The minerals needed to produce cement (calcium carbonate, silica, alumina, and iron ore) are extracted from limestone, mudstone, red clay and laterite from relevant raw material quarries
by means of blasting and excavating.
Raw materials extracted from the quarries are transported to the crushing facilities, where boulders are crushed to meet the standard outlet size. Cement production is a precise and controlled activity involves the transformation of the raw materials through a series of steps into a consistent powdered product that is critical for further stages of production.
Crushed limestone is transported via conveyor belts to the storage silos, where they are stored temporarily. After partial addition of auxiliary materials such as mudstone, laterite and red clay, it is ground to become fi ne powder. This mineral mix is then milled in a milling process in the vertical roller mill to produce raw meal. Raw meal produced is then preheated and transported to the kiln for further processing.
The raw meal is pre-heated to temperature in excess of 900 °C using the hot gases from the kiln. The heated raw meal now enters the kiln where the gas temperature exceeds 2000 °C, where it is transformed into a molten mixture inside the rotating kiln. At the temperature of 1450 °C the minerals in the raw meal undergo chemical reaction to form a new compound known as Clinker, which is the pre-curser for the production of cement.
The cooled clinker is transferred to a storage silo. During the fi nal phase of cement production the clinker is chemically analyzed. Gypsum and other additive materials are added to it before it is ground in cement mills to get the final product, Apache cement.
Apache cement is supplied to our customers mainly in 50 kg bags. Apache cement also offers bulk cement for high volume users such as construction businesses and batching plants
