Gaining visibility and control of raw materials at lafarge cave-in-rock cement quarry

The cement production facility at Lafarge, Joppa, Illinois produces world-class oil well cement as well as top-quality Type I/II cement and various blended cements. The cement is made from limestone, fly and bottom ash, silica, alumina and iron using crushed rock moved via barge from the quarry located 74 miles upriver. When the crushed rock arrives at the cement plant it is ground in two raw grinding mills that crush and blend the materials prior to feeding into the kiln. A very divergent quarry means there is an increased chance of building a 20,000 ton pile of material prior to loading on the barge that is too far off spec to ship to the plant. In order to gain better visibility and control of quarry materials before moving them the Cave-in-Rock Quarry has put into place a SABIA L-2000, a PGNAA device for giving preparation-free, timely cement quality results on rock samples from the quarry so that better decisions can be made on the movement of material to minimize unnecessary movement of out-of-spec piles as well as optimize the operation of the cement plant by getting the quality closer to target. This paper will take a detailed look at the application and provide data on the benefits of the technology to the customer.