Gypsum industry news

Canada: Red Moon Resources has loaded its first shipment from its Ace gypsum mine in western Newfoundland. The company is working with Vinland Materials, a related company, to undertake contract mining operations and secure sales agreements for gypsum and anhydrite. A deep-water port connected by a haulage road is located approximately 9km from the mine. The site covers approximately 11.79 hectares and has the potential for a 10 year mining life at an average production rate of 350,000t/yr.

Canada: Red Moon Resources has submitted a development plan for an open cast gypsum mine at the Ace deposit in western Newfoundland to the government of Newfoundland and Labrador. The project has already received environmental clearance. It is currently attempting to find customers for gypsum and anhydrite from mine. Previously the site was used by the Flat Bay mine, which produced at least 15Mt of gypsum prior to 1990.

Red Moon Resources is an industrial minerals company developing the Ace Gypsum deposit, the Black Bay Nepheline deposit and the Captain Cook Salt deposit in Newfoundland and Labrador. Its majority shareholder is Vulcan Minerals.

Iran: Azerbaijan’s Matanat-A gypsum plant is estimated to cost around US$10m. The head of mining and industrial organization of Semnan Province, Behrouz Asfadi, said that production at the plant was expected to start in the ‘near future,’ according to the Trend News Agency. Jafar Sarghini, the deputy minister of industries, mining and trade, added that Matanat-A is already using a gypsum mine in northern Iran and the plant is expected to be located nearby.

Canada: The British Columbia government has granted an environmental assessment certificate for a 0.4Mt/yr opencast gypsum mine in West Kootenay proposed by CertainTeed Gypsum Canada. Construction of the project is expected to cost US$19m, according to the Canadian Press. Gypsum from the mine will be used to manufacture gypsum wallboard, cement and plaster products.

Australia: Clean TeQ plans to build a 2Ml/day DeSALx mine water treatment plant for Fosterville Gold Mine for its mine near Bendigo in Victoria. The US$2.7m unit will use an integrated precipitation and continuous ionic filtration process (DeSALx) that will produce a gypsum-based by-product. This by-product will be compatible with Fosterville’s existing lime treatment plant. Equipment supply, installation and commissioning of the water treatment plant are scheduled for 2018.

The precipitation process removes arsenic and antimony from the mine water as a co-precipitate. The water is then treated by the DeSALx process to remove hardness, sulphate and other dissolved metals. Clean TeQ is also in talks with other mining companies to test its continuous ion-exchange systems for the treatment of process water treatment for recycling or environmental discharge.

UK: British Gypsum has completed a Euro7.4m upgrade of its Barrow-Upon-Soar gypsum mine. The investment is expected to secure supplies of gypsum to produce gypsum wallboard for 20 years at the company's production sites at East Leake in Nottinghamshire and Fauld in Staffordshire, and at British Gypsum's sister business Saint-Gobain Formula based at Newark, according to the Loughborough Echo. The upgrade will allow the mine to be expanded using conveyors, fans and other mining equipment.

UK: Nottingham County Council has granted permissions to the Marblaegis Mine near British Gypsum's East Leake wallboard plant to operate for a further 17 years. The mine was originally licensed to operate until the end of 2025 but can now operate until 2042.

"The phasing out of coal-fired power stations means we have reducing access to synthetic gypsum or desulphogypsum, also called DSG, an important by-product we have been recycling into plasterboard since the early 1990s. We need to counteract this reduction in DSG output by increasing supply from mined and quarried natural gypsum as well as continuing to support plasterboard recycling programmes," said Jeremy Elvins, minerals and estates manager at British Gypsum to Inside Media.

The mine has an installed production capacity of 600,000t/yr but only 250,000t/yr is extracted at present. The mine supports 26 full-time staff at present although the nearby wallboard plant employs 264 staff and 125 contractors.

UK: Formula, a brand of Saint-Gobain, has awarded a five-year contract to Darlington-based Banner Contracts to extract high purity gypsum from its opencast mine in Newark, Nottinghamshire. Banner Contracts was chosen after a tender process involving eight potential suppliers.

The opencast mine, known as Bantycock, produces around 230,000t/yr of gypsum. Nottinghamshire County Council agreed a revised restoration scheme at the site following consultation. So far this has seen the backfilling of 25 acres with overburden completed and covered with topsoil in 2016.

"Banner's professionalism and expertise is second to none so we are delighted to announce this contract. Its experience in mineral processing was a key factor in its selection as it will help us continue to improve our yield of useable gypsum versus the amount of rock we extract. This improved yield helps maximise the reserve life, whilst operating in a safe and sustainable manner. We look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship over the duration of the contract," said Saint-Gobain Formula Plant Manager Mark Yates.

Banner Contracts Director Jo Banner added that the contract is a large one for the company and that it has invested in a new plant and equipment. New installations at the site include a Hercules trommell commissioned especially for the application, a number of Tesab machines including a 800i jaw crusher, a TS1860 scalping screen, a TS2430 screen and a Trackstack radial conveyor and a sizer from MMD.

China: 19 people have been prosecuted for misconduct related to the collapse of a gypsum mine in Shandong Province in December 2015 that killed one worker and left 13 persons unaccounted for. Yurong Company, owner of the mine, bears the principal responsibility for the incident, for failing to monitor and safely maintain the mine, according to the Xinhua news agency. Poor risk awareness and safety control, as well as inadequate regard for possible dangers in room-and-pillar mining were also causes the of the collapse. Yurong has been fined US$0.43m.

Three mine controllers, believed to be liable for the fatal accident, have been arrested by local police and two officials from the local land and resources bureau were found guilty of dereliction of duty. 14 other local officials have also been punished for violating the Communist Party rules. Ma Congbo, president of Yurong, who committed suicide after the accident, will not be subject to criminal liabilities.

France: Environmental concerns have been raised about Placoplatre's plans to develop a open-cast gypsum quarry at Fort de Vaujours near Paris. The site is believed to contain enough high-end gypsum for the Saint-Gobain subsidiary's nearby wallboard plant and for other plants in the group, according to Deutsche Welle. However, environmentalists have raised the risks of excavating a site near to the capital of France that was used for nuclear testing between the 1950s and 1990s.

"It's important to maintain our plant. We employ 400 people at the factory which generates 3000 indirect jobs and an additional average 1000 workers will be operating at the industrial site," said Gilles Bouchet, Placoplatre's head of mining development. He added that the wallboard producer has conducted impact and radiation studies that have been submitted to the French nuclear safety body ASN.

Christophe Nedelec, president of environmental non-government organisation Gagny-Les Abbesses-Chelles has queried the efficacy of Placoplatre's tests and has called for an independent body to conduct them.