$A7.7 million cement project
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$A7.7 million cement project for New Caledonia
New Caledonia could be come a major cement exporter to the US, Canada and Australia, reports the Noumea daily “Les Nouvelles”. A $A7.7 million project to establish a cement factory at Nepoui, a port on the north west coast, is under con sideration, the paper says.
An Australian company, Lachlan Valley Gold Mines, bought a disused cement fac tory at Kandos, (240 km from Sydney) in 1985 and at the same time created Centralime Pty Ltd with the aim of using the Kandos factory to produce cement by a new technique.
Ausmintec Co Ltd, which holds the patent has given Centralime rights to the process, which produces a new cement called Magnacrete with a dolomite base.
Mr Allan Thistlewaite, Man aging Director of Lachlan Val ley Gold Mines and Centralime, has said that the new cement is eight times more resistant than cement obtained from a cal cium base (Portland cement) and that it reaches its maximum strength in only 24 hours, com pared with 28 days for Portland cement.
New Caledonia does not have dolomite but Pacimines has discovered large quantities of giobertite, a natural magne sium carbonate, at Nepoui on the west coast. Giobertite pro duces a superior white cement after production with silicon and coral calcium.
Visiting New Caledonia in June, Mr Thistlewaite said there were sufficient indications to estimate a deposit of 20 million tonnes minimum, and possibly of 100 million tonnes, with veins of giobertite that were more than five metres deep.
Centralime, through Paci
mines, hopes to obtain a licence to quarry the deposits at Nepoui, and to either rent or buy the wharfs of the town’s old mining centre. The company is seeking rights to the deposits and the surrounding 20 kms (excepting areas already mining operation) from the territorial administration.
Centralime-Pacimines envis age an outlay of approx SA3 million for prospecting and tests, nearly SA2 million for construction of the factory and over SA3 million for rebuilding of the wharfs.
“If we get the necessary permits work will start im mediately and factory produc
tion within three years”, Mr Thistlewaite said.
He said the Us imports 16 million tonnes of cement per year, and he saw no obstacles to the export of 1 million tonnes by Centralime per year, although in the short term he envisaged an annual produc tion of only 300,000 tonnes.