Displaying items by tag: Mining
China: Xinjiang Tianshan Cement, a subsidiary of Chizhou CNBM New Materials, has acquired mining rights for the Hengshan mining area and peripheral mines in Chizhou City’s Guichi District in Anhui province for US$376m. Reuters has reported that the company plans to make a total investment of US$1.38bn in establishing its mining operations there. The mines have limestone reserves of 513Mt and will be operational until 2043.
Tanga Cement boosts sales amid profitable full-year 2021
08 April 2022Tanzania: Tanga Cement’s full-year results show a 9% year-on-year rise in sales to US$99.5m in 2021 from US$91.7m in 2020. Its net profit was US$1.5m, as against a US$903,000 loss in 2020.
The Kenyan Wall Street newspaper has reported that the company replaced a kiln shell at its Tanga cement plant and outsourced mining operations at its quarry during the year.
UltraTech Cement loses licences for Amreli limestone mines
24 February 2022India: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has quashed UltraTech Cement’s environmental clearances for its Babarkot and Jafrabad limestone mines in Gujarat’s Amreli District, the Indian Express newspaper reports. The tribunal said that, as a cluster spanning over 50ha, extensions to the mines were subject to Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change (MEFCC) approval. This was not granted at the time of the latest expansions’ approval by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority in 2018.
Cemex’s production costs rise due to new mining tax in Nuevo León
23 February 2022Mexico: The Mexican Chamber of the Construction Industry (CMIC) has voiced cement price concerns following the introduction of a new environmental tax on mining activity in the state of Nuevo León. Cemex operates a quarry in the state, and has resultingly experienced a rise in the cost of its cement production. The El Norte newspaper has reported that the producer’s Monterrey, Nuevo León, cement plant supplies cement across northeastern Mexico.
CMIC also lobbied the government to begin awarding public works contracts to private investors instead of the Mexican armed forces. It argued that this would help to generate jobs.
Nepal: Residents of the Arghakhanchi, Palpa, Pyuthan and Rolpa hill districts of Lumbini Province have reported that increased contamination with residues from limestone extraction has made many traditional water sources unreliable. the Kathmandu Post newspaper has reported that Alpha Cement, BS Cement, Kanchan Quarries, Hongshi Shivam Cement, Palpa Cement, Sarbottam Cement, Satyawati Cement and Siddhartha Minerals operate a total of 10 mines in the affected districts. Springs reportedly took 10 years to recover following the closure of Arghakhanchi Cement’s Narpani quarry in 2012.
United States Lime & Minerals acquires Mill Creek Dolomite
15 February 2022US: United States Lime & Minerals has announced its acquisition of Mill Creek Dolomite from InterRock Minerals. The value of the deal was US$6.4m.
ACC buys Kannur limestone block
11 February 2022India: ACC has announced its successful purchase at auction of the Kannur limestone block mineral reserve in Wadi, Kalaburagi District, from the Karnataka government. The producer plans to use the block to supply limestone for its Wadi cement plant.
UltraTech Cement to acquire National Limestone Company
21 January 2022India: UltraTech Cement has entered into a share purchase agreement to acquire 100% ownership of National Limestone Company for US$3.09m. National Limestone Company’s parent company Ghadiya Group bought it from Holcim subsidiary ACC for US$2.5m in November 2020.
FLSmidth increases nine-month sales and profit in 2021
11 November 2021Denmark: FLSmidth recorded consolidated sales of Euro1.67bn in the first nine months of 2021, up by 2% year-on-year from Euro1.64bn in the corresponding period of 2020. The supplier recorded a net profit of Euro26.4m, up by 54% from Euro17.1m. Of its two divisions, its cement business’ sales increased more sharply, by 22%.
