Displaying items by tag: Limestone

India: Shree Cement has offered the highest bid in an auction for limestone deposits at Karhi Chandi, Baloda Bazar in Chhattisgarh. The site has estimated reserves of 155Mt of limestone in an 252 hectare area. Official confirmation from the state government that confirms Shree Cement as the winner of the auction is still awaited.

Local press reports that Shree Cement offered US$4/t for the deposit. The sale was the first non-coal mining lease auction by the state government. Shree Cement has plans to expand its cement plant at Raipur.

US: Lehigh Cement Company, part of Heidelbergcement Group, has ordered a semi-mobile limestone crushing plant from Hazemag for its Union Bridge cement plant.

The plant will process up to 2500t/hour of limestone with a feed size of up to 2000mm. The material is discharged by means of a Hazemag apron feeder HAF 25160 from a 400t feed hopper. The fines in the feed material are screened at 100mm on a Hazemag roller screen HRS 2638.

The HAZEMAG primary impact crusher HPI 2230 crushes the material down to D99 < 125mm. The impact crusher is fitted with hydraulically adjustable impact aprons and grinding path that both retract in a controlled manner under excessive load. The system of the retractable grinding path is patented. The impact crusher HPI 2230 is also fitted with the automatic gap width control HAZtronic.

India: UltraTech Cement is seeking clarification from the Indian government over the transfer of limestone reserves as part of its deal to buy two integrated cement plants in Madhya Pradesh from Jaypee Group, according to HT Media. A clause in the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act 2015 barring the transfer of mines that were not allotted through auctions is delaying mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in the mining sector.

According to a clause in the new Act, transfer of the mining licence is allowed only for mines that have been auctioned. Most of the operational limestone mines in India were allotted and not auctioned. The Act allows for these reserves to be auctioned in the future. However, legal experts are divided on whether this clause will apply retrospectively.

UltraTech agreed to buy Jaiprakash Associates' cement plant with a clinker capacity of 2.1Mt/yr and a cement grinding capacity of 2.6Mt/yr at Bela in Madhya Pradesh in December 2014. It then agreed to buy a second plant at Sidhi with a clinker capacity of 3.1Mt/yr and a cement grinding capacity of 2.3Mt/yr. The deal included access to the limestone reserves in Madhya Pradesh.

The new legislation is also expected to affect Lafarge's sale of its east Indian assets to Birla Corp.

Russia: HeidelbergCement has won the right to develop a 37.5km² plot at the Novo-Shikhanskaya area in Volga. According to the Geolnerud Central Research Institute, the limestone resources for the cement industry in the area amount to 168Mt. The contract costs Euro14,284 with an initial payment of Euro11,644. The license in valid for 25 years.

Uzbekistan: The State Statistics Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan said that in January – June 2015 the construction materials industry produced 2.11Mt of goods, 11.3% more than in the same period of 2014. The share of industry in total industrial production was 5.2%, according to UzReport. Compared with the first half of 2014, large enterprises in Uzbekistan have increased their production of Portland cement by 113%, gypsum by 108%, lime by 135%, non-refractory ceramic building bricks by 116% and fibre cement by 118%.

Mozambiqiue: According to Mozambique News Agency, the governor of Sofala, Helena Taipo, has ordered the limestone storage facility in Muanza be moved on environmental and health grounds.

Taipo took this measure after a message presented by local residents at a rally she addressed in Muanza, which complained at the way the limestone is currently stored. The residents said that the health problems allegedly caused by limestone dust are not new. Local people have long complained against the practice of Cimpor's Cimentos de Mocambique of storing large quantities of limestone next to Mwanza station, where it awaits transport by train to the cement plant in the nearby town of Dondo.

Taipo said that she did not really need to hear the complaint, since she could see the problem with her own eyes. "I have seen the houses covered with white dust," said Taipo. "Even here at the rally I've seen the dust, which shows that the situation is serious. We have to think seriously about the preservation of the environment. Cimpor must change the place where it keeps the limestone to somewhere else, because currently it is a danger to public health."

Participants at the rally called for the road from Dondo to Cheringoma, which passes through Muanza, to be paved. They also wanted the electricity grid to be further expanded. Taipo guaranteed that paving the road is one of the actions envisaged in the government's five year programme for 2015 - 2019.

