The cement milling plant of Sephaku Cement, located to the South West of Delmas in Mpumalanga, the forerunner of the company’s Lichtenburg plant known as Aganang, is 95% complete. The plant , which will come in on budget, is on track for production early in the new year.

During the past week cold commissioning milestones have included the starting of the Mill motor, ID fan and mill separator, explains Heinrich de Beer, Engineering Project Manager at Sephaku Cement. “Clinker offloading is in full swing and in the stage of final setting optimisation.”

Gypsum offloading has also been commissioned with the first gypsum off loaded mid November. In addition, the packing plant is about to be hot commissioned with cement while the palletizer and stretch hood machines have been cold and hot commissioned. “Our first stack of pallets have been wrapped and the full sequential start-up and commissioning of the packing plant is on the cards for the next week,” he says.

Incorporating the latest technology in cement manufacturing, the equipment is all representative of high efficiency and reduced power consumption technology, with high regard to environmental control throughout the design.

Supporting infrastructure is progressing well, adds de Beer. Roads and intersections are on target to being finished before the end of this month and weigh bridge systems are being implemented imminently, while Telkom is expected to finalise communication installation during the coming two weeks.

As a green fields project, the initial construction of the turnkey project started in November 2011. “Everyone on site is looking forward to getting moving with their work. All buildings including the CCR, administration and sales offices are ready for occupancy,” concludes de Beer.