Lafarge, Carmeuse Chimie join operations Lafarge S.A. and Belgian lime supplier Carmeuse Chimie Minerales agreed to combine their North American lime operations, according to reports from both companies.

With annual production capacity of 4 million mt in 12 plants, the new partnership will generate annual sales of US$230.4 million. The companies said that they hope to save money and develop opportunities in the North American lime market.

Lafarge currently operates 12 lime plants worldwide, while Carmeuse is a world leader in lime, dolomite, and limestone for industrial use with over 50 plants in Europe, North America, and Mexico.

Keystone resumes use of alternative fuels Keystone Cement Co., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Giant Cement Holdings, was given permission to resume the use of alternative fuels by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

The company has not used alternative fuels since a tank farm fire at the end of 1997. Under the terms of the agreement with DEP, Keystone will pay a fine of US$488,000 in installments over a 10-year period.

Keystone received US$1.5 million from its insurance carrier for the interruption of its waste fuels business, which will be included in other income in the second quarter.

Holderbank in Argentina Through gradual acquisition, Holderbank has become a major stakeholder in Argentine cement producer Corporacion Cementera Argentina S.A. (Corcemar) via its association with Chilean Group company Cemento Polpaico S.A.

During the last few months, various local shareholders sold sizeable packages of Corcemar stock. As a result, Holderbank-owned Polpaico now holds 52% of Corcemar's share capital. Holderbank and the Verzini shareholder group, partners in a pool agreement on Corcemar since 1996, now control 70% of Argentina's third-largest cement producer.

Corcemar is listed on the Buenos Aires stock exchange, has cement plants in Cordoba and Mendoza, and operates ready-mixed concrete plants in the Cordoba region and Buenos Aires. Corcemar is expected to post sales of around US$150 million in 1998.

Changes at Resco Norristown, Pennsylvania-based specialty refractory specialist Resco Products announced a management buyout of all the capital stock of the company. For nearly 50 years, the Resco was a privately owned company founded by William Tredennick, who remained its CEO until his death in 1996.

The management buyout was carried out by JoAnn Tredennick, who will serve as chairperson of the newly capitalized company, and four members of the company's management team. The company will be led by new President and CEO William K. Brown. Formerly with Harbison-Walker Refractories, Brown has more than 30 years of experience in refractories for steel, non-ferrous metals, glass, minerals processing, and chemical processing.

Landfill fires U.S. kilns Ash Grove Cement in Portland, Oregon, USA, spent US$2 million on a landfill gas project that pipes gas through nearly 3,000 meters of pipeline to the company's three lime kilns in an attempt to reduce long-term fuel costs.

The Portland plant processes Canadian limestone into lime for use by steel mills and paper pulp producers in the area. Working in association with specialist developers Palmer Capital Corp., and after installing the pipeline and two compressors, Ash Grove engineers are now fine tuning the flow of gas to eliminate surges while ensuring a steady stream of gas to the kilns.

According to Gary Wright, manager of the Ash Grove Portland plant, "It takes a lot of energy to fire our kilns, and we anticipate the energy saved will meet the combined demand of about 3,500 homes in this area."

Ash Grove and the Palmer Corp. share the cost of the investment, and Wright claims that federal tax credits and lower gas costs made the project economically viable. "It's uncommon in business to encounter many win-win situations. This, however, is certainly one of them," he added.

Robert J. Penston joined St. Lawrence Cement in Canada as corporate controller. Penston began with the company in 1993 as controller of Boehmers, a business unit of St. Lawrence Cement, and has since held a number of senior positions within the company. Also at St. Lawrence Cement, Claude Simon was appointed to vice president of human resources from his previous position of director of human resources development.

Harbison-Walker announced the appointment of John S. Miller as vice president of North American operations as part of a major management restructuring. Miller will be responsible for manufacturing, sales, and marketing for the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

Also at Harbison-Walker, William K. Brown was named vice president, sales and marketing, in addition to his duties as vice president, minerals group. Jess P. Hutchinson, vice president, in- ternational operations, will manage all business units outside the U.S., including Refractories Chilenos, S.A. (RESCA), Harbison-Walker's licensing group, and worldwide sales outside North America. Melvin G. Wees becomes vice president-technology.

Jose A . Criado was assigned to the Baltimore, Maryland, district offices' sales staff of the Falk Corp. In the new position, he is responsible, along with Joe Eiben, for customers in Maryland, southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, southern New Jersey, and Virginia.