India: According to Cogencis MoneyWire, the Madras High Court has dismissed ACC's writ petition against a demand notice regarding a 50% royalty due over a mining lease for limestone removal from government-owned lands.

The royalty demand was for US$1.17m for 1988 - 1998. ACC was granted the lease to mine limestone from 140,000m2 of land at Madukkarai Village in Tamil Nadu and was subsequently granted another mining lease. According to local media, initially a lessee has to pay royalty at the rate of 50%, after which it was obligatory on the part of every leaseholder to pay 100% royalty.

India: ACC resumed limestone mining operations at Bargarh, Odisha, after about nine months, on 17 June 2015.

ACC stopped mining at Bargarh in October 2014 following a government notice to suspend operations at the plant. The company stopped clinker production at its Chaibasa, Jharkhand, and Bargarh plants, but continued to operate the grinding units associated with these. "The impact of the closure was not material since cement grinding continued with the transfer of clinker from sister works and clinker purchases," said ACC.

State governments were issued orders to stop mining, following a Supreme Court judgement in the matter of Goa Foundation versus Union of India and Others and in Common Cause versus Union of India on the deemed renewal of mining leases and a subsequent amendment to The Mineral Concession Rules 1960.

ACC resumed limestone mining operations following terms of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Ordinance 2015.

Philippines: According to local media, Cement plants using explosives to extract limestone in the mountains of eastern Bulacan poses a threat that might break the Angat Dam, a large hydroelectric facility that supplies electricity and water to the Manila metropolitan area.

"Years of massive quarrying of mineral deposits in the area had taken its toll. The removal of the mountains in the area is not only ugly, but also appears to be a disaster waiting to happen since the mining area is so close to the Angat dam," said Martin Francisco, chairman of the Sagip Sierra Madre Environmental Society Inc (SSMSI). He added that since Angat Dam lies along the West Valley fault line, the mining of limestone deposits in the area could weaken the structure of the dam and its foundation because cement plants are still using explosives in extracting marble and limestone.

In a report to Bulacan governor Wilhelmino M Sy-Alvarado, the SSMSI said that residents and a cultural minority group, the Dumagats, have complained about the vibrations and noise in the mountains caused by dynamite blasts. "The explosions are causing too much anxiety and could even scare the people out of their wits since the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology has once again confirmed that the West Valley Fault is active. This is another threat to a dam break," said Francisco. He added that several landslides were reported in 2014 and several small sink holes in the mountains have appeared.

Alvarado has formed a team to investigate the matter and has requested that the cement plants refrain from using explosives to extract limestone.

Nigeria: On 2 June 2015 the House of Representatives intervened in a dispute between Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, Alhaji Ado Ibrahim and Company (AICO) in Kogi State and Okpella in Edo State over the ownership of a limestone deposit. The motion on the issue, which came as a matter of Urgent National Importance, moved by Edo lawmaker Abubakar Momoh, was unanimously adopted by the House.

"This peaceful co-existence is being threatened by the purported sale of OBU Limestone in Okpella, owned by Okpella Cement, to Dangote Company by Alhaji Ado Ibrahim. This is with a view to frustrating BUA Cement Company, which acquired Okpella Cement as a private investor," said Momoh.

According to Momoh, BUA has also built a cement plant in Okpella, which is due for inauguration in June 2015. "The House recalls that when in 1994, this same ownership of OBU Limestone deposit arose, the Okpella community went to court on the issue. The suit was filed against AICO, which prompted AICO to file application in 1997 to the Okpella community for local consent. The consent was turned down on account of having already granted the same to Edo Cement, which owned the mining license of the deposit," said Momoh.

According to Momoh, if nothing was done immediately to settle the matter, it might lead to a clash between the parties. He urged the security agencies to make adequate security arrangements in the location. "The governments of Edo and Kogi should intervene and settle the matter amicably, before it degenerates into serious inter-communal clash between the two states. The National Boundary Commission is urged to intervene with a view to permanently establishing the boundary between Edo and Kogi."

The acting speaker, Emeka Ihedioha, who presided over the plenary session, advised the two communities to maintain peace and assured them that the house would do its best to resolve the issue.