CEO Thomas Schulz said “The third quarter of 2021 saw strong momentum in order intake. The cement industry is emerging from the pandemic with improved service activity and growing demand for greener solutions. Revenue grew strongly and earnings before interest, taxation and amortisation (EBITA) increased by 72% with an improved EBITA margin in both mining and cement.” He added “Our cement reshaping activities have progressed well and EBITA in cement was positive for the first time since the first quarter 2020.”
Autonomous haulage in the cement sector
10 November 2021Volvo Autonomous Solutions and Holcim Switzerland announced this week that they are testing and developing the use of autonomous electric haulers in a limestone quarry. It’s a two-part project, as being able to run electric dump trucks will help Holcim to meet its sustainability goals by switching to renewable energy supplies. Automating the control of the trucks then lets Holcim work towards its digitisation targets as part of its ‘Plants of Tomorrow’ initiative. Holcim Switzerland has also been running a drone programme at the plant (see GCW520) and has been using a few electric concrete mixer trucks since early 2021.
The use of autonomous haulage systems (AHS) in quarries by the cement industry seems to mark the start of something new. As far as Global Cement Weekly can tell, the Volvo Autonomous Solutions - Holcim Switzerland project is the first one in the cement sector that has been announced publicly. Most of the examples of AHS to date have been for heavy mining applications such as iron ore, copper, oil sands and coal. Automation in limestone and aggregate extraction has been slower. One recent example in the aggregate sector was announced in late 2020 when Norway-based technology company Steer said it had signed a contract with Romarheim to supply three autonomous dump trucks for use in a stone quarry. Previously Steer has used its vehicles to clear unexploded ordinance for the Norwegian army.
AHS have been around commercially since the mid-2000s when Komatsu tested and then deployed one at a copper mine run by Codelco in Chile. By September 2021 Komatsu said it had commissioned over 400 trucks with its autonomous system and that these had hauled over 4Bnt of materials. For its part Caterpillar says it started its first automated vehicle research program in 1985 and was even testing a pair of Cat 773 dump trucks in the 1990s. However, it then took a pause before resuming after 2000 and starting its commercial projects in the 2010s. In April 2020 it hit 2Bnt of hauled materials by AHS using its MineStar Command product. Hitachi, Liebherr and Belaz have also been working on their own AHS products in conjunction with third party technology providers and these were developed later in the 2010s. Most of these products are complimentary control systems that have been added to existing models or can be added to new ones. Autonomous vehicle company ASI is the other big name in the field with its Mobius product. Unlike the other systems, this is purely a retrofit product. ASI does not make its own vehicles. Komatsu and Caterpillar have also developed retrofit kits for their systems.
Most of the products above look mostly like normal trucks with the addition of extra kit. Volvo and Scania have also been working on AHS but their products have been taking it further by removing the cab entirely. Scania launched its AXL product in September 2019. Volvo launched its Volvo Autonomous Solutions subsidiary in 2020 and its Tara system electric dump truck the same year. Volvo had previously planned to run a pilot for its Tara truck with Harsco Environmental carrying slag at the Ovako Steelworks in Hofors, Sweden. Unfortunately the pilot was disrupted by the start of the coronavirus pandemic shortly after it started.
It’s early days yet with the use of autonomous vehicles in the quarries of the cement and aggregates sectors. Obvious advantages are additional operational hours, better worker safety and reduced costs. As ever with automation, cutting out human jobs would be one disadvantage for the current workers at least. There is also the possibility that an experienced human driver using efficiency software tools might be better than a fully AHS. A challenge in the field is developing open standards or methods to allow autonomous machines to communicate or work with both products by the same manufacturer and its rivals, as well as with conventional human-driven ones. Another challenge is for the mining and quarrying industry to determine how flexible it wants its heavy vehicles to be. One thought to end with this that an autonomous vehicle with a cab and a steering wheel can still be driven by a human. The cab-less vehicles being tested by Volvo and Scania would be rather less useful if they get into a situation where the software can’t cope. Lots to consider.
If readers are aware of other examples AHS in the cement industry, please let us know at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.