Photo by: Bloomberg
Sephaku Cement continues to advance the ramp-up of its cement milling plant, in Delmas, in Mpumalanga, which it aims to bring into operation early next year.
Project manager Andre Roeloffze said in a statement that power had been connected to the 1.4-million-ton-a-year plant’s primary electrical room earlier this month following the activation of a nearby Eskom substation in September.
“Power will now systematically be distributed to the plant’s three other electrical rooms, after which full power will be provided to the entire plant, including to the associated equipment, over the next two months,” he commented.
Sephaku Cement concluded a ten-year R1.95-billion funding deal with banking firms Standard Bank and Nedbank, enabling the company to advance its ambitions of becoming a significant competitor in the wholesale and retail cement trade.
Meanwhile, the company was currently also advancing the development of a 1.2-million-ton-a-year cement production facility, near Lichtenburg, in the North West, which would boast a high-tech integrated clinker plant that would produce 6 000 t of clinker a day.
With storage volumes of 50 000 t, the facility’s clinker silo would be one of the largest single clinker storage bunkers in South Africa, with the biggest single kiln in the country.
Production at the plant was expected to start at the end of the year.