Kolberg-Pioneer Inc. appointed Mike Johnson to sales manager, responsible for field sales staff and dealer relations along with management of the internal equipment sales and product manager groups.

BCI, the international heavy building materials, heating and bathrooms group, confirmed that its chief executive, Keith Orrell-Jones, will retire on July 15, 1999, upon reaching the age of 62. The board will announce a successor to Orrell-Jones prior to the publication of the group's results for the current financial year. Orrel-Jones joined the board in January 1990 and became group chief executive in October 1992 having previously been president of Blue Circle America.

Monday, December 7 9:00-9:40 a.m.

Keynote Address-Fuels & Energy: Today's Issues and Tomorrow's Challenges-The Lafarge Point of View

Christian Douvre, vice president, Cement Performance and Technology Division, Lafarge Group's Cement

Technology Center

9:40-10:20 a.m.

Five Years, One Permit-The Risks of Burning Waste Fuels

Kathryn Kelly, environmental specialist, Delta Toxicology

10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

EXHIBITS OPEN

10:20-11:00 a.m.

How Risky is the Environment?

Doug Shumway, environmental manager, Mitsubishi Cement, Cushenbury Plant

11:00-11:40 a.m.

Coffee break on exhibit floor

11:40 a.m.-12:20 p.m.

NOx Variability, Emissions & Control from Portland

Cement Kilns

Gerald Young, project engineering manager, Penta Engineering

12:20-1:50 p.m.

Lunch

1:50-2:20 p.m.

U.S. Cement Expands Capacity and Control

Roy Grancher, Industry consultant

2:20-3:00 p.m.

Improving Fuel Consumption and Reducing Emissions Using Modern Cyclone, Calciner, and Cooler

Technology

Steve W. Miller, manager-process design, Fuller International

3:00-6:00 p.m.

Cocktail reception on exhibit floor

Tuesday, December 8

9:00-9:40 a.m.

Orimulsion as a Fuel-A Case of Arawak Cement Co. Ltd.

Dr. Rollin Bertrand, general manager, Arawak Cement Co. Ltd.

9:40-10:20 a.m.

Building a Successful Tire-

Derived Fuel Program

Mark Stillwagon, manager supplemental materials, Allentown Cement; Craig Wahlquist, manager of technical services, Cadence Environmental Technology.

10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.

EXHIBITS OPEN

10:20-11:00 a.m.

Modernization of the Devil's Slide Plant

Rich Warren, technical services engineer, Holnam Inc.; Mark Hill, production manager, Devil's Slide plant, Utah

11:00-11:40 a.m.

Coffee break on exhibit floor

11:40 a.m.-12:20 p.m.

Burning Millions of Tires in Joliette, Quebec

Andre Auger, environmental director, St. Lawrence Cement

12:20 p.m.-1:50 p.m.

Lunch

1:50-2:20 p.m.

An Operational Review of the Flue Gas Desulfurization and Heat Recovery Plant for Four Wet Process Kilns at Aalborg Portland Cement in Denmark.

Karsten Visby-Kjaegard, project manager, Aalborg Portland Cement; Peter Bo Olsen, process design manager, FLS Miljo

2:20-3:00 p.m.

Case Study of Physical Modeling at Southdown's Lyons Plant

Randy Wiley, maintenance manager, Southdown Inc.

3:00-3:40 p.m.

Coffee break on exhibit floor

3:40-4:20 p.m.

Teamwork : Control System Modernization at Cementos de Chihuhua

Jeff Kemmerer, director of technical services, FLS Automation; Oscar Aragonez, control specialist, Cementos de Chihuahua

4:20-5:00 p.m.

Strategy and Principles for Alternative Fuels and Materials Co-processing in the Cement Industry

Jean Pierre Degre, Ciments d'Obourg

5:00-5:40 p.m.

Considerations for Evaluating a Biosolids Injection Program

Robert D. Kahn, MSR Solutions

5:40-6:00 p.m.

Conference wrap-up

Wednesday, December 9

PLANT TOURS

Buses leave promptly at 8:00 a.m.

Registration includes lunch

Holnam Inc.-Devils Slide Plant

Wasatch Constructors-Interstate 15 Construction Site

Ash Grove Cement-Leamington Plant