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Germany-based Haver & Boecker (H&B) has celebrated its 40th anniversary with a family open day in Münster.

Caterpillar has added a Spanish version of its safety training to its dedicated safety website which offers over 200 online training modules.

Despite gaining consent from local authorities to extend Gallagher Aggregates quarry in Kent, UK, the company's plans are to be put before a public inquiry the government has announced.
Kent County Council had given the go ahead for Gallagher to extract a further 16.2million tonnes of ragstone from its quarry near Maidstone. However, environmental campaigners took the case to the government and communities secretary Eric Pickles has ordered the inquiry and delayed approval of the extension.

Sandvik has underlined its confidence in the Asian and South American market with the opening of two new production facilities. The Shanghai Jiading Industrial Zone facility in China is the company's largest factory to date with 24,000m2, which will be used to manufacture drill rigs, crushers and loaders.

Supply of innovative materials by Cemex has helped innovative training for the sports stars of the future to get underway at a new sports centre being developed by French football star Zinedine Zidane in Marseille, France. The 18,000m2 facility, designed by architect Christophe Gulizzi, will include seven football fields, two swimming pools and several fitness rooms and gyms. To meet the demands of the project Cemex has supplied 400m3 of black Advanci Architectonique ready mixed concrete, 1,200m2 of grey re

Tarmac says it is bolstering its sustainability team with the appointment of Andy Swain as sustainability manager. Reporting to Tarmac’s director of sustainability, Dr Martyn Kenny, and working across Tarmac’s UK business, Swain will help to drive the company’s sustainability programme and support with the development of new environmental tools for customers. He joins Tarmac from the UK Environment Agency, where he was an industry regulation specialist.

Just months after its merger with Terex Pegson, Powerscreen has launched the first in what is expected to be a line of new products over the coming months, in the lead up to Bauma. While all new machines will be branded as Powerscreen, the Pegson name is set to stay as part of the model name on the Powerscreen mobile crushing range.

Electric drives still provide worthy competition to mechanical drives in the rigid truck sector. ABE takes a look at the history

In the rigid chassis truck sector, there has long been a rivalry between the mechanical and electric driveline concepts. The origins of diesel-electric trucks go back many years and these were developed as a solution to the shortcomings of early mechanical drivelines, which suffered reliability issues.

Early failures of gearboxes, differentials, driveshafts and halfshafts re

The Polish Ministry of Treasury has said that it wants to sell the remaining stake of 25.21% in the aggregate mining company Gornicze Zaklady Dolomitowe (GZD) in Siewierz in an auction on 2 September, 2011. The asking price is €3.68 million, and the companies which want to take part are to express their interest by 31 August.

Europe appears to be split east against west as to whether front shovel or backhoe excavators are best for quarry applications. Claire Symes takes a look at the benefits of each approach. Choice of equipment in quarries is sometimes influenced by the layout and geology of the quarry, but in some cases the selection is dictated more by regional preferences. Large excavators seem to be a prime example - many Western European quarries favour backhoe (or backacting) excavators, while further east front loading

Building materials group Readymix said its revenues dropped by 24% during the first six months of the year and this led to a pre-tax operating loss (before exceptional items) of approximately €7 million, compared with the €6.1 million loss for the same period last year. When exceptional items are included, Readymix expects its total losses to increase to about €20.4 million for the first six months of the year. In 2010 the loss was €6.6 million.

Cars of the future are soon to be put through their paces at a new test track constructed by UK-based Lafarge Contracting for innovITS at the MIRA centre in Nuneaton. The cityscape circuit replicates the road network of a typical urban environment but is equipped with hi-tech telemetry, communications, monitoring and vehicle control technologies.

The UK’s aggregates association is calling on government to reinstate a sustainability fund that benefitted quarrying communities which was axed in cost saving measures earlier this year. The Mineral Products Association (MPA) is calling on government to introduce a new Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund from April next year.

Recycled glass is a good alternative to real sand and has been given the seal of approval by sand martin nesting at a quarry owned by Lafarge Aggregates & Concrete UK. The birds have created burrows in the pile of envirosand – made from recycled glass – at the company’s Willington site.

Tarmac has announced that it is working on a joint biodiversity initiative with the UK’s largest Rivers Trust - the Wye & Usk Foundation – to boost biodiversity at its Wellington Quarry site. Wellington Brook, which feeds into the river Lugg, runs through the company’s quarry and was identified for improvements as part of the company’s site specific Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP). The brook in Herefordshire was once an important spawning stream for fish species such as Atlantic salmon and brown trout but mo

The Finnish Competition Authority is proposing to the Market Court that the transaction whereby Finnish infrastructure company Destia sells its asphalt and paving operations to construction company NCC in Finland not be allowed to proceed. According to the Competition Authority, Destia, which is owned by the Finnish government, is the only actor in the Helsinki metropolitan area, in addition to NCC and Lemminkäinen, that has a fixed asphalt mixing plant of its own.

CRH has continued with its strategy of investing in key business areas with the company announcing investment of €200million in the first half of the year in acquisition of 21 companies. The company released the figures along with news of its latest acquisition which expands its materials business in Europe. CRH has bought out Belgium-based VVM Group, which operates two cement grinding mills with a total capacity of 1.5million tonnes and two ready mixed concrete plants – one in Belgium and the other in Fran

Like most countries the economic crisis has hit construction in Greece and with it the aggregates industry, though things are holding for the moment reports Adrian Greeman.Mountainous terrain and dry summers mean that Greece is relatively short of the long rivers and the flat lowlands where gravel deposits are found. But far from this being a problem for the aggregate industry it has been an advantage.

Quarried crushed rock, technically more suitable for concrete making than rounded river deposits, is

The UK’s Minerla Products Association (MPA) has said that it welcomes government confirmation that there is a need for the future mineral planning system to operate so that sufficient aggregates are made available to support economic growth and development. The MPA has been campaigning for a strategic approach to aggregates planning can and needs to be incorporated into the ‘localism’ agenda over the last 18 months. The MPA submitted evidence to the Communities and Local Government Committee on the Abolitio

Cemex has announced the pricing of a US$650million reopening of its 9% senior secured notes which will be due in 2018. The notes were originally offered in January and secured US$1billion. The company has said that it intends to use the funds raised for corporate purposes and to restructure debt outstanding under its 14 August 2009 financing agreement. Cemex has said that this will allow the business to continue addressing its debt maturities ahead of schedule.