and its unit Kielecka Kopalnia Surowców Mineralnych.

The contract, which is worth PLN 25.30mn (€5.98 million), is to be completed by the end of November 2013.

DSS had net loss of PLN 27.57 million on revenue of PLN 12.51 million in the first quarter of 2013. The results deteriorated from PLN 3.57 million of net loss and PLN 32.53 million o

According to the research institute GfK, Austria's construction related markets suffered from poor weather conditions in the first half of 2013.

The garden season was delayed due to the cold weather in March 2013, leading to 6.7% lower sales in the first six months of 2013 compared to the same period of the previous year.

The building and construction wood sector was also delayed due to the weather, and the peak season was in May instead of April 2013. This caused the sector to decrease by 5.4% in t

Swiss cement manufacturer Holcim plans to use lignite instead of hard coal to produce energy at its Siggenthal plant in Switzerland from later in 2013.

The move has been criticised by environmental associations, as lignite produces more CO2 and less energy than hard coal.

The plant will be supplied with 1,500tonnes of lignite per week, and Holcim is to construct a new steel silo for storage and two additional platforms for the supply trains.

Holcim has made the change for economic and ecological re

Slovak stone masonry company Mramor is considering to create with the Chinese businessman Liu Longjun a joint venture, which would focus on importing natural stone from China to the Central Europe.

While Liu Longjun is keen to gain access to the European market, Mramor hopes to secure a supply of cheap high quality natural stone, which it would then sell further to smaller stone masonry companies in Slovakia.

While there are no firm plans in place yet, the investment could amount to several millions

According to Ivan Andreev, the executive director of Bulgarian mining chamber BMGK, mineral resource production in the country fell by 7% on year in 2012, equivalent to a drop of 6.28 million tonnes. Most mining sub-sectors saw declines in output, with the exception of natural stone materials, which was up by 10%, and metallic mineral resources, which rose by 1%.

Total mineral resource production for 2012 reached 85.654 million tonnes.

Total value of production rose by 7.1% to reach BGN 2.97 billion

The European Commission has initiated a formal investigation regarding the Aggregates Levy, which has been welcomed by the British Aggregates Association (BAA).

The BAA is of the opinion that the £2 €2.33) per tonne tax on the commercial exploitation of sand, rock and gravel is illegal and has forced some quarry operators out of business.

The tax was introduced in 2002 and a long legal fight by the BAA has resulted in a Court of Appeal hearing on 8 October, 2013.

Austrian company SBM Mineral Processing (SBM) is to take over the concrete segment of the insolvent Austrian industrial plant engineering company Doubrava in Attnang-Puchheim, Upper Austria.

Insolvent Doubrava is disposing of decades of know-how in the field of manufacturing high-quality concrete plants.

“Acquiring this know-how ideally supplements the product portfolio of SBM Mineral Processing,” according to the owners of SBM, KR Erwin Haider, KR Mag. Heinrich Obernhuber and the company Krünes Cons

An upgrade of the existing washing plant at the Draperstown Quarry operated by Creagh Concrete has released four million tonnes of material.

The work at Draperstown Quarry, Northern Ireland, which is operated by Creagh Concrete, has also extended the quarry life by ten years. Creagh Concrete is the largest land-based sand and gravel producer in Northern Ireland.

Its sand and aggregates, produced at various locations, are used in the production of a range of pre-cast products as well as ready-mix concr

At the International Mining Exhibition in Acapulco, Mexico (16-19 October), one of the most important trade fairs for the mining industry in Latin America, the Beumer Group says it will be presenting its extensive expertise in conveyor and loading equipment. Building materials and raw materials are just some of the items to be extracted and processed using solutions from Beumer, says the company.

The Beckum,Germany-based group will present solutions for the bulk materials industry at the exhibition (Stan

Russia’s Evraz Kachkanarsky Ore Mining and Processing Enterprise (Evraz KGOK, a subsidiary of Evraz Group) has completed the first phase of its project to increase its crushed stone shipping capacity.

The project started in April 2013 with investments amounting to RUB 17 million (€387,067.24), and the first phase featured delivering a heavy vehicle complex; a standby storage for crushed stone, and a shipment fiscal metering complex.

ArcelorMittal has signed a £2.4 million (€2.34 million) deal with Weir Minerals to supply additional tailings pumps for its mine at Krivoy Rog, Ukraine. The pumps will be used to transport tailings (fine particles of iron ore too small for processing) to be deposited. Weir Minerals will supply two different sizes of the heavy-duty, high-capacity slurry pump, the Warman UY-GHPP (the 3m diameter 28/24) and the Warman HGY-AHP 2.84m diameter 20/18, within the order.

CRH has cut its full-year earnings outlook saying that an unusually long period of bad weather meant a sharp fall in first-half earnings. The Irish building supplies compay has identified €60 million euros of fresh savings for 2013 on top of the €125 million already identified. The company’s first-half earnings were down 24% at €397 million euros, and it said that the historically more profitable second half would now be in line with 2012.

The Taivalkoski unit of Oulu Vocational College (OSAO) in the Oulu region of north-east Finland has established a new training programme in mining and quarrying to serve the industry's growing need for skilled workforce. The unit has invested in a fully automated, track-mounted Metso Lokotrack crushing plant (the first educational institution in Finland to provide such a plant for its students) and it will be used in education after being inaugurated in October 2013. OSAO is a multi-industry vocational coll

A multi-million euro project to turn quarries into wildlife havens has been hailed by conservationists as a vital lifeline for nature. Restore, a project financed by the EU's Interreg IVB North-West Europe fund, will see €3.3 million spent on creating priority habitats, turning spent mineral extraction sites into reed beds, meadows, woodlands, and heathland. The extra funding comes as a host of sites across the UK have recently recorded species bouncing back as a result of restoration work. A variety of ins